Melodies of the Heart

Chapter One

Levi

The sold out Las Vegas crowd was screaming for an encore. They had paid good money to see the rock band Fable Heart perform, and for two hours they'd done just that. The band was fresh off the release of their latest album, but the fans were begging them to play some of their older hits to close out the show. Levi Thayne had sung the words to songs that no longer made any sense in his heart, but he had done his job and yet the crowd wanted more. They were never satisfied.

"Levi, man, you need to get back out there," the band's manager, Marko Hill, told him. The man who had once been one of Levi's closest friends was now no more than a glorified babysitter, telling the singer where to go, what to wear, and how to act. What had once been an important friendship had strained thin over the years and had turned Marko into a whole different person.

"I need some fresh air," Levi grumbled as he pushed past Marko. The backstage was crowded with techs, roadies, and a few women who had found their way past security, but Levi didn't notice any of them. He just needed to get outside.

"We need to wrap this encore up and get on the road," Marko was telling him, but Levi wasn't listening. He barely heard his manager say that they were expected in LA to be on a live morning TV show ahead of their next concert.

Dean Kirkman – the lead guitarist of Fable Heart – moved to block his path as if he knew what Levi was planning before the singer himself knew what he was doing. All he knew was that he needed to be outside, needed to be away from the screams of fans and the demands of the band and his manager.

It hadn't started out this way. It had just been four friends in Dean's garage, goofing around until Marko had shown up with a record deal. For six years the band had toured the world nearly non-stop and what had once been his dream had turned into Levi's nightmare. Nothing made sense anymore, and before he realised he was doing it, he was unhooking his motorcycle off the back of the trailer that towed it around the States during their latest American tour.

His helmet was stored in a locked box beside the bike and with a hard kick from the heel of his boot, the old lock snapped easily. He took his head gear and slid it on before he walked his bike off the back of the trailer. Levi always kept the keys on him, as if he had been planning this escape for years. While the crowd roared from inside the stadium, he kicked the bike to life and drove off, the midnight moon his compass.

*****

Kassidy

The late morning sun was high in the air and Kassidy Olsen was leaning on the front counter of the bakery her family owned. It had been a slow morning – it was almost always a slow morning – and she watched with hope in her eyes every time a car or pedestrian went by the large glass windows, only to find herself sighing in disappointment when no one stopped and came in to see what the bakery had to offer.

Her mother was in the back, working on a special order wedding cake. Despite trying to deny it to herself, the wedding cakes were one of the only things keeping the little shop in business. Her parents tried to keep it from her, but at twenty-one years old, it was long past the time where they could hide much from their daughter.

But May brought with it not only wedding season, but people home from college. For four months, the population of Pinewood Grove would expand slightly with bored college students and hopefully at least some of them would spend some money in the Olsen family bakery. There was little else for them to do in town.