Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Levi had been staring at the clock for… longer than he cared to admit. But when the clock ticked past six thirty, he decided that it was time to throw in the towel.
She wasn’t coming.
He was disappointed that June hadn’t taken him up on his offer, of course, but he was a grown man. He could bear the disappointment. It wasn’t as though this was his first time not getting his way.
He kept telling himself that as the weight in his gut started to feel heavier and heavier.
Or maybe he was just hungry! This didn’t sound too convincing, even in his own head, but he still needed to eat.
And the snacks he’d bought hoping to share them with June didn’t appeal.
Maybe he’d go down to the diner. He knew, at least, that June wasn’t working tonight, so he didn’t have to worry about any awkward encounters, and their food was really good…
He had gotten most of the way through convincing himself to put on the thousands of pieces of clothing he needed to brave the walk over to the diner when a knock came at the door, so quiet and cautious that, for a moment, Levi wondered if he had imagined it.
That possibility didn’t stop him from leaping to his feet to answer the door, though. He wasn’t a fool.
He yanked the door open a little more forcefully than he probably should have, and June startled a little bit at his vehemence.
“Hi,” he breathed, excited and pleased to see her.
“Hi,” she said, her tone nervous.
They grinned at one another for a minute. Levi was certain that he looked dopey, but he didn’t even care. She’d come. She’d actually come!
“Um… do you mind if I come in?” she asked after a moment, her smile still in place. Levi wanted to smack himself on the forehead, like he was in some kind of cartoon.
“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he said. “Sorry, can you believe that I actually used to be kind of slick?” he continued with a laugh as he ushered her into the warmth of the house. “I promise that I am not always the chief dork of the century.”
“I find it kind of reassuring,” June said, “since I usually feel like I’m the assistant chief dork. It’s getting worse now that Benjamin is getting older too. He’s got all this kid slang that I don’t understand at all, and the more he tries to explain it to me, the less I get it.”
“I remember the first time a young fan told me I had ‘rizz,’” he said in commiseration. “All I could do was nod, smile, hope it was good, and then go home and look it up later.”
She laughed, but when the sound faded, there was a pause.
Levi was just about to offer her something to eat, give her the chance to ease in to… whatever was going on between them, when words came out of June in a torrent.
“Listen,” she said, wringing her hands in front of her. “I’m sorry I’m late. If I’m being totally honest, I was going to not come until my friends reminded me that I would be a total dope not to come and take this opportunity.”
“Okay,” Levi said carefully. He could live with it if June had come here just for the professional opportunity, but he wouldn’t necessarily be happy about it.
“But the opportunity to sing with you isn’t the only reason I was hesitating,” she went on. “Or, I guess it is. Because it’s the opportunity to sing with you. And I… like you.”
“Okay!” he said more brightly. He liked where this was going.
June wasn’t finished, however.
“It kind of scares me, liking you,” she confessed. “Because it’s not a small liking. It’s maybe the biggest liking that I’ve had since… well, since my husband died. But then you waltzed in to that bar, looking, you know.”
She waved at him, gesturing in a way that encompassed his entire body. Her tone was a little annoyed, but Levi was still flattered by the implication.
“So, first you’re handsome, and that’s bad enough, but then you’re also nice? And you like music? You like my music? And you’re understanding and nice when I have to do mom stuff, and you get along great with my kid, and…”
She seemed to run out of steam at this point. She threw up her hands in a helpless sort of gesture.
“You are listing these things,” he said carefully, “and the words sound good, but the way you’re saying them sounds bad.”
“Now you know how I feel!”
She looked so adorably dismayed that Levi couldn’t resist reaching out and rubbing her arms, even though he didn’t know how much of the gesture she could feel through the puffy coat she still wore.
“I hate to say it, but I actually don’t know how you feel,” he confessed, hoping it didn’t scare her off.
But she just laughed and tipped her head forward until her forehead was resting on his shoulder.
He really liked where this was going.
She took a slow breath, then leaned back to look up at him, although she didn’t pull away from his touch.
“I like you,” she said. “I’ve felt drawn to you from the beginning. And that scared me, so I pulled away, even though you were so wonderful and reassuring, both to me and to Benjamin. So, basically, I hope that you can forgive me for the whole skittish, silent treatment thing.”
She was so earnest, her expression so hopeful as she looked up. Levi smiled, feeling warm and content.
Slowly, so that she could pull away if she wanted to, he bent his head toward hers.
She didn’t pull back.
When he kissed her, it was like summer had finally come to this freezing landscape. He felt bright and light and happy. Kissing June was unlike any kiss he’d ever had before.
He pulled back far earlier than he wanted to. He never wanted to; he would have been happy standing there kissing her forever.
But she’d confessed to being nervous, and he didn’t want to push things. Well, he did, but he knew that it wouldn’t be wise or polite or fair. Besides, he was playing the long game with this girl. He would do whatever he needed to do, to protect her fragile trust in him.
She smiled at him. He smiled at her.
And, realistically, Levi would have been happy to stand with her and smile at her like this forever too.
“That was… really nice,” she said.
“Nice enough that we can do it again sometime?” he asked hopefully.
She laughed, but it was a nice laugh, one that made that hope in him spark ever higher.
“Yeah, I think so,” she agreed. “But… would you be upset if we tried some of the singing stuff first?”
“Ha!” Levi let his country music origins take over; he raised one arm, guided her in a spin beneath it, and pulled her in for an embrace when she came back around the other side. “Junebug, I have been waiting to sing with you for ages now. Would I be upset? Heck, no; I’m honored.”
She popped upon her toes and pecked a kiss on his cheek.
“Okay, then,” she said. “Tell me all about your process. I’ve never written a song before, but I’m excited. What do we need to do? Do we need equipment? Tell me everything about your process.”
Her exuberance was contagious. Levi couldn’t remember the last time he felt this excited about working on a new song.
He directed her over to the kitchen table, then began to grab some things out of the fridge.
“Well,” he said. “The first thing you need for writing a new song is some snacks. You can’t write on an empty stomach; that’s a well-documented fact. But after that, all you really need is a piece of paper and an idea.”
The butterflies in Levi’s stomach fluttered happily as he and June sat down and began to get to work.