full portfolio. The people in her small town were more than happy to recommend her, giving him the links to all her work like his reasons for getting her number were actually sincere.
Promising to be back soon for his short acoustic performance at the park, he sat in his truck and scrolled through the pictures on the Harvest Ranch website. Liv was good. Surprisingly good. The way she captured emotion took his breath away, almost like the real woman had. Ugh. No, that kind of thinking will get you into trouble!
He tapped his steering wheel, sifting through the twelve steps in his mind to see if there was anything from rehab to keep from getting trapped by a dangerous woman. Admitting he was a mess? That was a given. The first thing he had to remember was that his mission was to get that negative in his hot little hands, not her. No matter how much those black eyes of hers haunted his thoughts.
Chapter Six
Did that really just happen? Liv tried to keep from sobbing all the way home from Maple Park while her boys peppered her with questions.
“Why is Daddy here?” Charlie’s voice sounded almost as accusing as West’s when he found her flirting with River. What was West doing here? She had no idea that he was even River’s manager. He must be managing all sorts of celebrities’ careers if that was the case. That meant he had work. Good work. Why hadn’t he said anything? Was he afraid she’d try to collect more child support? Then why show his face, unless he had something else up his sleeve? He’d been silent for months.
“I didn’t know he was here,” she told Charlie. “He didn’t tell me that he was coming.” Charlie’s lips pushed out and Liv knew her explanation wasn’t good enough, but the boys shouldn’t get involved with her arguments with West. She let out a shuddering breath, trying to give a less passionate response. “He works with River Mackenzie, so he’s here for business, honey.”
Charlie turned silent, glaring out the side of the car at Pompa and Mampa Slade’s cattle ranch. She realized that he might think his daddy had no intention of seeing him. “I bet he’ll come visit us too, Charlie,” she said.
“No. I want to play football with River.”
She groaned. What a disaster that turned out to be! This was why Liv didn’t date. The first moment she had the nerve to think a guy was cute, she fell into an emotional rollercoaster. Oh, and River Mackenzie was cute. For some insane reason he’d flirted with her. In what crazy universe did that happen? Momma’s, maybe. And of course, in this same upside-down universe, West had come along and ruined everything.
But really, even without West’s arrival raining cruel reality down on her, nothing would’ve happened with River anyway. What kind of guy would willingly work with her ex? West was oily, manipulative, and a cheater. In fact, she wouldn’t put it past the guy to somehow be at the root of River’s troubles in the first place. She could never get together with someone who fell for West’s tricks. Her ex would have no problem spreading horrible lies about her. No, it was best not to get involved.
She had enough to worry about. Her fingers tightened over the wheel while her pulse hopped all over the place. West might be rolling in cash now, but he hadn’t changed, and a rich West terrified her. Had he come to ask for the boys? Hire lawyers that she couldn’t afford to fight? She fought away more tears, sternly telling herself to be logical. No, West never tried to see the boys. He wouldn’t want them. Still, she didn’t want to push him. At all.
He might’ve just thought that he could get away with being here for a month without her knowing. Her heart rate slowed at that. Yeah, that was more likely. West only thought she was a stupid beauty queen and didn’t want anything to do with any of them. They were going to be okay. Nothing was changing.
Nothing was ever going to change.
And that was good, she reminded herself. Definitely for the best. She glanced worriedly over at Charlie, who fumed in the back seat. Seeing his father come out of nowhere was too much for him. Pip pointed at the fence where the cows had gathered. “Hudson!” he shouted.
A silhouette on a horse waved over at them. Her boys shrieked out in