Charitable Hearts Page 2

  “Contrived.”

  He jerked his head up and studied her face. “Yeah.” Who are you?

  They’d both forgotten about their food. Maggie picked up a homemade potato chip and took a bite. “Um, I have an early meeting tomorrow. So, I’m sorry to cut this short, but I need to get going.”

  “Okay and I’ll get those statements from my CPA. I’ll make sure Laura gets them ASAP.”

  Maggie asked the waitress to box up the rest of her food and stood. When the waitress returned, Maggie slipped her a few bills. She turned to Levi. “It was nice to meet you, Levi. I look forward to working with you.”

  He watched her walk away and jumped when the waitress squealed. “Oh. Wow!” She grabbed a waiter as he walked by. “Look!”

  Levi was beyond dumbfounded. Maggie had given the waitress a hundred-dollar bill.

  Four

  Two weeks later, Maggie walked to the threshold of her open door. The music streaming out of her home made it pretty hard to hear anything coming from outside so she flicked the knob to turn it off. She imagined that a car had stopped in front of her home, but that couldn’t be possible because she had no friends who visited her home unannounced or at all for that matter.

  When she stopped outside the door, her mouth dropped open. Levi Martin was dismounting from a motorcycle. As he pulled off his helmet, he smiled broadly and his eyes wandered from her to her house and back to her again…

  Good thing I shaved my legs this morning. “What are you doing here?”

  He shrugged and deposited his helmet on the seat of his bike. “I wanted to see your house.” Levi tried not to stare, but Maggie was making it hard with her in shorts and a tank top. She had long legs too.

  “Have you ever thought of calling ahead of time?”

  “Nope.”

  “What if I wasn’t here?”

  “I would have tried some other time.”

  Maggie crossed her arms. She rolled her eyes, sighed, and let her arms drop to her side. “Fine. I’ll give you the tour.” His face lit up and she turned to walk back in. He has to stop smiling like that.

  When Levi entered the living room, his height made the place look way smaller than it felt. “This is the tiniest house I’ve ever seen.”

  “Well, when I designed it, I didn’t expect visits from the Jolly Green Giant.”

  He chuckled and shrugged off his leather coat which left him in a fitted t-shirt and jeans. His eyes darted all over the house. “This is kinda cool. Is that your room up there?” He pointed to the loft.

  “Yeah,” she said, “and that’s the bathroom with my closet and laundry room attached.” She stepped in behind him.

  “This is nice.” He peeked into the closet. “You don’t have the clothing I expected you to have.” Levi twisted to look at her. “This closet isn’t anywhere near full.”

  “I have about thirty or so pieces. I want what I spend my money on to matter.”

  He looked at her puzzled and followed her out to the living room. “Where is the kitchen?”

  Maggie smiled. “Follow me.” She walked through a small nook that had a small sink and pushed two doors apart which opened to a back patio. A grill sat to the right, along with another small sink, a stone pizza oven, and a fire pit sat in the middle with several chairs circling it. Maggie stepped to the side and Levi walked out onto the deck.

  “This is freaking incredible, but how do you cook when it rains?”

  She smiled, picked up a remote, tapped a button and a large awning rolled out covering the entire deck.

  Levi’s mouth dropped open and he looked up. “You must have awesome parties here.”

  Maggie darted her eyes down and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Uh, other than my contractor and Laura, you are the only person besides myself to ever be here.” She chewed on her lip as she watched for his reaction.

  Levi’s mouth dropped open. “Wha…what?”

  “I don’t have any friends. Well, none other than Laura and I guess you could call Ellis a friend, but she’s never been here. I usually meet her in LA.” Here it comes…

  “No friends? I don’t believe you.”

  Maggie shrugged. “It’s true. I don’t. I moved here about five years ago and I mostly keep to myself.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She smiled. “Why? I’m happy. I live here,”—Maggie took a deep breath— “with my thoughts and my music.”

  “But no friends? Don’t you get lonely?”

  That hit her hard. No one had ever been so direct with her about her solitary habits. For a brief moment, she let herself think back and quickly locked the thoughts away. “No.”

  Levi studied her a moment. He took a deep breath and let it go slowly. “Okay. I have to admit, this is incredible.”

  “Thanks. It’s peaceful.”

  “I drove past it like four times trying to find it. How do you even get your mail?”

  Maggie giggled recalling her first mail adventure. “I actually had to stand out at the road and wait for the mail carrier. Like for an entire week.”

  Levi belly-laughed. “I bet.”

  “I’m sorry, would you like something to drink? I have water and a little bit of lemonade left.”

  “Lemonade would be great.”

  Maggie grabbed two glasses and poured them both a drink.

  “So do you always leave the front door open?”

  “Most of the time. I mean, until today, no one had ever just shown up at my house.”

  “Oh, the statements. Hold on.” Levi ran out of the house and came running back in with a stack of papers. He handed them to Maggie, and reached for his glass.

  Her eyes immediately fell on the front page. “Thanks,” she said without looking up. She strolled to her chair and flopped down.

  Levi, still intrigued by the tiny house, kept looking around, amazed at the size. Eventually, he settled himself in the chair opposite her across from the coffee table.

  “Levi, why are your board members making a hundred grand a year for showing up to meetings every other month? And why is your CPA taking two hundred thousand a year? That’s insane. Seven hundred grand a year and these people do little to nothing.” She looked up to find him staring at her completely perplexed.

  “I didn't know.”

  “You didn’t know? You asked them to be on the board, right?”

  “Yeah, but my CPA set it up. He took care of all of it.”

  “Well, they’re the reason your charity is nearly broke. All of your funds are going to people who don’t give a rip about you or your cause.” She suddenly realized she’d been really blunt. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” Levi looked completely taken aback. “I really had no idea. I trusted the CPA. He’s been the one donating the money too. Does it say where the money’s going?”

  Maggie flipped the page, scanned it, and continued until she found an answer for him. “You aren’t going to like the answer.”

  Levi leaned forward and frowned. “What?”

  “It’s going to the CF Foundation, but it’s a very small amount.”

  “That’s not what I wanted at all,” Levi said. “Tell me what I need to do.”

  “First thing, you need to fire him and kick all of these people on the board, off. If they don’t want to volunteer, they don’t need to be on the board. The people who do this should love this as much as you do. They should want Amelia’s memory honored just like you do, especially if they care about you at all.”

  “I’m just frustrated with myself. I should have been keeping better track of it. I wanted the money to help people. I thought it was being donated to the hospital where Amelia stayed.”

  Maggie hooked a leg over the arm of her chair and put the papers down on the chair next to her. “Well, what have you been doing? Why didn’t you know? It was right here in the financial statements.”

  Levi didn’t want to answer this question at all. He took a drink of the lemonade to give himself time to
answer. “Well, I was filming my show until a few months ago and in between seasons of the show I’ve been a supporting character in a couple of movies.”

  “So, you’ve mostly been dealing with the fun part of it?”

  “Well, yeah, I guess. I mean, the yearly convention is so much fun. I get my friends and their friends to show up, talk to their fans, and the fans pay to get in. There’s contests and photo booths and just all around fun things to do. Last year, we got Bruce McGill to come and it was a record year for donations.”

  Maggie smiled. “That’s impressive, but running a charity is more than just the fun parts. It’s all of it. If you let one thing slip through your fingers, there’s the possibility of someone doing something they shouldn’t.”

  Levi closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and leaned his head back on the chair. Maggie knew he was bothered by what she found out. All it took was reading the financial statements. He lifted his head and caught her looking at him. The smile nearly got her. Oh, boy…you are bad news.

  “Do you still want my help?”

  “Yes, absolutely.”

  “Okay, first, fire your CPA. Get all of your books and accounts and get them over to Laura. She’s going to kill me because I’ve never done this before, but you need serious help and she’s the only one I trust. Once she gets your books, we’ll go from there.”

  Levi gave her a lopsided grin. “I can do that,” he said and pulled out his phone. “Oh, man, I have to go.”

  “Okay,” Maggie said without getting up.

  He slapped the arms of the chair, jumped up and walked to the door. “Oh, I almost forgot. I’m having a party in two weeks. Be there or be square!”

  “I don’t do parties.”

  Levi’s eyebrows raised. “Oh, you do now. Remember we’re going to be working together. Well, this is a donor party and you can’t miss it.”

  Maggie pushed out of the chair and stood opposite Levi, arms crossed. She nodded, flexed her jaw, and smiled. “All right. Date, place and time?”

  “My house,” he said and looked at his phone. “Two weeks from this Friday. Party starts at eight.”

  “I’ll see you there.”

  Levi grinned. “Awesome!”

  Maggie followed him out the door, watched him get on his bike, and drive off. A party? When was the last time she’d been to a party? Did she even have anything to wear to a party? Oh, man, how many people would be at this party? The thought made her skin crawl. She shivered and walked back into her house.

  Five

  “Yo! Gary! I’m here.” Levi called out in a somewhat empty looking house. His phone buzzed and he looked at it. It simply said, basement. He took off his coat, hung it up in the entry closet, and tossed his keys in the dish on the entry table.

  In the basement, he found Gary, with a headset on, playing a game. “No, dude!” He raised his hands up, questioning whatever had just happened. “Man, this guy blows. I had the shot and he blocked it.”

  “No game etiquette, eh?”

  “None!” Gary suddenly looked at him and frowned. “And where were you?”

  “Maggie Lawrence’s house.”

  Gary quickly pulled off the headset, and glared at Levi. “What? And you didn’t take me? You know I so wanted to go.”

  “I know, man, but I wanted to go the first time by myself.” Levi plopped down onto the worn couch and put his feet on the coffee table, crossing them at the ankles. He picked up a gaming magazine and thumbed through it absentmindedly. His thoughts were still on the tall brunette who kept him guessing.

  “You like her. You do!” Gary pointed a finger in his direction.

  “No, I don’t.” He smiled and continued to look through the magazine. She is certainly interesting, though.

  “You, sir, are a liar.”

  Levi dropped the magazine in his lap. “Gary, I don’t. She’s just a nice girl who gives out money to places and I happen to have one of those places that needs her money. By the way, I gotta fire Billy.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Dude is, like, charging me two hundred large a year to run the Geeks and all of my board members are getting a hundred a year. It was supposed to be volunteer. I had no idea.” He scratched his head. “Plus, what little money was left over was given to the CF Foundation, which is fine and all, but I wanted it to go to Amelia’s hospital. So he wasn’t even doing that right.”

  “Wow,” Gary said and shook his head. “That’s nuts. No wonder we’re so broke. Wait, I’m on the board and I don’t get a hundred thousand a year.”

  “I think we’ve been scammed, but Maggie told me to call her friend Laura and get things to her so I’m gonna do that.”

  “Ohhhkay…so already sharing CPA’s. What’s next? Toothbrushes?”

  Levi smacked Gary’s arm. “Shut up. She’s…”

  “It’s okay, man, I know.”

  “I invited her to the party in two weeks.”

  Gary’s eyes lit up. “Awesome, man. I wanted to meet her before, but now I demand to meet her.”

  “Oh, you demand to meet her.”

  “Yes, I demand to meet her. I thought she sounded cool from your meeting at the restaurant.”

  “You don’t know the coolest part.”

  “Tell me now!”

  “She has this minuscule house. I feel like a giant in it.”

  “Well, dude, you’re six and half feet tall.”

  “Yeah, but her house is super tiny. I’m not kidding. And, her kitchen is outside on the patio.”

  Gary’s mouth dropped open. “If you leave me next time I promise I will do something horrible to you while you sleep.”

  Levi grabbed his stomach laughing and fell over on the couch. “I promise you can come next time.”

  “So I have to wait two weeks to meet her?”

  “Yep. I need to ease her into meeting you.”

  “I am offended. Gary is a good guy.”

  “Who frequently and randomly breaks out into third person.”

  “This is true about Gary.”

  Levi sat up. “Seriously though, you’ll like her.”

  “Unlike Soooonnnnjaaaa.” Gary exaggerated her name and burped.

  “You really dislike her.”

  “Yes, Levi, yes I do. I didn’t like Rachel either.”

  Levi punched him hard in the arm.

  “Ouch.”

  “Never mention that name.”

  “Okay, okay, okay.” Gary rubbed his arm. “Dude, that hurt.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I’m gonna have a bruise though.”

  “Oh, I have a bruise, but it’s on the inside.”

  “Shut up, dude.”

  Levi chuckled. “Seriously, don’t mention her name again.”

  “I thought it had been enough time.”

  “There will never be enough time.”

  “Okay. I won’t ever mention the name again.”

  Gary leaned far away from Levi. “Maggie’s okay though, right?”

  Levi smiled. “Yeah, she’s safe.”

  “Good. I think I already like her.”

  “You know, she has a stone pizza oven too.”

  Gary’s face fell; his mouth opened and his eyes widened. “We don’t kid about pizza ovens, you know that right?”

  “I’m not kidding.”

  “Swear it.”

  Levi crossed his heart with his hand and held up two fingers. “Scouts honor, dude.”

  “And you left me home. So not fair.”

  “Next time, I promise.”

  “Grab a headset. You owe me.”

  Levi picked up a headset, grabbed a controller, and settled in to play video games for the night.

  Six

  Maggie stretched in bed. It was raining outside which made it harder for her to get up. She pulled her covers over her head and sighed. Days like this made her glad she was in the middle of twenty acres in a tiny house.

  Her phone next to her bed started buzzing and cla
cking on the wood floor. She picked it up. “Hello,” she said and yawned.

  “Hey,” Laura said.

  “What’s up?”

  “You told Levi Martin to send me all of his stuff?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, thanks for giving me a heads up.”

  “Sorry.”

  “When did you tell him to do that? I just got his statements like two days ago.”

  “Yeah, he showed up at the house and gave them to me.”

  “Wait. What? He came by your house? No one comes to your house. I’ve known you over twenty years and I don’t just show up at your house.”

  “I know, but he just showed up and I didn’t want to be rude.” The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening. “Laura?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m just in shock.”

  “Stop it.”

  “He’s funny by the way.”

  Without even thinking, Maggie blurted out, “And downright gorgeous. He’s got this little scar above his lip, and his laugh is infectious. Plus, he’s got a smile that could stop traffic.” Maggie’s eye’s bugged out and she slapped a hand over her mouth.

  “Oh, wow, Maggie.”

  “Don’t.”

  “But…”

  “Don’t go there.”

  “But…”

  “Just drop it. It was a momentary lapse.”

  “Maggie, you haven’t talked about anyone like that since…” Laura left the rest of the sentence off.

  “And I’m not going to again. Lapse in judgment. Levi needs help with his charity. I’m going to do that. He cares about this and I want to make sure it succeeds.”

  “Well, going through these financials makes my heart break. This guy has been doing everything he can to fundraise and the CPA was just robbing him blind.”

  Maggie grumbled. “Makes me so mad. You should have seen his face. He was completely heartbroken. He had no idea.”

  “And the people on the board? I want to just blast them on the radio or something.”

  “I know. All talk and no action.”

  “Exactly.”

  “By the way, he invited me to a party.”

  “What? Are you going?”

  “Yeah, kinda have to. I made this big speech about us working together and he said it was a donor party. I kinda feel like I’m obligated.”