2. Levi

2

LEVI

L evi Williams narrowed his eyes and read over the lot description for the house on Partridge Place for the third time, but it still didn’t make any sense.

Mrs. Tally was trying to give her grandson the pretty stone colonial home she had lived in since she was a newlywed. But Levi could clearly see that something was off with the county record, and that it might require a survey, which would be expensive.

He stood, stretching out his big body. Levi had always known he wanted to be an attorney, but at times like these he almost missed his old farm chores. His muscles ached for physical work after a day at his desk, and it was frustrating to discover a legal tangle like the one he had just uncovered. His stomach grumbled, and Levi decided that a short walk and some dinner would be a nice break.

“If these things were easy, they wouldn’t need me,” he reminded himself out loud as he grabbed his coat.

That was the mantra his mentor had taught him when Levi decided to follow a career in real estate law. And everything that had happened since only served to convince him that it was true. If every person who came in asking for help with something simple really didn’t have anything complicated on their hands, Levi would have a lot more free time.

But he had always been a problem solver. Already he was planning to run up to Mrs. Tally’s place tomorrow to walk the property, hoping that the lot description would make more sense once he was looking at it from the ground.

In any case, it would be better to talk to the sweet older lady in person. He had a feeling she would be distressed at the idea of anything about the transfer not being smooth, let alone something that could cost money, or call into question whether her yard ended exactly where she had always thought it did. Mr. Tally had mowed that lawn himself, putting neat lines in the lush grass every other week from spring to fall, from the day they moved in until he passed away in August.

Personally, Levi thought Mrs. Tally was moving out too quickly after losing her husband. But he had learned soon after hanging his shingle in Trinity Falls that people only wanted his opinion about legal matters. So he tried his best to keep his mouth shut about the rest, and honor their wishes.

And he understood that she was overwhelmed at the thought of keeping up the big house on her own. It clearly made her happy to know that her grandson would take good care of it.

Levi grabbed a letter from his outgoing box before heading out the front door, figuring that might as well just mail it himself since he was heading into town for a slice of pizza anyway.

And you want an excuse to pass the toy store…

He tried to push the thought out of his mind, not wanting to encourage his hopeless crush. Though the force of his personal discipline had gotten him through boot camp, Army service, undergrad, and law school, he couldn’t seem to shake thoughts of Lily Hathaway.

He’d been hung up on Lily since middle school, but he was pretty sure that the pretty blonde cheerleader never even knew he existed.

Levi Williams had been considered a bit of a hunk by the time he hit law school and grew into his tall frame. But back in junior high, he had been a self-avowed nerd, and he would never have given a popular girl like Lily a second thought. After all, they lived in different worlds.

But then he’d gone to a chess tournament at the library one night and the head librarian sent him down to the basement to grab a new bulb for the projector.

The Trinity Falls free literacy program was going on down there at the time, and he’d spotted Lily out of the corner of his eye, sitting at one of the tables. Her blonde head was bent over a book that she was sharing with Mr. Gustafsson, an older farmer Levi’s dad knew, and the two of them were laughing.

She had glanced up and caught him staring, and stopped mid-laugh—her cheeks blushing as pink as the sweatshirt she was wearing. He’d hurried up the stairs with the projector bulb, blown away by this new side of the popular cheerleader that had been revealed to him.

Lily had a sweet smile and she was respectful to their teachers, unlike some of her friends. But he still hadn’t thought of her as the kind of person who would spend her free time teaching farmers how to read.

Since that night, he had paid more attention to Lily, and he was rewarded by seeing the quiet kindness in everything she did. She helped Mrs. Adkinson carry her things into the classroom when she was recovering from her hip replacement, she put half her lunch on Amanda Luckett’s tray every single day at lunch the year Mr. Luckett lost his job and Amanda wore last year’s clothing, and she carried out so many more small but important good deeds. It seemed that Lily’s pink outfits and status were the perfect disguise for a down-to-earth person who was in a constant search for ways to help others.

Levi had left Trinity Falls to serve in the Army after high school, since he’d known the education he wanted would be too much for his parents to handle. He’d seen much of the world during that time and the grueling eight years of schooling afterward. But he’d never forgotten the first girl to catch his eye.

Levi had come back to Trinity Falls after law school, half hoping to see her, but coaching himself to be prepared for her to be married with kids.

His friends had teased him for having a crush on Lily back in school, and it had started right up again this year when she started her own business right in the heart of town. But Levi didn’t mind being teased when it brought with it the welcome but puzzling information that Lily Hathaway was still single.

On paper, he knew he had more to offer her now. Thanks to the military, his thin form had more than filled out, and he had a respectable job now too. Plenty of women who hadn’t given him a second look back in high school had extra big smiles for him when he bumped into them in town nowadays.

But somehow he still hadn’t worked up the nerve to stop in and say hello to Lily.

“Maybe tonight is the night,” he said to himself as he jogged down the porch steps and headed for town in the crisp dark of early evening.

He hadn’t planned on living in the little house he’d bought on Princeton Avenue to use for his law practice. But on days like today, he was glad there was an apartment upstairs from his work, so that when a long day ended, he was already at home. In the future, he might have another house and use the apartment for file storage. But while he was proving himself and building his business, it was good to be able to work long hours, and he honestly couldn’t afford a second place yet.

Besides, it was really nice to be able to walk to the Co-op Grocer’s and the pizza shop—though he was cutting it close on the pizza shop still being open tonight.

He hurried down the sidewalk, unable to help gazing up fondly at the candy cane decorations hanging from the lampposts. Those had been there starting Thanksgiving weekend even when he was a little boy.

He waved to Sloane Greenfield as he passed the little real estate office. Like Levi, Sloane worked late hours to serve her clients. She often called him for legal advice, and he reached out to her from time to time for her thoughts on property values.

The rest of the storefronts on Park Avenue were dark already, except for Mario’s Pizza. The windows of the apartments above the shops were filled with warm light though, and the holiday lights all over town gave Trinity Falls village a cozy glow.

“Hey there,” Lorenzo said as Levi stepped into the restaurant. “Two slices of pepperoni and a Coke?”

“Yes, please,” Levi replied.

It probably wasn’t great that Lorenzo knew his regular order. He knew that he needed to try and eat better, but when Mom sent him home from Sunday dinners with enough leftovers to last half the week, and there was a pizza shop around the corner, it was hard to get excited about cooking for one.

“It’ll be ready for you in five minutes,” Lorenzo told him.

“I’ll be right back for it,” Levi said, heading back out to mail his letter.

He headed to the top of Park and went left at the drugstore onto Ambler. The post office was right around the corner at the end of the block, but he would pass Lily’s shop on the way.

He slowed down as he approached the toy store. Though everything else on this block was closed, light spilled out the window of Joyful Toys. He could see the decorations in the window from here, a shadow of the reindeer and sleigh cast on the sidewalk from the light behind it.

Stealing a glance inside, he caught a glimpse of Lily watching a man and his kids play with the elaborate train set she had been setting up last night when he passed by .

The family definitely looked like they were just having fun with the trains, but Lily seemed in no hurry to make a sale or rush them along.

He grinned reflexively at the sight of her beautiful smile. She had always been radiant when she was helping others. She was glowing now, and Levi’s chest warmed at the evidence that she had chosen work that made her happy. He would have expected nothing less from Lily.

He hurried on to the post office and dropped his letter in the slot before heading back to the pizza shop. He tried his best not to stare at Lily again on his way back past the toy store, but he couldn’t help sneaking a quick glance inside.

She was sitting on the floor with one of the boys now, a stack of books beside them as the other boy and his dad continued playing with the trains.

She’s still interested in helping people with their reading, he thought to himself with a pang.

Why hadn’t he talked to her back in school, and told her how impressed he was with her? Why didn’t he talk to her right now?

Instead of coming up with an answer, he walked back to the pizza shop, paid for his dinner, and headed back toward home.

“Hey, Levi,” Susan Grentz said with a wave and a smile as he passed by. The older woman was headed into town, and he wondered if she was meeting someone at the train station.

He saw the Branfords out in their yard, hanging a few new decorations that their grandkids had probably made. Their yard had always been decorated from stem to stern each year for Christmas. They waved to him and told him to send their love to his parents, and he waved back, promising to pass along their message.

Otherwise, the streets of the little village were quiet. He passed only one more person when he was halfway home.

Since he knew everyone in his hometown, he was getting ready to greet the figure with the green scarf covering the bottom of their face and a hat pulled down almost to their eyes. But they turned away from him and sped up on their approach, passing him without so much as a word.

That wasn’t too unusual when he wasn’t at home. Levi was a big guy, and he knew that he could be intimidating to strangers. But it was almost unheard of here in Trinity Falls. Obviously, this wasn’t someone Levi knew. But those hazel eyes were so familiar…

He racked his brain for a moment, then shook it off, and kept walking. Maybe it would come to him later, or maybe he was mistaken, but there was no point trying to get a handle on someone who clearly didn’t want to stop and catch up either way.

He turned the corner onto Princeton and admired the shape of his house under the big maple. He’d known right away that it would have to be “the one” because of the price, and the mixed zoning that allowed him to run a home-based law practice just outside the village’s tiny commercial zone.

But he hadn’t expected the sweetness of the Arts & Crafts architecture to tug at his heartstrings. With its deep roof overhang, wide front porch, and painted cedar shingles, it had instantly reminded Levi of the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel storybook his grandfather used to read to them when they were all little.

He admired it now, and then frowned when he spotted something on the porch.

Levi didn’t order a lot of packages. He would have remembered if he were expecting one now. And whatever it was looked big. It almost looked like…

No.

Heart in his mouth, he sprinted toward home, sure that his eyes were deceiving him. It was so cold, far too cold and dark to leave something so vulnerable outside and alone.

He took the porch steps two at a time, the shape on his doorstep coming fully into sight and confirming his fears. He was looking at the back of a car seat.

Maybe it’s just an empty car seat. Maybe someone borrowed it and returned it to the wrong house…

But when he came around to the front he was met by a pair of wide eyes in a sweet, chubby little face.