assuring him that he’d be safe, she wasn’t sure what to do next. She really needed to brush up on some child psychology. She tried again. “And we’ve got Grandma and Pops, who also love us. And Mimi…”
“And Uncle Hudson,” Pip said around his fingers. “Marry Uncle Hudson.” He laughed a soft grumbling laugh that came straight from his rounded tummy.
Liv stared ahead at the road, feeling her duty weigh heavily on her. The idea of jumping back into the confusing world of dating just to avoid future conversations like this felt ludicrous, but maybe she was missing something more here? Could the boys need a father figure? They couldn’t possibly be bringing this up because they actually suspected she was lonely?
Even if I am, I’m not marrying Hudson!
She giggled at the thought. Bless that poor unsuspecting man’s heart. The boys didn’t know what they were saying. That strong, silent cattle wrangler was so shy he’d run at the idea of her setting her sights on him anyway.
She blew out heavily, a puff of air pushing against her dark hair as she met Charles’s serious eyes in the rearview mirror. She crossed her own eyes. His giggle was her reward. Pip laughed, not even knowing what the joke was about. Liv grinned. Maybe her kids missed this playful side of her—the funny wild child that she used to be. She’d grown too serious lately. That was her problem. She just had to show Charles and Pip that she was happy. That wouldn’t be too hard, right?
It was time to laugh and smile more, while also being strong. Her whole family depended on her. She couldn’t be someone who made mistakes like she always did. Still, she couldn’t let life harden her either—her kids saw right through her. She should be soft and vulnerable… but not let herself get hurt. She could manage that tightrope walk of contradictions, right?
She mindlessly gnawed on her finger, all the while throwing jokes at her sons sitting in the back seat. “Hey, look, a big cow. Should we stop and give him a lift?”
“No!” Charles and Pip shouted out in scandalized voices. “He won’t fit.”
“You sure?” She slowed down and they screamed out in laughter. She smiled, still wondering what to do. Liv just wanted to move on from West. He’d made her feel like nothing, and that was hard to kick. She just wanted to be a grown-up for her children, but not sad either… ah dang, she really had no idea what she was doing.
She tried to keep her boys laughing all the way to her sister’s soap shop, offering to pick up all sorts of animals on their trip so that they’d never suspect they’d thrown her into a depressed spiral of self-doubt. They drove up in front of her sister’s Sudz Shoppe in the historic downtown area of Harvest Ranch and parked. The store was on the top floor of a two story red bricked building above Threads and Hems, just across the street from Maple Park. Already Liv saw the gathering crowd in the park and turned nervous. River Mackenzie had better not have made an early appearance.
Mimi pushed through the jaunty yellow door, wearing a smile as bright as her red hair. People often mistook her as glamorous until she opened her mouth and they realized she was just as warm as her momma. “Charlie! Pip!” she called, opening her arms wide for them. “You afraid of trying new things?”
They shrilled out in laughter. “No!”
“Good! Then close your eyes,” she said. “And smell this.” She waved a powder blue piece of soap under Charlie’s nose and then under Pip’s, whose nose crumpled with appreciation. “Do you like it?”
Charlie’s eyes fluttered open. “I love it.”
“Love it,” Pip repeated his big brother.
“Do you love it more than birthday cake soap?” Mimi asked.
“No!” they both shouted.
“What?” Her eyes widened in exaggerated surprise. She hooked her elbow over the windshield to lean over Liv with a mischievous look. “So Charlie’s a great little salesman here. He helped a little girl at my shop a couple weeks ago buy her first bar of soap. He somehow convinced her that birthday cake was the best.” She dropped her voice to whisper, “I think he had a crush on her.”
“No!” Charlie squealed out. He’d obviously overheard, exactly like his mischievous aunt had planned.
“Wait, who?” Liv wasn’t sure she wanted to know where this was going.
“Leah is Carter Hughes, the inspirational speaker, and his brother, Zach’s, niece.