the driveway to know Mack and his mom had arrived the next day. Ava and Amelia announced it like they’d been waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve.
“Uncle Mack is here!”
Liv sent them outside to greet him in the driveway. Rosie dried her hands on a dish towel. “I hope his mom likes fried chicken.”
“Everyone likes your fried chicken,” Liv said.
“I’m just nervous for some reason,” Rosie admitted with a little laugh. “It’s not every day that you meet the parents for the first time.”
Liv’s heart did a weird thud-thud thing. “I’m not meeting the parents.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Rosie said.
The back door opened, and Mack walked in with a twin bent over each shoulder. “I caught some stray cats,” he said, catching Liv’s eye.
The girls laughed. “We’re not cats, Uncle Mack!” Ava laughed.
“What are you, then?”
“We’re girls!” Amelia said.
Mack set them down but let them wrap around each of his legs. Behind him, the woman Liv recognized from the picture in his office walked in.
Rosie rushed forward. “You must be Erin.”
“It’s such a pleasure to meet you,” Erin said, taking Rosie’s hand. “Your farm is so beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Rosie backed up and looked at Liv. “And this is Liv.”
Liv offered her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
The level of awkward in the introduction rivaled the waiting room at a sperm bank. Mack was too busy entertaining the girls to notice. Hop, who’d been sitting in the living room as if afraid to wrinkle his shirt, walked through to do the introduction thing too.
“It’s a pleasure,” Erin said.
“Dinner is almost ready,” Rosie said. “Would you like something to drink? Or maybe Liv and Mack can give you a small tour of the farm?”
Rosie wasn’t even trying to hide her matchmaking. Liv met Mack’s gaze, and he smiled. Not his normal kind of lady-killer smile, but a softer smile. It did weird things to her insides. “Let’s go see the goats,” she blurted.
The girls took off for the door, promising to teach Erin how to feed them. Outside, Erin laughed and tried to keep up. “They’re delightful,” she said. “You must love being able to spend so much time with them.”
“I do,” Liv said, relieved to be on safe conversational ground, which still didn’t do much to calm her racing heart. Mack’s presence was taking up more space than normal, and he’d barely spoken a word. “I try to see them as often as I can.”
“Your parents don’t live around here, is that right?”
“No,” Liv said quickly. “They, um, my dad lives in Atlanta with his fourth wife, and my mom is currently living in the Virgin Islands. She moves around a lot.”
A brush of fingers against her back made the breath lodge in her lungs. She wasn’t sure if it was intentional, but either way, it made her insides turn to jelly.
“I miss my grandkids,” Erin said wistfully. “My other son, Liam, he has two children, but they moved to California.”
Liv nodded. “I’ve seen a picture.”
“It was the right thing for their family,” Erin said with a shrug, “but I miss those kids.”
“I’m sure you can play grandma as much as you want with Ava and Amelia when you move here,” Mack said.
Liv looked up quickly and then away.
Ava and Amelia called for them to hurry up. The girls had taken the top off the feed can for the goats and now cradled large handfuls of the pellets.
“We can show you how,” Ava said to Erin.
Liv and Mack hung back while Erin let the girls fill her hands with treats and they taught her how to hold still for the goats. They stared silently at each other for a moment, like two awkward middle schoolers who didn’t know how to ask each other to dance.
Mack is true-blue. I’m telling you. I think you should give it a chance.
“She’s a good grandma,” Liv said suddenly to cover her own thoughts.
“The best.” The warmth in Mack’s voice made her heart do the thud-thud again. He smoothed a hand over his hair. “The sooner I can get her here, the better. She’s got no one in Des Moines.”
A question that had plagued her since the first time he came to the farm finally got the better of her. “How old were you . . . when your dad died?”
Erin looked up and back at the question.
“I’m sorry,” Liv whispered. “I shouldn’t have asked that.”
Erin returned to the goats, and Mack looked down at her. “He’s been gone since I was fourteen.”