Page 24 of Taken By Storm

Kasi took another sip of beer. “Honestly, I’m not sure I even view his actions as rude anymore. I’m starting to think this is just his new personality.”

Levi didn’t care for that response, but he didn’t pursue it because Kasi looked just as tired tonight as she had yesterday. Even with him helping, she wasn’t getting enough sleep, and he wasn’t sure how to fix that. She wouldn’t take a day off, no matter what he said, and until her father got back on his feet and Keith started doing his fair share of the chores, she would work herself to exhaustion every night.

“This is nice,” he said, after they’d eaten in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

“The mac and cheese?”

Levi shook his head. “Eating dinner together. Just you and me.”

She gave him a curious look, no doubt trying to figure out if he was sincere. He thought he’d made it clear yesterday. After all, he’d point-blank told her she was his, but he supposed a proclamation like that—made after only a few hours of being together—didn’t hold much weight. Which was why he was going to put in the time, make sure she understood he was here to stay.

“Why haven’t you ever had a long-term girlfriend, Levi?”

The fact Kasi knew he hadn’t, let Levi know she’d been keeping tabs on him. He recalled the way she saved the pies, and he wondered about her feelings toward him. When she was younger, he was pretty sure she’d had a crush on him, but he hadn’t gotten the sense that was still the case until today, when she’d admitted to saving the pies. And while she’d kicked up a fuss after he’d used that “you’re mine” line, she hadn’t tossedhim out on his ass or blocked the door when he’d returned this morning.

“Never found a woman I wanted to spend that much time with,” he confessed. “I’ve always known I wouldn’t settle for just anyone, and I figured if I everdidfind the one, I’d know. Like my dad did.”

Kasi leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table. “Like your dad?”

“My mom wasn’t originally from Gracemont,” Levi started, wiping his mouth and leaning back. He stretched his legs out under the table until they touched hers. He drew the toe of one of his boots along her calf playfully. “She came here right after graduation to visit her great-aunt for the summer. After that, she had planned to go on back home to Pittsburgh, where she grew up. She had a job lined up there in a department store.”

“She didn’t go back?”

Levi shook his head. “Nope. Met my dad at the town’s annual Fourth of July picnic. According to Dad, he took one look at my mom and fell head over ass in love. Asked her for a date fifteen minutes after meeting her. They went out every single night for two weeks, and at the end of those fourteen days, he proposed to her.”

Kasi’s eyes widened. “After just two weeks?”

Levi was used to that response whenever he told someone this story. “Dad swore he would have proposed to her at the Fourth of July picnic, but he didn’t have a ring, and he wanted to do it right.”

“And your mom said yes? I mean, obviously she said yes. But did she say yes that time or make him wait?”

“There was no waiting for either of them. Mom said she was just as smitten and positive as Dad that they were meant to be. They had a small wedding the next month and by the end of their first year of marriage, I was born. Dad calls her his soul mate. Ican count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen them fight, but even then, they don’t let their anger linger. They subscribe to that idea of never going to bed angry, so they always find a way to fix whatever’s wrong.”

Kasi rested her chin on one hand. “That sounds nice.”

“When you spend your life around that kind of love, that kind of happiness,” Levi continued, “it makes it impossible to think of settling for less.”

“Do your brothers feel the same way? I mean, you’re all still single.”

Levi toyed with his fork. “You know, I’ve never asked them, but I have a feeling if I did, they’d agree they were waiting for the same. True love.”

“Must be nice having a big family. Sometimes I wish my parents had had more kids. It gets…” She looked away.

“Gets what?” he prodded, tapping her leg with his foot.

She bit her lower lip. “Kind of lonely sometimes. I didn’t realize how much life my mother brought to the house until she was no longer here.”

Kasi looked away, and Levi could see her starting to close down. It occurred to him, that had become the standard operating procedure for the Mills family. Rather than talk about their loss, they shut it all up inside. Which was why all of them were falling apart.

“What was your parents’ marriage like?” Levi asked, determined to get Kasi talking about her mother.

She hesitated for a moment, but he didn’t let her off the hook. Just continued to look at her until she gave in.

“Their marriage was pretty similar to your folks’. They didn’t have a whirlwind romance or anything. In fact, they dated for four years before they tied the knot. Mama said she was starting to worry Daddy would never pop the question, and she said she’d been prepared to do it herself if it came to that. Daddyalways laughed whenever she told that story, saying they’d have been married a lot longer if she’d just gone ahead and done it. Daddy’s kind of the nervous sort, and he was too afraid to lose,” Kasi finger-quoted the next bit, “the prettiest girl he’d ever seen. I think it’s safe to say theirs was sort of an opposites-attract thing.”

Levi had always been curious about the Mills’ relationship because he’d never seen a couple so different—in appearance and personality—as Katrina and Tim Mills.

“Nothing wrong with opposites,” he mused.

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