Rayne, a small town librarian, finds herself falling for Jake after meeting when he is part of a music education initiative. It's a good old fashioned falling in love story told in three parts.
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Jake POV
Jake had agreed to the music education initiative that had been proposed to him in the year prior. He had loved visiting the different schools around Michigan. He enjoyed talking to the kids as they seem to nearly combust with questions and excitement to be doing something other than their typical day. The tiny rural schools were probably his favorite as he had more hands-on time with the kids, showing them different pieces of his equipment, and getting some playing time with them directly. The larger schools were fine, it was more example and video, as the audiences were triple, if not quadruple of the small schools.
The day's school found him in a town with not quite four hundred students in grades K-1: the Winslow School in Winslow, Michigan, population 1294. When he was driving in, he noticed that there were three bars, one gas station, small grocery, a diner, and a service station that made up the downtown. The B&B that had been booked for him was on the west side of the village, nestled in the woods, right on the water, or at least that was what was promised. When he had driven past, he had no idea what water they were talking about as none was in sight.
The school was at the one end of the village, anchoring the few businesses that existed. Aside from the diner that only served breakfast and lunch, the bars offered only bar food, and of course, the establishment he was rooming in for the night only offered breakfast, there was no other restaurant for ten miles in the neighboring town. Sighing that bar food could be worse, he decided to race out of the village at first light in hopes of making it back to Frankenmuth well before lunch the next day.
Winslow School looked just like many of the schools in the area - large rectangles covered in dark red brick, with scallops and old touches that crowned the top of the buildings so as not to look too institutional. Parking his rental car, he saw that the van with all the equipment was already parked in what seemed to be the auditorium, the back doors open. Mark and Will were unloading his amps and the other musicians' equipment. Aside from himself, Toni, the cellist, and Paul, the symphony director, were from Grand Rapids. A few of the students from the U M marching band were still tucked in the back of the van, seemingly asleep. He saw Luna Lu, a folk singer that was over from Detroit, standing outside of the main doors. If Danny were with him, he would be able to talk with Luna for days on end. The thought of his friend made him smile. The hiatus was wearing thin on Jake. Sam had started a family. Danny was honeymooning somewhere. Josh was working on his film. They had promised two years. They were sitting at the eighteen months mark and they had yet to really talk about how to bring the band back.
"Hey, rock god," Luna poked as he walked up, guitar cases in hand.
"Hi, Luna. Lovely day in another lovely town," he said, moving to her side.
"I didn't think you could get smaller than Maron," she snorted.
"Yeah, welcome to Winslow," he said, smiling as the college kids were finally roused from Will slamming the van door. "Why don't they let those kids come in a separate van?"
