Melodies of the Heart

Chapter Two

Kassidy

It took Kassidy a second to realise that they were blocking all the traffic on Main Street and needed to get off of the road before they got run over. Her rolls had already been squished by the drivers who squeezed around them, and the rest weren't worth trying to save.

The birds can have them, Kassidy thought to herself as she helped push the handsome stranger's bike out of the middle of the road and onto the sidewalk.

"Come inside," she told him. "We have a first aid kit."

"I'm okay," he tried to insist, but she wasn't having any of it.

"Please," she implored him. "I feel so bad about what happened. Let me help and at least get those scrapes washed off."

Maybe it was the way she looked at him, or the innocence on her face, but Levi Thayne stopped arguing. Instead, he propped the motorcycle up and let her lead him into the bakery.

"Sit right there," she instructed as she pointed at one of the two small tables and chairs that the bakery kept in the odd chance someone ever wanted to sit down and enjoy one of their treats. They rarely came in handy, but her father wouldn't let her or her mother get rid of them.

"I really am okay," Levi called after her as she stepped into the back. "It's nothing more than a scrape."

Kassidy was too busy getting a clean washcloth to listen to his arguing. The first aid kid was well stocked, but the scrape on the back of his hand was full of dirt and needed cleaning before she could even think about dressing it.

"I guess I should introduce myself," she said as she sat down across from him and held out the wet cloth. "I'm Kassidy, Kassidy Olsen. My family owns this place."

"I gathered that," he said, the corner of his mouth turning up to reveal the slightest of smiles as he spoke.

"And you are?" she asked, leaning in a bit as she spoke.

He was visibly taken aback at that. Deep down he knew that he wasn't that recognisable, or at least he always assumed as such, but it had been a very, very long time since anyone had asked him for his name.

"Levi," he said, skipping his last name.

"Well Levi," Kassidy said as she put the first aid kit on the table and cracked it open. "I am really, really sorry about what happened. It's not like me at all. I really hope your bike is okay."

That part was true. She was usually very attentive and careful, but her mind had been elsewhere and she'd almost gotten herself killed for it. At least the man in front of her had enough time to react and neither of them had gotten seriously hurt.

"It's okay –" Levi moved to say, but before he could finish his thought a third party appeared. Mrs. Olsen stepped out of the back at the sound of voices, and from the look on her face, Kassidy knew she would have some explaining to do.

"Mom," she said, trying to ease her into the idea that her daughter had almost been run down by a passing motorcyclist.

"Kass, honey," her mom said as she glanced from her daughter back to the dishevelled and mildly battered young man sitting in her bakery. "What happened?"

"It's nothing," Kassidy tried to explain to her. "Levi here had an accident, it was entirely my fault."

"No, I should have been paying more attention," Levi cut in, but Kassidy shot him a look to say he was better to keep quiet.