them, trying to cool down. Her hands were too cold. Liv had put her life savings into the place. She didn’t have anything else. They couldn’t lose their home like that, could they? Where would they go? She couldn’t bring herself to ask any of that when she saw Pop’s bleak expression. She’d never seen him look so close to tears. She gulped. Her throat felt tight, like there was a rock lodged in it.
Pops crumpled the paper and stood abruptly. Momma’s eyes darted nervously to him. “Where are you going, Merritt?”
He ripped one of his rifles from the rack. “If we’re losing the place, I’m not letting the deer get it.”
Liv stood, not sure if she should let him go off into the pasture with a rifle with that wild look in his eyes, but none of his womenfolk could do anything to stop him. He pushed on his floppy brimmed hat and charged outside. Liv swung around. “Momma!”
“Let him go. He needs something to distract himself. Don’t worry, he’ll be okay. We’ll all be okay.” Liv noticed Momma’s eyes shone with unshed tears. She reached over to hug her. “You know Pops,” Momma said. “Says he won’t go begging the neighbors for what we need, forbids any of us to do it. It killed him to take your money and now he’s saying we never should’ve done it.”
“How much do we need?” Liv asked.
“About two-hundred-and-fifty thousand. We thought about selling the cars, but most of the tractors are owned by the bank. We’re short about fifty thousand.”
If she had a few months, Liv could raise that. “Can’t we try to get more time?”
“We tried that. There’s a new guy at the bank. He won’t have it.”
Happy laughter erupted in the kitchen. The boys curled the spaghetti around their forks, their faces messy with sauce. Her heart ached at the familiar sight. Were happy nights like these in their orchard home only going to be memories soon?
Her phone buzzed. She pulled it from her purse, seeing an unknown Tennessee number. Who did she know from Tennessee? Oh no. Slade. That was Nashville. Why now? Instead of throwing the phone across the room, she charged across the house with it to the laundry room where no one could hear her. Taking a deep breath, she answered it. “This isn’t the time,” she whispered harshly.
“Liv?”
That wasn’t Slade. Her knees felt weak. There was one other person she knew from Tennessee. River Mackenzie. She recognized his sultry accent anywhere; its deep melody lived in her favorite songs. She was absolutely speechless at the assault on her senses.
“Hey, I know I’m the last person you’re expecting to hear from, but uh, my photographer just dropped out unexpectedly. Health problems. Anyway, I hope you’re okay with me getting your number from the cleanup committee. We have some photoshoots in the next few days that we absolutely need to get done, just a few publicity shots, kind of like what you did today.”
Was he really asking an amateur photographer to take over for some bigwig Nashville photographer? Normally, she’d laugh and refer him to someone else, but her mind started to grasp at the possibilities. A job like this might bring in some pretty big money. Maybe not as much as she needed, but he sounded desperate. Had Slade put him up to this? No, don’t think of him. She needed fifty thousand, but how could she ask for that kind of money? She tried to get around it. “How much?” she asked.
“How much do you want?”
He was making her say it. She swallowed before answering. “Thirty thousand.” She’d figure out where to get the last twenty later.
“Sixty,” he returned.
“Sixty thousand?” Her voice caught. People generally went down when bartering. Now she felt lightheaded for different reasons. Was this really going to work? Just like that? She hadn’t even had time to pray before her prayer was answered. Oh God—you’re watching out for me, but this seems like such a complicated way!
“Look,” River said. “That’s what we were going to pay the other guy. And you’d really be doing us a huge favor if you came out and did the job for us.”
So, West would be there? She bit her lip, almost afraid to know. “Who’s us?”
“I mean… me. Just me.” Yeah right. His voice took on a sugary tone. “You’d be doing me a favor. You in?”
So, River knew how awkward this would be. And she was absolutely too desperate to refuse. This was