AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The blonde woman turned around and adjusted the shoulder bag on her right side. “Oh my … Leah? Leah Maureen?”
“Yes, yes,” I replied and took a gasping breath before we hugged. I kissed her cheeks and moved back. “How have you been?”
“Great, great,” she said then flipped her hair to one side. “You back in town for a long time or just visiting?”
“Visiting.”
“Leah Maureen,” she called again, and we both laughed before hugging. “I live in Hell-Borough, the next town over but I work in the art center here so it’s always a thirty-minute drive every day. Belly Row’s is my favorite spot just as always.”
“No one can get enough of Belly Row’s,” I commented too, and we both laughed before chorusing. “Especially the apple pie.”
“It’s so good to see you, Harper,” I said. “I hope we can hang out sometime before I leave.”
“Yeah, sure.”
We hugged again and she hurried away before I headed into the bakery. The minute Cherry saw me, she dropped the napkin she held and grinned wide. “Look who we have here,”
“Hi Cherry,” I greeted and rested my hands on the counter. “How are you?”
“It’s so good to see you, Leah,” she said, and I leaned over the counter to hug her briefly.
“It’s been such a long time. This place hasn’t changed one bit.”
“Everything changes but the taste of Belly Row’s,” she replied before she giggled again. “Sit, let me bring your favorite apple pie and mocha latte.”
“Hmm, thank you … I’ve craved your apple pie like never before. No one does it like you do.”
“You flatter me, dear.”
I found a spot to sit in the almost empty bakery and a few seconds later Cherry came to me with a plate of warm apple pie and a mug of latte. The aroma of coffee was like heaven, and my stomach grumbled in response to it.
I tasted the coffee first, and it was divine. Then I took a bite of the apple pie and could smell the bare hint of cinnamon and the overwhelming clean flavor of apples. I savored every bite of the pie and the coffee while Cherry attended to other customers.
When she returned to sit with me a while later, she linked her fingers to the table and asked. “When did you get back to town?”
“Last night,” I replied and wiped my lips with the napkin she set by my plate. “I’m staying over at Danielle’s family cottage. She sends her regards.”
“The family cottage huh?” Cherry said. “You met Tommy there? He’s been in town a while now, ya know. I hear he’s moved back in.”
“And I have no idea why he did that,” I replied to her and sighed. “Yes, I met him there and he’s been a royal pain. He doesn’t want me there, and I’m not leaving either.”
“You girls have been too hard on Tommy,” Cherry said. “I think Danielle needs to cut him some slack. He’s a good man.”
I wasn’t sure about the good man bit. I didn’t know that much about Tommy because he rarely ever spoke to either me or Danielle. I did know he was a very private man, and he never had guests over.
“This food was amazing, Cherry,” I said when I finished my coffee. “Thanks.”
“Don’t worry about the tab darling. It’s on the house. We’ve missed having you around here, and just maybe one of these days you’ll drop by and play us a song to brighten the mood around here? No one here has been able to play music as you and Danielle did.”
I leaned back on my chair and tapped my fingers on the table. “I don’t really sing or play anymore,” I said to her even though a tinging pain pricked my heart as I said the words.
“Oh, that’s strange. You never went anywhere without your guitar, and you called it Granny.”
“Because my grandmother gifted it to me before she died. It belonged to her husband, and he too had wanted to be a country star.”
I smiled wistfully as the memories of my time with my gran flooded my mind. A lot of years had passed since I first started playing the guitar at twelve. Back then I wanted to be a country star and just sing my days away.
Now that I had lived that life, I wasn’t sure I wanted to live it anymore.Not after all that happened in Nashville.
