Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
June noticed that her nerves were so much less than usual as she drove to Levi’s house, Benjamin reading a graphic novel in the back seat.
Yeah, she still had some of the jittery feeling that always came with spending time with Levi, but they were ‘new relationship’ jitters, not ‘is this a huge mistake’ jitters.
Which was a lot nicer, in her opinion.
“You ready to see Levi?” she called back to Benjamin as they pulled into Levi’s driveway.
Benjamin, in a move that June had literally never seen before, threw his book aside immediately. June would have been jealous if she wasn’t so charmed by his enthusiasm.
“Yeah, Levi is the best!” he cried, fumbling to unbuckle his booster seat. “He knows so much about animals.”
June smiled at him through the rearview mirror.
They had been spending a lot of time with Levi over the past week or so.
Some of that time had been June and Levi on their own, of course.
They’d grabbed coffee several mornings after June had taken Benjamin to school, and they’d gotten dinner together the other night, where they’d lingered so long that they had to apologize to the waitstaff, who had been eager to get home.
But they’d also included Benjamin in some of their excursions. They’d gone to the zoo the previous weekend, where Levi had wowed Benjamin with factoids about all the different animals.
“I might have done some research last night,” he admitted quietly while Benjamin had admired the monkeys. “I didn’t want to mislead you into thinking I’m a secret zoologist.”
“I was starting to wonder,” June teased, unable to hide her pleased grin at the idea of Levi preparing just so that he could impress her boy.
And Benjamin had indeed been wildly impressed. He’d been quoting animal facts to June for the rest of the week, always accompanied by a proud, “Levi told me that.”
Then, when Benjamin had been dealing with a low-energy afternoon the other day, Levi had come over and the two had snuggled up and watched movies together for a little while. Levi was now well-versed in all the lore surrounding Benjamin’s demon hunter show.
Today, fortunately, Benjamin was full of energy, which he made clear as he bounded out of the car and hurried to Levi’s door, ringing the bell and bouncing on his toes excitedly before June had even made it out of the car.
The excitement wasn’t one-sided either, because the moment that Levi saw the little boy standing on his doorstep, he swept him up and over his shoulder, which made Benjamin squeal with laughter.
“Hi, June,” Levi called, Benjamin’s legs wiggling in delight while his head disappeared over Levi’s shoulder. “I thought you were bringing Benjamin with you today.”
“You’re so goofy!” Benjamin accused, although the force of his laughter made the words come out garbled.
Levi’s eyes went wide. “Wait. Do you hear something?”
Benjamin kicked harder, and Levi hauled the boy back around to the front, looking shocked.
“Dude, how’d you get there?” he demanded, then put Benjamin back down on the ground so he could greet June with a kiss to the cheek.
“Hi,” she said, feeling dizzy with happiness over watching the two of them together… and, she could admit, admiring Levi’s show of strength. She was a mere mortal, after all. She liked a handsome man showing off for her as much as the next woman.
“Hi,” he said back. “Ready to sing?”
“She’s ready!” Benjamin answered for her. “And I have a new book to read, so I won’t make sounds while you’re singing.”
“Do you think we discussed that in advance?” June joked to Levi as he ushered them inside.
“There were a few hints.” Levi looked at Benjamin. “You’re looking great today, by the way, bud. You’re basically Superman, what with the dealing with the ups and downs you’ve been facing recently.”
Benjamin grinned a gap-toothed smile. “I’m just a kid, Levi,” he said, as though Levi was being too silly for words. His attention was already back on his book, and he was cuddled up in a blanket on Levi’s couch.
“A pretty great kid,” Levi murmured affectionately. June squeezed his arm.
“You’re pretty great too,” she told him.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and for a moment the two of them gazed fondly at Benjamin, until he looked up at them with a grimace.
“You guys are being weird,” he informed them.
The spell broken, Levi and June explained that they would be in the makeshift recording space that they’d set up in the rear of the house.
They took a few minutes listening to the progress they’d made so far on the song, then made a plan for today’s session.
If all things went well, it would be their last, and then they would have a complete song.
It made June feel giddy just to think about it.
They were just sitting down to actually start performing when Benjamin’s little head appeared in the doorway.
“Uh, hi,” he said, slightly sheepish. “I finished my book. Can I listen?”
June glanced over to Levi to check in with him, since he was less familiar with the kind of kid interruptions that characterized most of June’s life. But he was already beckoning Benjamin forward to sit behind the recording program that was running.
“Okay,” he said. “You can definitely listen, but you have to be real quiet, okay? If you want, you can also listen with these headphones, which will show you what the program is picking up. Be careful not to mess with any of the buttons though, okay?”
Benjamin was looking at Levi like he had hung the moon.
“I won’t touch anything,” he promised, sitting on his hands in illustration. He stayed still for Levi to put the oversized headphones on his head, and June made a mental note to get a picture later, as it was adorable.
For now though, it was time to get into the zone.
She put on her own headset, which obscured the noise from outside enough that she barely heard Levi say, “Okay, Ben, ready to hear your mommy sing?”
“I can’t wait,” Benjamin whispered, quiet and earnest.
June closed her eyes for a minute. If she looked at her boy and the man who was taking more and more control of her heart…
Well, she wouldn’t be able to focus enough to sing.
She kept her eyes closed as she listened to the background music that Levi had recorded on the guitar during their last session, then sang the lyrics that the two of them had written together.
Levi had spearheaded the writing, since June felt a little more assured with singing than with songwriting, but she’d contributed enough that it really felt like their song.
She let all the emotion of their connection into her singing, and when she was done, she felt like she had really made something.
It felt really, really good.
But not quite as good as it felt when she opened her eyes to see Benjamin looking at her like he’d never seen her before, while Levi beamed proudly at her.
Benjamin glanced up at Levi to check that it was okay to make noise and waited for Levi’s nod of approval.
“Mommy,” he breathed once he knew that he wouldn’t ruin the recording. “You sing like… like magic.”
“Thanks, baby,” she said, tears springing to her eyes. So much for her resolution not to cry.
“That was cool,” Benjamin said in an understated way that felt like the highest praise in the world to June.
Levi’s hand touched hers lightly, and she flipped her grip so that she could weave their fingers together. With her other arm, she pulled Benjamin in for a hug.
Thank you, she mouthed at Levi over Benjamin’s head.
Levi just squeezed her fingers. It had been a long, long time since June had felt this happy, and she planned to hold onto that feeling for as long as she could.
The wonderful part was that she was starting to believe that she would really get to keep this life that was taking shape around her.