Maggie laughed. “Looks like the best kind of trouble.”

Liv told them about the picnic and afterward, ending with their fight the morning before.

“Give him a chance. What have you got to lose?” Cassie sat back, one eyebrow raised.

“My heart.”

Maggie waved a hand around. “Olivia Jean, if you don’t think I can’t see you’ve already lost it, you’re out of your mind. We’ve been friends a very long time. We’ve been through a whole lot together and you’ve been there for me when things were so dark I wasn’t sure if I’d survive. Why don’t you let me be the one supporting you for a change, okay?

“I can see it on your face, can hear it in your voice. You have deep feelings for Marc. It’s way more than sex. You’re falling in love with him. Why resist?”

“Look what happened when I didn’t resist Matt.”

Cassie sighed. “I wasn’t here for that so I can’t say what it was like for you at the time but I’ve seen both of you since and Liv, while you have occasionally looked like you wanted to take a bite out of Matt, and who doesn’t, the boy has a set of abs that makes me all tingly every time he parades around shirtless in those damned cutoffs. You know, the ones that hang a bit low on his hips so his belly shows all the way down to…oh, well where was I?”

Maggie burst out laughing and Liv joined her.

“Oh yeah, so anyway, you haven’t been pining for Matt. You’ve been pining to belong to something bigger than yourself. And heaven knows I felt that way too. But Marc? The way you talk about him, the way he looks at you, touches you, Liv, you’re not alone in your feelings. He may be, have been, a huge flirt and skirt chaser, but he’s honest. I’ve never known him to be deliberately hurtful and I’ve never heard a single one of the women he’s dated say one negative thing about him. And you’re a goner already. You’re in love with Marc. It’s not like you can unlove him. Give the guy a chance already.”

“Oh for cripes’ sake! I just had sex with him one time. Okay, uh,” she paused, thinking, “five, no six times. But still, that doesn’t equal love. I have plans. I’m not going to give up on my plans for the future because I had some awesome sex. I have a date with Rancher Bill next week. I’m moving forward.”

Maggie just shook her head. “You’re a hard headed woman, Liv. Always have been. I hope you know Marc isn’t just going to let you run things.”

“I’ve noticed his tendency to be domineering, yes. But he doesn’t get to run me. I’ve given him my terms. He can accept them or not.”

* * *

Marc smiled as she tried to maintain her distance from him at dinner. His mother had placed the two of them side by side so she couldn’t avoid that. The whole family had just accepted her as his girlfriend no matter what she tried to say and she’d finally let it go in frustration.

“You know, if you gave her the illusion of cooperativeness with this so-called plan of hers, you’d probably sneak in past her defenses.” Edward took a sip of wine when Marc came back inside after he’d laid one hell of a good bye kiss on Liv at her car.

Marc loved the difference between his parents. Polly just spoke whenever a thought occurred to her, good or bad. But Edward didn’t waste words so when he said something, Marc always listened.

“Go on, Daddy,” Marc urged as he rocked back and forth in the old rocker near the fireplace. His brothers were sprawled through the room, all listening to their father.

“I see a lot of people in tense situations. A hazard of the job I suppose. But in the thirty-nine years I’ve been doing this, I’ve learned a lot about people when they’re feeling threatened or are emotionally exhausted. They fight anything and anyone that offers a real depth of feeling or experience. Because it’s frightening to give yourself to something bigger than you are. So they resist and resist and drive people away. Liv is the kind of woman who knows what she wants. In theory.”

“I think she knows, Daddy. And I want to give it to her. She wants a white picket fence and a couple of kids, marriage, a mortgage. I’ve never wanted any of that stuff and she makes me want it with her. What I don’t know is how to get her past her fears that I’m not real.”

“What I mean, Marc, is that wanting marriage and love and a family is one thing. But truly opening yourself up to those things is another. In order to really love someone, you have to make yourself very vulnerable. So she’s loved people who haven’t been capable of loving her back in the way she deserves. It’s sort of a self-defeating cycle but certainly not unique. It ensures her hurt, yes, but not the depth of hurt she’d suffer if she truly loved any of these men. And I don’t mean to be hurtful, Matthew, but you’re the same way. You seek these women who you know on some level aren’t right so you don’t have to risk truly loving anyone and getting your heart broken.

“If something is worth having, it’s worth losing. But that’s scary. You’re a brave man, Marc. You’re in love with her, aren’t you?” Edward stared at his son with perceptive eyes.

Marc sighed and nodded. “I realized it Friday night. I’ve always liked her, thought she was pretty and funny, smart, successful. All the things I admire in a woman. But I think the love thing has been growing as I got to know her better. I’m sorry, Matt, I hope this is okay with you.”