Page 16 of Sweet Music
Bella set to work scanning the picture book section for good books for the volunteers to read this week. This was one of her favorite tasks, and she lost herself to it almost immediately. She had about a dozen books tucked in the crook of her arm when she heard someone approach.
“Hi, Bella,” Evelyn said. “This young man is here to see you.”
Bella glanced up, and her breath caught in her throat.
It can’t be…
But she would have known the man anywhere—thetall form and broad shoulders, the too-long dark hair, the piercing, dark eyes, with a gaze so intense it was almost hypnotic…
“It’s Cash Lawrence,” Evelyn said brightly. “Isn’t that amazing?”
The books she’d been holding dropped from Bella’s arms and scattered around her feet as she stared up at the ghost in front of her.
“Hey,” he said with a gentle smile.
It was probably just the usual charismatic grin he used for strangers, the one the online articles gushed over and called hisheartbreaker smile.But it still twisted her stomach in knots and sent her pulse pounding frantically in her ears.
While she stood there, shocked, Cash Law knelt at her feet and began gathering up the books.
Get it together, Bella.
“No,” she heard herself say loudly and clearly. “You have no right to be here.”
He glanced up at her. The heartbreaker smile was gone, replaced by an expression that looked almost like pain.
You have no idea what pain is, Mr. Rock Star.
“You have to leave,” she told him. “Right now.”
It wasn’t until the scandalized murmurs of the library patrons registered in her ears that Bella realized she had just yelled at a guest—a celebrity guest—in the middle of the children’s section.
The thought of it had her feet moving toward her office before she even made the conscious decision to flee. She was glad she knew the shelveswell enough to walk them in her sleep, because her vision was blurring with tears that took all her force of will to hold back.
When she finally made it to her office, she closed the door behind her and sank to her seat, dragging in a careful breath and refusing to let herself cry.
I just yelled at someone, and I left all those beautiful children’s books spread across the floor.
But somehow, all she could see was his dark eyes.
And no matter how much she didn’t want to think about the past, Bella’s mind travelled back…
6
BELLA
Sixteen years ago…
Eighteen-year-old Bella stoodin a packed auditorium in Burlington. Bodies pressed in from every direction, and she was pretty sure someone had just splashed a drink down onto her from the balcony above.
But she was too hypnotized by the man onstage to care. The music had everyone cheering, dancing, and howling their approval at him. His fingers flashed across the strings of his guitar and too-long dark hair flopped in his eyes as he sang into the mic.
The whole experience was pure foot-tapping, laugh-out-loud fun.
But Bella couldn’t quite lose herself in the moment. The singer’s dark gaze was just so intense that she couldn’t tear herown eyes away from him as he scanned the crowd. There was just something about him…
His dark eyes landed on her cousin, Harper, plenty of times.
Not that Bella could blame him.
