Her social media gave nothing away. A picture here or there with her family or of the ranch, some with her ex-husband. I hated those the most. Not that I had a right to. I couldn’t fault her for moving on with her life when I’d done the same. Especially when my relationship with Liv was all over the place.
Even though what we had was different, even if Liv hadn’t signed me to her company’s label, I would’ve married her anyway if she’d asked. I was pissed off at the world and on a road to nowhere good. Mom had just been diagnosed with cancer, I was in debt up to my fucking eyeballs, and Cleo had moved on with another man.
“Daddy!” I turned around as Charlie burst into the summer evening with my phone in her hand. “Mommy wants to talk to you before you tuck me in.”
I gave her a smile. “Alright, sunshine. Go brush your teeth for me? I’ll be there in just a second.”
“Okay!” she said, running full speed back into the house. The screen door slammed, sending the nearby birds scattering from their perch.
“You know that girl is gonna spend the next five minutes making funny faces in the mirror, right?” Olivia laughed. “I doubt she’ll even remember to wet the brush.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make her do it again when we go inside.” I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. “What’s up?”
“Just wanted to check in with you. How’s everything going?”
I chuckled and took a sip of beer. “That’s a loaded question.”
“Is it?”
“Yup.”
Olivia propped her elbows on the table at her hotel. She was in L.A. for the entire month, attending meetings during the day and galas in the evening. Out of all the things I would miss about ourrelationship, the constant publicity was not one of them. I had to deal with it on my own, but dealing with it together was something entirely different. Liv was a media darling, and having to be “on” all the time was exhausting. There was never a moment in time when we weren’t under public scrutiny. “Why’s that?”
“Well, Charlie is doing great, obviously. She’s settling in nicely here and is loving camp. The other evening, she told me she preferred their cooking over mine, so that was fun.”
The past two days, I’d picked Charlie up, and she had a bag of cookies clutched in her hand. Most of them were crumbled by the time we got home, but she was right. They’d tasted way better than anything Liv or I had ever made.
Today, I noticed a few more cookies than I had yesterday, which made me smile like a goddamn idiot. It was foolish to think she’d done that for me. We still hadn’t spoken, but I swore I noticed her gaze lingering longer than before. Noticed the way she didn’t run and hide when I came up to sign Charlie out for the day.
Liv tried to hide her smile behind her hand. “Oh yeah, I’ve heard all about it. Sounds like you’ve got some real competition.”
“Apparently so.”
“And what about the other thing?”
I took another swig of my beer and shrugged before meeting my soon-to-be ex-wife’s gaze. “As to be expected. I think I’d have better luck fist-fighting a bear than getting her to look my way, let alone have a conversation.”
“Should I send you the address for the nearest zoo? Maybe that’d win her over?”
“Ha, ha. Very funny,” I deadpanned. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
She leaned back in her chair. “Honestly? I don’t know either. Probably be off fighting bears or some shit.”
“Weren’t you the one ready to push me into the exhibitthirty seconds ago? Did you want to try and settle the whole man versus bear debate once and for all?”
Liv waved me off. “Sounds like a threat from your other ex-wife.”
I grinned. “You’re the one and only.”
“And don’t you forget it.”
“Daddy, I’m done!” Charlie skipped out, smiling widely and pointing at her mouth. “See? All clean!”
Liv and I shared a knowing look. “Breath check?” I asked, quirking a brow. When Charlie clamped her lips shut instead of answering, I had my answer. “Nice try. Get your butt back in there. Let’s go.”
I stood up, tossing the empty beer bottle in the trash as we made our way back into the house. This time, we both watched Charlie begrudgingly brush her teeth before hopping into bed and demanding a story. I set Liv up on the charging stand next to her bed, and we took turns reading her favorites. It wasn’t long before Charlie was fighting sleep.
“Alright, sleepyhead,” Liv said softly, closing the book in front of her. “It’s time to get some shut-eye.”
