Melodies of the Heart

Chapter Three

Kassidy

Kassidy tucked a lock of her long hair behind her ear. In her fall, most of her braid had come undone and it wasn't until then that she thought of fixing it. The thought only became stronger in her gut as they walked back along Birch Street, making their way over to Poplar Boulevard. She was suddenly very aware of how she looked, and how much she wanted to impress the man she'd only just met.

"Is everything in this town named after trees?" Levi asked as they cut across Main Street. He had been careful to keep his eyes down and Kassidy was starting to take note of that. She thought to ask him on it, and a voice inside her told her to be careful.

What if there is a reason he is being so cautious? she asked herself as they walked along the tree lined street.

He's probably just shy, she told herself. He hadn't said much at all and spoke softly enough when he did talk. Being shy made a lot more sense than him hiding from someone or something. She couldn't let her imagination get the better of her and she vowed to give him the benefit of the doubt.

That, and she didn't want him to have some strange secret. What she wanted was for him to be a nice, quiet man that she could get to know better.

"Mostly," she told him as they walked. They still had a few more blocks to go to get to Poplar Boulevard, and then another couple more heading south to get to their destination. "At least it's really easy to get anywhere. You won't need your bike or a rental while you're here, you can walk pretty much anywhere in town in about twenty or thirty minutes."

"That's good to hear," he said. "But I don't know if I'll be going out much. I guess I should just hope this place has a good cable package."

She was about to ask why, but up ahead of her she spotted Gillian, Addison, and Kayla coming from the direction of the ShopMart. Kassidy was about to wave to her 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.