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Liv was staring at me like a fish flopped ashore, no idea how to get air, much less speak.

“Maya, you know there’s a new horse in that pen over there. Why don’t you go say hi? I haven’t even named it yet. Maybe you can come up with something good.”

“I’d love to!” She sprinted away, leaving my sister and me alone, but all I could do was grind my jaw. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Don’t talk to me like that,” Liv snapped. “I’m a grown woman. I can make my own choices without big brother weighing in.”

“A grown woman who can’t think straight,” I gritted out.

She put her hands on her hips. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, you’re already living with the guy and now you’re going to make it complicated by sleeping with him?” I waved my hands around as I spoke because, really, couldn’t she see it wasn’t smart to live with your new boyfriend, let alone Fletcher? “It’s going to blow up in your face.”

Liv aimed a glare at me that could have sent weaker men to ashes. “You’rereally going to judgemefor sleeping with someone?”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

I put the side of my hand in my palm. “You deservebetter.”

She narrowed her eyebrows and stuck her chin forward. “Better than yourbestfriend?”

“Fletch is a great friend, but he has a daughter, baggage. He’s done some pretty fucked up shit in the past.”

“I know all of this,” Liv said angrily. “And I happen to love his daughter. I don’t see how she is baggage.”

Frustration rose in my chest. My sister had a heart of fucking gold. She’d do anything for anyone, give them the shirt off her back. She was smart, strong, and determined as hell. She deserved a relationship out of a fairy tale. And if I was being honest, I didn’t see that happening with Fletcher.

“Of course you love Maya,” I said. “She’s an amazing kid, but that’s the thing about dating Fletcher. Even if he’s changed and grown a lot since he did all that shit in the past, he has a daughter he needs to put before you. Maya comes first for him, always. You need a man who’ll putyoufirst, Liv, damn it. Don’t you see that? You can’t have waited this long just to settle!”

Liv’s eyes were already shining, something she did when angry. “How could you say that about Maya? Being her stepmom wouldn’t be ‘settling,’ Rhett. If I’m so great, isn’t that what she deserves too? Someone who will love her and stick around? And Fletcher puts everyone first before himself! Including you. You know he didn’t want to date me because he’s afraid of upsetting you while you’re going through this diagnosis?”

I opened my mouth to argue, but she cut me off. “Fletcher is anamazingman, and I’d be lucky to have him. I’ve liked him since I was sixteen years old. You pushed Fletcher away from me then, and I let it slide because you were an eighteen-year-old dumbass. But you’re doing the same thing now. It’s got to stop. You’re my big brother, and I love you, but if you can’t handle this choice I’ve made formylife, maybe you’ll just need to stay away so you don’t have to see it.”

Tears fell down her cheeks as she turned, walking back to her truck. “Maya!” she yelled. “Come over here. We’re leaving.”

“Liv, wait,” I said, following her.

“No!” she yelled. “You want me to have this ‘perfect‘ life because you drove the woman you loved away all those years ago, and now you have cancer and you think it’s over for you. But it’s not over. Not for Fletcher, not for you, and definitely not for me. My life is far from perfect, but I know what I want. I probably won’t be able to have kids, Rhett. And being Maya’s stepmom isn’t a step down. It’s an amazing opportunity to be part of her life. This might not look like a fucking fairy tale to you, but it’s life, and it’s a pretty damn good one…flaws, mistakes, children, divorces, and all.”

Maya’s footsteps got louder, and we watched as she closed the last dozen yards between us. When she got close, she told me, “I think you should name it Flivvy, like Fletcher and Livvy since you love Daddy and Livvy so much.”

My throat got tight, and my voice was rough as I said, “Thanks, kiddo.”

“Come on, sweetie,” Liv sniffed. “Time to go.”

43

Liv

All I wanted to do after that fight with Rhett was curl up on the couch with Graham and watch movies, but Maya wanted to drop off her birthday invitations. With only a few weeks left to her birthday and school starting tomorrow, we didn’t exactly have time.

Fletcher said he had work to catch up on at the clinic anyway, so this would be a good way to use the afternoon.

First, we drove out to the Madigan farm to find Grampy. I knew him as Gray Madigan, short for Grayson. A good-looking older man with an impressive work ethic, a great friend to my dad, and the kind of guy who let his kids get up to trouble with a wink and a gravelly “be safe.”

Their house was a similar style to my parents, two stories with a big front porch, but theirs was white with a red tin roof to match the barn. Fletcher’s mom had been so proud of her home, and Grayson still kept flowers growing in the boxes under the windowsills.