Melodies of the Heart: A Pinewood Grove Sweet Romance Read Free Page B

friends and say hello, but Levi took her arm and stopped her before she could.
    “You know, I’m kind of hungry,” Levi said as he gently turned her around. “Maybe we should go back to your bakery for some lunch. I can always call someone to come pick me up and drive me to this place or something.”
    “Um, okay,” Kassidy said, her heart deflating at his suggestion. She was about to turn back down Main Street, but Addison’s voice stopped her.
    “Kass wait up!” she called. “Kass... Oh. My. Gosh.”
    “What?” Kassidy asked, fighting to smooth down her hair. She must have looked terrible and the look on her friends’ faces only confirmed that suspicion. What was worse, she’d already spent at least half an hour with Levi before she’d even noticed that herself.
    But then she realised it wasn’t her they were paying attention to. Their jaws were slack and her friends were all caught in their tracks. That was when she realised it was Levi they were looking at, not her. Yes, he was attractive, but she didn’t think he was stop in the street and stare attractive, even for Pinewood Grove.
    It was when she looked at Levi that she realised he knew exactly what was going on. There was a slightly annoyed, but resigned look on his face and he sighed heavily as Kassidy’s friends approached the two of them.
    “It’s you, isn’t it?” Gillian gushed as she raced over to where Kassidy and Levi were standing. “I mean, it’s really you, right? It has to be.”
    “You?” Kassidy asked, but no one heard her over the questions that were flowing freely from her friends’ mouths. They were all talking over each other and yet they were all asking the exact same questions.
    “You caught me,” he said, careful to keep his voice down as he spoke to them. “Look, I’m on a bit of a vacation, so if we could keep it down that would be really cool. I just want to relax and rest.”
    “Wait...” Kassidy started to ask, but she didn’t get the chance to finish her question before someone else cut her off.
    “Are you here recording a new album already?” Addison asked. “You know, I’m a singer too, and if you need someone on backup or anything. I’m free all summer.”
    “Oh is the rest of the band here?” Gillian cut in. “Is Dean here?”
    “No, it’s just –” Levi tried to explain, but he was cut off once more.
    “Can you sign my iPod?” Kayla asked. Even Kayla, quiet Kayla, was unable to contain herself around him, and Kassidy was finally starting to figure out what was going on.
    “Sure,” Levi said with a smile. It was a different kind of smile than the one that Kassidy had already seen. The smiles he was giving her friends were too put on and forced. There was a hollowness to his expression that she couldn’t quite describe, but it didn’t pass by her unnoticed.
    While he signed their iPods with Kayla’s pen, the questions kept coming.
    “Are you going back to LA for the show tonight?” Gillian asked.
    “No, unfortunately we had to cancel,” he told them.
    “Is that why you weren’t on The Morning Show ?” Addison asked him. “I set my DVR, but I saw on Twitter you didn’t appear. I hope everything is okay.”
    “Yeah, there was an issue with the venue,” he told them. “I, uh, decided to take a couple days off when it turned out we weren’t going to be able to play.”
    While her friends gushed over Levi, Kassidy couldn’t decide if she should be annoyed by them or embarrassed by herself. They obviously knew who he was, but she still had no idea. It was easy enough to tell that he was from some band, or maybe he was a solo act, but she wouldn’t have been able to tell if they were big, indie, or somewhere in between.
    From the jeans and dark t-shirt, she guessed he played rock music, but a lot of country singers were dressing that way too. Even some pop stars were going with that style, but she was too embarrassed to ask anyone.
    A blush crept over her cheeks as she thought