Melodies of the Heart

Chapter Fifteen

Kassidy

The hard, incessant beeping of the alarm on her phone brought Kassidy out of the deep sleep she'd been enjoying. Her dreams had been happy ones – ones of kissing Levi over and over again, of him promising to come back to Pinewood Grove if even he did have to leave at some point.

And the best part was, they weren't entirely dreams. It had happened, but during her sleep, her mind had replayed them over and over again. She got to relive telling him she loved him, and having him kiss her fingertips when the rain had let up and they'd run home together.

But that had only been a few short hours ago and she needed to get down to the bakery and get to work. Her alarm told her she was already half an hour late, and she knew she was in for trouble. She'd promised to be back early, and she'd lied about where she'd gone.

But it had all been worth it to spend such a magical night with Levi. The rain and thunder had only made it better and she didn't care that she'd come home soaked and out of breath. It had been perfect.

Or at least nearly perfect.

He hadn't said the words she'd longed to hear, but he'd been honest with her, at least. One day he would be able to say, "I love you," to her, and she had to be patient and wait for it. They were not words that should be rushed or said because it was expected of him.

His kisses said more than his words needed to. Each time she remembered kissing him under the gazebo, her lips tingled and her belly fluttered. It was love, it had to be, and he would tell her that one day and they would fall into each other's arms and be happy.

She didn't have time to stay in that fantasy for long. Her parents would be expecting her downstairs for work, and she was already late. After she pulled on some track pants and a t-shirt, she raced downstairs and stepped into the bakery, but instead of the hum of the mixer, she heard voices.

"You need to go to the bank and get an extension," her mother's voice filled the bakery.

"They turned us down when we were there a week ago," her dad shot back, his voice loaded with deep anger and resentment. "They aren't going to change their minds now."

"But we can't pay the bill right now," her mother said, and Kassidy's joy turned sour in her mouth. She'd been so occupied with her feelings about Levi that she'd nearly forgotten just how slow the bakery had been lately.

"What about the cake for the Miller wedding?" her dad was asking. "They put the deposit on it three days ago. That should cover something."

"Yes," her mother said. "It paid the electricity bill. Now we need to make a payment on the loan."

What loan? Kassidy wondered to herself. They'd never mentioned it to her. Her parents always made a point to tell her not to go into debt or take loans. They owned the building the store was in, along with the apartment upstairs, which was more debt they were avoiding, but now they had a loan and worse, they couldn't pay it.

"Well, you can take it out of the savings account," her dad said.

"What savings account?" her mother said, her voice strained and thin. "We emptied that six months ago."

Six months? Kassidy fretted. It was worse than she'd imagined.

"Well we need to make more money," her dad said, though he didn't offer a way to do that.

"What do you want me to do?" her mother shot back. "Give baskets of bread to Kassidy and have her go around selling them door to door?"

"You know she won't do that," her dad argued. "She doesn't care about this place anymore."