Page 70

Liv covered her mouth, her eyes shining. But I had to say it anyway. Because if Liv thought I was a dick, she’d stay away. I might lose a chance with her, but maybe I could keep my best friend.

“I told her to get rid of it. Gave her the pills to do it,” I said.

Liv pressed her hand to her heart like the words physically pained her.

“If Maya ever knew that my first thought about her existence was wanting her gone...” I shook my head, my throat closing with emotion. “But Regina refused to get an abortion. She still hoped I would come around, when I saw Maya’s sonogram.”

Liv nodded, hope in her eyes.

I took a heavy breath, knowing I would crush it. “I ripped up the sonogram. And Regina did the only thing she could think to do. She found my family online, called my dad. And when he found out about my drinking problem, he signed me up for outpatient therapy and told me to put my head on straight. He told me...” I shuddered on the words. “He told me that my mom would be ashamed of the man I’d become.”

A tear slid down Liv’s cheek. “Fletch...”

“She would have,” I said, sure of it. “A daughter on the way and I wanted nothing to do with her.” I shook my head. “So I turned it around, because for all the mistakes I’ve made, I never wanted my mom to be disappointed in me. I proposed to Regina, we had a small elopement with family around. I did the therapy. I stopped drinking. Started taking antidepressants. And Maya was born.”

As I thought back to that day, my eyes stung with tears, and I covered my mouth with my hand. “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I loved her with my whole heart the second I saw her. I really did.”

Tears spilled down Liv’s cheeks, but she wiped them away.

But I knew more would come, because this was the worst part.

“A girl needs her mom. But I couldn’t love Regina.” I shook my head. “She helped me through my pain, got me cleaned up, gave me the most amazing baby girl, but I couldn’t love her. Not the way she deserved.”

Liv said, “She wasn’t the one...”

“No, she wasn’tyou.”

The words were heavy between us, Liv’s perfect lips parting and closing again.

But it wasn’t the end. “Regina knew I didn’t love her, and after a while, she started going to the bars again, seeing different guys. One night, she got drunk and told me that Maya looks so much like me, she was just a reminder to Regina of all that I’d done. It hurt to see Maya, and it hurt to be married to a guy like me... And Maya heard her say it. That’s why I’ll never blame Maya for her behavior this last year. She’s been through hell and back, and it’s all my fault.”

My chest heaved with emotion, of all that I’d told Liv. She’d seen all the ugliest parts of me, and I waited for her to pull away. To run.

Instead, she stepped closer.

She took my face in both of her hands, so close I could smell her vanilla perfume. Her gaze held mine, and she said with so much conviction, “Fletcher, I want you to hear me.”

I stared into her blue eyes, light in the dim barn. A life raft for a drowning man.

“You are a good man.”

My throat got tight, and I swallowed down the pain.

“You are a good man who let his hurt lead him to bad choices. But it doesn’t matter how low you got, only that you found the strength, the courage, theloveto get back up. That’sexactlythe kind of parent Maya deserves and the kind of man I’m lucky to have in my life.”

I was speechless, hanging on to her every word. She’d seen me, for all that I am, and she found the gold inside me. And somehow, it let me see just a little bit of light in myself. Helped me somehow believe that maybe I could earn the love of a woman like her.

It wasn’t hard to spot the gold in Liv. This woman was pure, incredible, and I couldn’t hold back anymore.

I took her face in my hands and kissed her like I’d been wanting to do ever since I left Cottonwood Falls. Ever since she walked into my office that day and into my daughter’s heart.

She met my kiss with passion, teasing her tongue along the seam of my lips and deepening our embrace.

I held her close, feeling like we would never get close enough.

Until I heard Rhett’s shout. “GET YOUR FILTHY FUCKING HANDS OFF MY SISTER.”

34