Page 16 of Sweet Music (Sugarville Grove #7)

BELLA

B ella stood by the pavilion in the town square, pretending to look at her phone while Cody talked with a couple of kids from school.

All around her, the park was alive with excitement as the snow flurries drifted down.

Parents chased after smaller children, not wanting them to get caught up in the snowball fight that was about to start, while older people gathered on the sidewalks that surrounded the park to watch.

The mayor stood with the owner of the toy store, who sponsored the event, both looking on with big smiles on their faces as the park filled with happy kids, teens, and even a good number of daring adults.

After scanning the crowd, Bella was starting to feel like she and Cody might be the only two people here who weren’t smiling.

She hadn’t thought it was a big deal that Cody had forgotten to get a photo with Cash when he came by.

And he hadn’t mentioned it to her afterward.

But she could hear the other kids joking with him now.

The tone was light, but it surely felt heavy to Cody to hear that they didn’t believe him about Cash, and they didn’t think he was coming today.

I should have taken that picture myself, she fretted for the tenth time in five minutes.

But she had been too distracted between worrying about Cody getting hurt and dealing with burnt pretzels and visiting neighbors.

And, if she were honest with herself, she might have been getting a little wrapped up in her own hurt feelings from the past…

But Cody was a teen at a new school, struggling to find close friends. It hurt to think she had fallen down on something that would have been so easy to get right.

If I had taken a video of that jam session, he would be a hero at school.

But some things were too deeply personal for that. Even if she’d had a video, Bella was pretty sure she would never have posted it anywhere herself, even if she were on social media. And she wasn’t sure Cody wouldn’t have shared it either.

If she’d ever harbored any doubt that Cash was Cody’s father, that doubt was gone the moment she’d seen them play together. The music they made and the pure joy the two of them felt was too clear to argue.

But if it really meant something to Cash, where is he?

Bella hadn’t given up hope yet, but he was almost ten minutes late. She scanned the park and the surrounding streets again, but she still didn’t see him.

Waves of old pain from her own missed meetings with her dad had her chest feeling hollow and her stomach twisting, but she had to put that aside now and be strong for Cody.

“Well, we’ve got to make ammo now, man,” Tom Bernard said to Cody, clapping him on the shoulder. “Best snow is behind the pavilion. You sure you’re not coming?”

“Nah,” Cody said, shaking his head.

“Okay, well, look out,” Tom said. “We’re gonna cream you in this fight if you stay solo.”

Tom turned and left, and the other three boys trailed after him, laughing.

He hadn’t exactly taunted Cody that Cash wasn’t coming, but he might as well have. The boys’ light joking had to be devastating, especially when Cody had been walking on air after the visit with his dad.

Cody had trained his face into the blank teen expression he so often wore. But Bella knew he was using it to cover his real feelings.

One kid had stayed behind, though—Annika Corbin. Bella smiled at that. The Corbins were good people. Annika’s mom brought her little sister to reading group all the time, and she was super nice.

“You know nobody actually cares if your dad is famous or not, right?” Annika said quietly to Cody once the others had gone. “We all like you anyway.”

Cody cleared his throat.

Annika blushed all the way to her hairline and glanced around frantically, like she had said too much and was about to make a break for it.

“Thanks,” Cody said gruffly, just in time, in Bella’ s opinion.

“Hey, do you want to form an alliance?” Annika asked Cody, the gentle smile returning to her face.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, the snowball fight is last-man-standing kind of contest,” Annika explained. “But you can still form alliances and help each other until it’s just your own team members left.”

“Awesome,” Cody said, a tentative smile on his face now. “Yeah, let’s form an alliance.”

The two began walking as they talked, Cody’s dark head leaned down to Annika’s auburn mane, both dotted with hints of snow from the flurries that had begun to fall more steadily now.

Bella felt relieved that he had at least one good friend today. Hopefully, it would soften the blow from Cash not showing up.

She had been so convinced the other night that he would be here today. He had honestly seemed super excited. But it was probably pretty naive of her to think that a huge star would just drop everything to spend days out here in the middle of basically nowhere, even if he had grown up here.

She had even been feeling good enough about that first meeting that she’d reached out to offer to arrange a quick breakfast or evening get-together yesterday.

Cody had a math test Thursday, and a guitar lesson in Burlington last night, and even though Cash being in town was a big deal, she really wanted to keep Cody on his routine as much as possible.

But Cash had let her know it was fine, and he had plenty to keep him occupied. He had even said again that he would see them today.

He was probably back on tour already when I messaged him, she thought to herself, feeling exceptionally stupid. He never had any intention of seeing Cody again.

A commotion from the park caught her attention and drew her back into the present.

“ No way ,” one of the kids yelled from down by the skating rink.

Bella turned to look just as a young woman squealed and a murmur went through the crowd.

Cash Law was crossing the street between the Lawrence’s ice cream shop and the park, jaywalking of course.

He wore sunglasses that didn’t disguise him in the least. And he looked every bit the part of a rock star in a black leather jacket that stretched over his wide shoulders and a pair of tight ripped jeans.

Bella couldn’t help sympathizing with the woman who had squealed out loud. Cash was absolutely gorgeous. No matter how you felt about him, there was really no denying that.

Larger than life, she thought to herself again before she could shut down that line of thought.

It wasn’t until he spotted her and jogged over that it registered that he was carrying something.

Her mouth watered at the sight of the white paper bag. It could only contain one thing—doughnuts from Morning Rush, a food cart that the owners often set up on the day of big events in town. They only sold two things: coffee and doughnuts. But both were mouthwateringly fresh and delicious.

“Hey,” Cash said, his deep voice sounding happy. “I’m really sorry I’m late. I wanted to grab doughnuts and Tripp said the Morning Rush cart was incredible. But the line was insane.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Bella heard herself say before she could hold it back.

“You were afraid I wasn’t coming at all,” Cash said, the smile dropping instantly from his face.

“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to pull herself together. “Cody will be glad you’re here. And he’s never had Morning Rush doughnuts before. That was very nice of you.”

“No,” Cash said, looking stricken. “It wasn’t. It would have been better to be here on time. Being there is better than bringing stuff. I won’t let it happen again. I guess it just never occurred to me that you’d think I wouldn’t show up for him.”

She didn’t have time to say anything more, because the first of a horde of people who had been approaching slowly from all sides finally got up the nerve to come close enough to get Cash’s attention.

“Charles Cash Lawrence,” Edith Fournier chirped. The retired teacher wore a schoolgirl smile, in spite of her advanced age. “Is that really you?”

“Mrs. Fournier,” Cash said politely, turning to embrace her. “How’s Mr. Fournier?”

“Joe’s just fine,” Edith said with a big smile. “But you’re famous now, Charles. We saw you on television.”

“Oh, that’s just work stuff,” Cash said, dismissively .

“You were in my first-grade class when you were just a little boy,” Mrs. Fournier said. “But I always knew you would get involved with music. That little foot of yours was always tapping.”

“Did you know I’m back home to see my own boy?” he asked her proudly.

“You have a little boy?” Edith asked.

“I have a teenager, and he’s going to be a musician too,” Cash said. “If he wants to be one.”

“Like father like son,” Edith said in a pleased way, nodding.

A bunch more people had approached now that it was clear Cash was open to saying hello.

“I came here to see him today,” he told her. “There he is. Get over here, Cody. Bring your friend. ”

The small crowd parted, and Cody jogged up with Annika by his side.

Cody looked like he was trying his best not to beam at his dad. And Annika was smiling so hard that her blue eyes crinkled.

“Dad, this is Annika,” Cody said.

“Hey, Annika,” Cash said.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Law,” Annika said.

“You can call me Cash,” he told her. “You two want some doughnuts? I figure we’d better get our energy up before the big snowball fight. Did you guys already form an alliance?”

“You know about that?” Cody asked.

“Oh, he’s really got the city boys blues, doesn’t he?” Cash said to Annika, with a smile so they would know he was only joking. “That’s okay, son. They didn’ t have this big one back in my day, but I’ve seen my share. Alliances are what snowball fights are all about.”

“And water balloon fights,” Annika pointed out. “Do you want to join our alliance, Mr.—Cash?”

“You two probably already made your plans,” he said, carefully looking to Cody.

Bella’s breath caught in her throat. Cash was surprisingly good at this already. Waiting to see if Cody would rather just hang out with his friend and have Cash cheer him on from the sidelines was a great move.