Luring Levi (Tarnished Saints Series Book 2) (13 page)

He smelled an odd scent and noticed white walls. Not that he could see the walls before, but he would bet his bottom dollar – if he had a dollar – that they weren’t this white
yesterday. Then he realized the smell was fresh paint. The paint on the walls was the same color as the paint the boys were using on the outside of Gus’s station.

He made his way to the only window in the room and yanked it open. Fresh air blew in, helping to clear his head. Then he noticed the roughly made curtains that hung at the sides of the window. He ran his hand over them and thought they looke
d an awful lot like that old lace table cloth he’d seen in the room covering the rocking chair earlier.

He walked back to the bed
and kicked off his shoes and socks, feeling the soft rug under his feet. It was an old circle rug with paisley designs, and he knew it was the one he’d seen the boys hauling to the dumpster, only this looked to be a few shades lighter. Or cleaner anyway.

He took off his shirt and pants and collapsed atop the mattress. Instead of a puff of dust coming up from
under him like before, he felt soft sheets and a fluffy pillow under his head. There was an afghan at the foot of the bed and an old oil painting of a beach with a couple kids playing in the sand hanging on the wall directly across from him.

That only reminded him of Candace
and her kids and how badly he had wanted to join them at the beach today. But he couldn’t, because of his duties as mayor and helping out at the diner. He wouldn’t have done it anyway, because he didn’t want to be dumped in public by a woman who drove him mad with want.

He moaned and turned on his side and then punc
hed at the pillow. Why was he so afraid to hear what she had to tell him? He figured he just needed to get it over with and move on with his life and stop letting it bother him already. He’d been through worse than this and survived, so why the hell was he afraid?

That’s what he’d do, he decided. Tomorrow right after the food tasting, he’d let her break up with him
. Then she’d pull
Sliced
out of the fair and the town would all hate him. And then he’d be back to wallowing in his own misery as he tried to forget about a girl he couldn’t get out of his mind.

Chapter 10

Candace kissed her kids goodbye and waved as they headed down the driveway with Angel in the SUV. Gabby was with them and they liked her a lot, and were happy to be going to have an overnight adventure.

She felt a little
apprehensive, never having been away from them before, but she knew she had to do this, as it would be her last chance to tell Levi her secret without having her kids around when she did it.

She felt a nervousness inside her stomach because she also knew that since they were going to
be gone til tomorrow, she might just be spending the evening making love to Levi if things went the way she planned.

She looked at her watch and realized she had to be at the food judging at the fair in less than an hour. She wanted to stop by the station on her way there and see if Levi needed a ride since she still had the car Thomas had given him to use.
Plus, she was excited to see if he liked the way she fixed up his room yesterday.

“Sure you don’t want a cup of coffee?” Thomas came walking out of the house with a coffee mug in his hand. He wore no shirt and a pair of cutoffs
, and no shoes on his feet either.

“No, but thank you,” she said. “I need to get to the fair for the
ten o’clock food judging.”

“That doesn’t start for another hour,” he said.
“I’m guessing you have somewhere else to go before then?”

“Well, I was hoping to stop by the gas station and see if Levi needed a ride.”

“Dan is already there with the boys painting. I told him to give my brother a ride to the fair, so don’t even worry about it.”

“Well, I think I’ll just go by and see how he likes the room
then. I had the boys help me fix it up for him yesterday.”

“Levi
is used to sleeping on hard floors and having little or no furniture from being in prison so long, so don’t expect him to even notice. I have a feeling maybe there is something else that is going on between you two.”

“Like what?” she asked
.

“I don’t know. But I do know my brother and when something is bothering him he keeps bus
y so he doesn’t have to face it, just like he’s been doing lately. And sometimes he hits the bars.”

“Well, h
e has been really busy lately, and I’ve been having a hard time trying to talk to him.”

“Pretty important, is
it?”

“Did Angel say something to you?”

“No. But it isn’t from my lack of trying. She is a lot better at snooping into other people’s lives than I am.”

“She didn’t snoop. She’s been very supportive.”

“So supportive she’s taking your kids for the night so you and Levi can be alone. So whatever it is you need to say to him, you’d better do it already. But I warn you - don’t even think of saying anything that might remotely hurt my brother in any way.”

“That sounds like a threat!”

“Not a threat. Just a warning that Levi has had a hard life lately and he doesn’t need anyone throwing him another curve ball. So whatever it is you have to say to him, think twice before you do it. My brother just started to get back his confidence and pull his life together and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to see anything mess that up for him right now.”

“No. Neither would I.” Candace got into the car and headed away, not sure of anything now.

* * *

An hour and a half later Candace paced back and forth in front of the food exhibit
s at the fair. Mrs. Durnsby stood next to her with her arms crossed over her chest and Joe Smelden, a member of the fair committee stood next to her, tapping his pencil against his clipboard for the hundredth time. A box of ribbons to be awarded was on the ground at their feet.

“We’re going to need to start with or without him,” said Mrs. Durnsby.

“Yes,” said Joe, a mild and timid man. “If we wait any longer the heat of the day is going to start melting some of the pies and cheesecakes.”

“I told you he’d be late. Again,” said Mrs. Durnsby.

Candace knew now she should have stopped by the gas station and picked up Levi after all. But after that little speech from Thomas and how she’d better not hurt his brother, she’d been afraid of telling him her secret this morning, so she’d just stayed away. She was just getting ready to go to the car and drive over and get him when Dan’s convertible came pulling up with the top down. Dan was behind the wheel and little Eli was in the passenger’s seat next to him. Levi was sprawled out across the back seat with his head lying on the armrest and his feet crossed and hanging over the side of the car.

“Here’s our drunken mayor now,” said Mrs. Durnsby.

“Mabel!” Candace couldn’t believe the woman had just said that out loud. She didn’t think Levi was drunk, but now that the woman had mentioned it, he was acting very odd. She kept thinking about Thomas telling her that when Levi was upset he kept busy and drank.

She rushed over to the car but Levi seemed to be sleeping.

“Levi?” No answer. He had a baseball cap pulled over his eyes and she knew now that they must be closed. “Is he - sleeping?” she asked Dan.

“Pa told me to have him here by ten but I had a hard time waking him up,” said Dan. Eli crawled up onto the back of the seat and just stared at her. She felt like he knew her secret, having overheard her talking to Angel the other day. She needed to get Levi away from him before he said something.

“Levi? Levi!” She pushed his feet and they fell, waking him from his slumber.

“What?” He sat up quickly. “Oh, we’re here.”

“Come on,” she said under her breath. “Everyone’s been waiting for you and they are far from happy with your conduct.”

“All right, take it easy. I’m ready,” he said, climbing out from the back seat right over the side. “Thanks for the ride, Dan.” Then he ruffled Eli’s hair. “Come up to my room and see me later and I’ll let you jump on the bed,” he told him. “We don’t have to tell your dad. It’ll be fun.”

Little Eli nodded and smiled from ear to ear.

“Levi, they’re waiting.
And have you been drinking?”

“Candy, I admit the workers took me out last night for a few beers, but I assure you I am totally sober. Just a little tired, that’s all.”

He walked over to Candace, and she took the baseball cap from his head and threw it into the back of the convertible. She noticed his shirt was wrinkled and he had on the same dirty jeans from yesterday but she didn’t say anything. She just kept hearing Thomas’s warning in the back of her mind telling her not to say anything that would hurt him.

Too bad, she thought because she had a lot of things to tell him about himself right now but was just biting her tongue. And she could guarantee that every o
ne of them would be very hurtful indeed.

Levi followed Candace over to the judging stands in the food exhibit tent, noticing that the fair was in progress. The Ferris wheel turned and lively music played.  Children ran around him laughing and chasing each other.

The smell of the horse barn as well as the cows filled the air and turned his stomach sour. The sound of the cac
kling chickens from the poultry barn only added to the noisy barker on the microphone wanting to guess everyone’s weight.

He felt miserable and it was his own faul
t. He’d been burning the candle at both ends trying to do something good for the community as well as to redeem his wretched reputation. And just when he started getting people to like him, he blew it by showing up late once again. He knew this was no way for a mayor to act, and he also knew that he shouldn’t be in the position. But he wanted badly to show people, especially Candace and her kids, that he could be responsible and a man they could be proud of. The only problem was, he knew it wasn’t true.

“It’s about time you showed,” snorted Mrs. Durnsby when he walked up.

“We really need to start,” said the man with the clipboard who Levi didn’t even know, nor did he care.

“I’m here, let’s eat,”
he said, his stomach already roiling at the mere mention of food.

“I think we should start with the h
omemade cheesecakes,” said Mrs. Durnsby, picking up the box of ribbons and following them to the display.

“We’ve already cut bite sized portions of all the food while we were waiting,” said Candace. She picked up a piece of
a blue cheese cheesecake with rosemary and a hint of garlic and handed the plate to Levi.

He glanced
downward and the smell of it on a hot morning brought the bile to his throat. He looked at her and just shook his head.

“Don’t you dare say no now,” she whispered and picked up a piece and shoved it in his mouth.
He almost gagged, but instead just swallowed and smiled.

“I’d say at least a nine,” said Candace. The man following her scribbled down the score.

“How about you, Mayor?” he asked. “How do you rate this blue cheese cheesecake?”

“Blue is a go
od word for it,” he said, never having liked the taste of moldy cheese.

“Then a blue ribbon it is,” said Mrs. Durnsby taping a blue ribbon on to the plate.

It was a long morning, and though Levi normally would have enjoyed the tasting and eaten all the food without thinking twice, his stomach was upset and he just wanted this all to be over with as quickly as possible.

He’d tasted
the pies, the preserves, and even the cookies. He tried his best to give the proper marks. Some of the food was actually quite good, but the bad stuff definitely outweighed it.

He could tell Candace
was avoiding him for some reason, and he could only figure that she was ashamed of him again and he knew he deserved it. But the treatment Mrs. Durnsby was giving him was downright rude. She’d pulled plates out of his hands and when he’d asked for a bottle of water, she’d purposely given him the one that had been sitting in the sun and was not far from boiling right inside the plastic bottle. He knew he would have to work extra hard to win her over from now on, but had no idea of how to do it.

“There is one category left a
nd then we are done,” said the man with the clipboard.

“Good,” Levi said and then looked up to see Mrs. Durnsby scowling at him. “Good to know there is more,” he said with a smile. “I am enjoying this immensel
y.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” she said, “because the last category is pickles!”

“Pickles?” he asked, knowing by the smile that lit up her face that her kerosene pickles were somewhere on the table. And having to taste them once again, was one scary idea indeed.

“Pickles,” she repeated. “And this year the council has already decided that one of the ‘best of shows’ is going to go to one of the jars of pickles.”