Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Levi had spent so much time thinking about June over the past few days since their date that, when she appeared before him on the sidewalk, he halfway wondered if he had conjured her on sheer wishful thinking.
“Oh, June! Hi!” he exclaimed.
Wow, Hawkins, he thought to himself. That’s the kind of charm that’s made you a heartthrob on the country music scene, huh?
But nothing about June had made him feel suave or calm, the way he’d felt in all his previous relationships. And that cool had really been tested in these past few days, when he’d been tempted to reach out to her… oh, maybe a billion times.
Still, she had been pretty clear about needing some space the other evening at their dinner. And he wanted to respect that boundary, no matter how much he wanted to know how she was doing. To know how Benjamin was doing. To talk to her. To hear her laugh.
You know, totally normal things to think and feel after going on a handful of dates.
He’d given in to temptation just a few times, once to ask how Benjamin was feeling and whether he was still good after his scare, once because he’d seen a cool train that reminded him of one of the toys Benjamin had shown him.
Then, he’d spent about twelve hours panicking that she would think he wasn’t interested in how she was doing, since both those texts had been about her son, and he had, inanely, texted, Hey, what’s your favorite color?
The whole thing was pretty embarrassing, as far as flirtation went.
And now? Oh, June! Hi!
It was a wonder that he’d ever gotten a date before in his life. With anyone, let alone someone as pretty and interesting as June Caldwell.
June paused right in the middle of shaking out a rug, which she’d brought out the front door to rid of its dust and crumbs.
“Oh, Levi. Hi,” she said. It was basically the exact same thing that he had said, but she sounded really different when she said it. He’d sounded like an eager puppy. She sounded… reserved.
At best.
“How are you?” he asked, leaning on the white picket fence that separated them. Did he look cool or dorky when he leaned like this? Why was he even asking himself these questions?
He used to be a confident man. This was what having a crush did to a person.
“Um,” she said, glancing over her shoulder nervously. “Well, I’m in the middle of a house cleaning job right now, and the owner is at home. So this isn’t a great time?”
“Oh. Right. Right,” he said. “Yeah, totally. I just, uh… have you been getting my texts? I didn’t hear back, so I was worried.”
Stop talking, he told himself internally.
She scrunched up her nose apologetically—and adorably, he couldn’t help but notice. He really was in over his head with her. Goodness.
“No, I got them,” she said vaguely. “I was just, uh, busy.”
“I don’t want to throw around accusations, June,” he said. “But that wasn’t entirely convincing.”
There, that had sounded more normal. Perhaps he wasn’t a total lost cause after all.
“Yeah, sorry,” she said, shooting another glance over her shoulder. He knew that he should let her get back to work, but he worried that if they didn’t figure this out now, he wouldn’t ever get an answer. And he really wanted to give this a chance unless she truly didn’t want him to try.
“Come on, June,” he prodded, letting the full force of his interest show. It wasn’t as though he was doing a good job of hiding how much he was charmed by her anyway. He didn’t need to try to salvage his pride or anything. “What’s going on?”
She hesitated, then huffed out a breath, shifting the rug under one arm so that she could gesture between the two of them.
“It’s this, Levi,” she said. “I’m literally cleaning someone else’s house right now, and you are a famous country music star.
Those are not compatible lives. You know that video that Benjamin ratted me out for watching?
It had a million views. A million. One million people watched your video.
And that was only one video! You are famous.
I am barely keeping it together. We literally could not have more disparate statuses. ”
Levi blinked at this onslaught of information, which had all been delivered in one, breathless rush.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “You have been avoiding me… because you think you aren’t good enough for me?”
“Slightly harsh way of putting it,” she said. “But essentially, yeah.”
And Levi couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry,” he gasped at June’s outraged expression. “I’m not laughing at you.”
“You could have fooled me,” she said doubtfully.
“No, seriously,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m laughing at myself. I have been standing here, giving myself a hard time for being such a total dork over you, and then I found out that you’re feeling similar things?” He laughed again. “We are more alike than you want to think, June Caldwell.”
She pursed her lips thoughtfully.
“That might make me feel the teeniest, tiniest bit better,” she admitted.
He seized on this.
“This isn’t the first similarity though,” he reminded her. “The thing that made me talk to you in the first place was our shared interest in singing. And we’ve been having a good time together, haven’t we?”
“We have,” she admitted, still a touch guarded, but clearly opening up to him.
“Well, I don’t want to give that up for an insignificant reason like you thinking your job isn’t good enough.
And don’t even try to say that it isn’t,” he added when she opened her mouth to do just that.
“You are making a life for you and your son. However you do that, it’s admirable.
I won’t hear any arguments to the contrary. ”
“Okay, fine,” she said, a smile playing about her lips despite her stern tone. “But do you think I could get back to—”
“Excuse me, young man!”
The sharp words had Levi looking up to where an elderly woman with a tight crop of gray curls was leaning out of an upstairs window. Levi could only see her from the collarbones up, but she had a strictness about her that made him think of a governess in a period piece.
On instinct, he straightened his shoulders.
“Yes, ma’am?” he asked, turning up the Southern charm.
In true governess fashion, she was unaffected. She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Oh, don’t you try to flatter me, dear sir,” she said, wagging her finger at him. It should have been ridiculous, but Levi felt genuinely scolded. “I am just warning you that you are perilously close to trespassing.”
Levi blinked and looked down at his feet, which were safely on the sidewalk.
“I’m on the sidewalk, ma’am,” he pointed out. He could practically hear his mom’s voice in his head, warning him against backtalk.
She looked unconvinced.
“You were leaning on my fence,” she retorted. “That seems like the intent to trespass to me. And now you are hassling my cleaner. June, darling, do you want me to turn the hose on him?”
June had a hand pressed to her mouth, but she removed it, revealing her smile, to respond.
“That’s not necessary, Mrs. Ferrars,” she said, laughter clear in her tone. “I know Levi. He was just saying hello.”
Mrs. Ferrars blinked. “Levi?” she echoed. “I’m sorry, are you… Levi Hawkins?”
Levi had come to Magnolia Shore to avoid being recognized like this, but if he had to attract attention for being a musician, he wanted it to happen at the right moment to save him from getting sprayed with a hose by an irate septuagenarian.
“I am, ma’am,” he said politely. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
She blinked again.
“Stay there,” she commanded. Then, she slammed the window shut.
Levi looked at June, his brows raised in question. She shrugged and went back to vigorously shaking the rug.
Dutifully, he stayed right where he had been until, a moment later, Mrs. Ferrars appeared in the doorway, this time wearing a pink, sparkly cowboy hat.
Levi had lived all of his adult life in Nashville. He’d seen every permutation of cowboy hat in creation. Even so, he had to admit that this one was eye-catching.
“Wow,” he said.
The older lady preened.
“It’s a great hat, isn’t it?” she said, reaching up to fluff her curls.
“My sister got it for me the last time we went to a country music festival. I got it signed by a bunch of folks.” She lifted the brim to show that the underside was littered with signatures from some of the stars of the genre. Levi was honestly impressed.
“That is a great hat,” he praised.
He suspected what was coming next, so he was unsurprised when Mrs. Ferrars whipped out a Sharpie.
“Want to add your name to the collection?” she asked, smiling coyly at him.
Levi pretended to demur, but he reached out and took the marker.
“I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully. “Does it count if I’m not at a concert when I sign?”
“There aren’t any rules about it, son,” she said, as though she pitied him for even needing the reminder. “It’s my own hat and I can do what I want with it.”
Behind the older lady, June had given up trying to pretend she wasn’t laughing. She leaned against the house as if she needed the support. Mrs. Ferrars didn’t seem to mind.
“Besides,” she went on, as Levi signed his name with a practiced flourish, then handed the hat back and dusted a few errant sparkles off his hands. “I’m going to have you come in for coffee and pastries, anyway. Private coffee and pastries is way better than a concert with everybody around.”
Levi was touched by the offer… but he didn’t want to push things with June, not when he’d already asked her to step out of her comfort zone by admitting her qualms about them seeing one another.
“I really appreciate it,” he said honestly. “But I’m afraid that I have somewhere to be at the moment.”
Mrs. Ferrars narrowed her eyes. “They’re fresh from Honey Bee Bakery,” she added with the air of someone dangling a carrot in front of a horse.
Levi’s grin was genuine. He liked the firecracker older woman. This town sure was full of character.
“I really can’t,” he said. “But thank you.”
Mrs. Ferrars looked put out, but she nodded. “Very well,” she said. “Go about your business. But don’t bother poor June for too long; she’ll freeze.”
Levi, alarmed, glanced over at June, who was only wearing a sweatshirt. He hadn’t even thought of that! His distress must have shown on his face because she waved him off as Mrs. Ferrars went back inside.
“I’m not freezing,” she reassured him. “I told you, this is a warm snap to those of us who aren’t used to the balmy Southern climes.”
Levi shuddered. “I remain appalled by any metric that considers this warm,” he said with feeling. “So, I will let you get back inside, I promise. There’s just one more thing…”
The idea had occurred to him somewhere between June explaining the vast difference she saw between their lives, his reminder of their shared love of music, and the pink sparkly hat.
“Oh, spit it out,” she said, her expression nervous but her tone lighthearted. “I can handle it.”
“Oh, I know you can,” he said. “Heck, I’m pretty sure you can handle anything, June Caldwell. You have no idea how impressed I am by you. You lost your spouse, hold down two jobs, and you’re crushing it as a single parent, even with your son’s new diagnosis.”
June’s cheeks went pink, and Levi didn’t think this was because of the chill, no matter what she said about “warm snaps.”
“And, on top of all that, you still find time to pursue your passion. You are brave enough to get up and sing… and when you do, you excel at that too. I know you blew my mind, at least. Which is why I think… you and I should record a single together.”
She dropped the rug.
“I—what?” she said, as though she couldn’t believe she’d heard him correctly.
“I would like you to consider recording a single with me,” he said calmly, feeling even more confident in the idea now that he’d said it out loud.
“I would really like it, but I’m not going to pressure you.
I’m not even going to ask you to give me an answer right now.
But,” he added, holding her gaze with his, “I think it could be amazing. Not only would we make some darn good music together, but this would let you see what the professional side of the music industry is like. That way, you’ll be armed with that knowledge, no matter how much or to what extent you decide to pursue singing. ”
June crouched down to grab the rug, which she now had to shake again.
“I… don’t know,” she hedged.
Levi figured that this was better than an outright refusal. Besides, he was beginning to learn that June was cautious, probably something she’d gained through her years having to be a savvy and responsible single parent. He would give her space to consider.
Also, he could see that Mrs. Ferrars was back at the upstairs window, peeking out at them avidly, although she hadn’t yet opened it again. Levi assumed he didn’t have much time left before he was being exhorted to accept coffee and pastries again.
“Just think about it,” he encouraged. “And if you decide to do it, you can come to my house tomorrow, if that works with your schedule. We can talk more details then. But June…?”
He waited until she was looking at him instead of at the rug in her hands before finishing.
“I really want to hear what it sounds like when you and I create something together,” he said.
From the flush that crossed her cheeks, he could tell that she understood that he didn’t just mean the song he wanted them to write, although that was no consolation prize.
He was an artist, but he was a businessman too.
He really thought that singing with June would offer them something that the country music world wanted to hear.
But as he bid her farewell and let her get back to work, he couldn’t help but hope that she would agree not only to the song, but to something more between the two of them personally as well.
The next day would tell him more. So the only thing he had to do between now and then was wait and hope that she would find the courage and confidence to make an appearance.