Page 34 of Chase Our Forever

My eyes immediately find Liv’s. She stares down at the pizza, avoiding eye contact with me as she carefully places slices of pepperoni on the pizza. “Yeah, that’s right,” I get out, wondering why the fact that she called my mom to ask means something to me. When I’d asked her to prepare meals during the week, I’d meant more that she can make something that Clara will like, and I’ll just eat it as well. I hadn’t expected her to go out of her way to make my favorite as well.

But she had. I want to thank her, but I keep my gratitude to myself, unsure if I want her to know how much it means to me that she did that.

“How was your day?” Liv asks.

I sigh, thinking of how busy today was. It felt like I was putting out one fire after another, but this time of year is always busy. People decide right before ski season that they want to buy properties here in Sutten. We also help manage a lot of the rental properties here in town, and today I was dealing with a lotof that. “My day is much better now,” I finally get out, meaning every word.

Liv smiles at me, and fuck, why do I like it when she smiles at me like that? Why does it make me want to smile back? Why am I wanting to say more to get my daughter’s nanny to smile at me? It isn’t professional—it’s far from it. Maybe I can just blame the long day for my lapse in professionalism.

She nods, letting me get away with the confession that my day is far better now that I’m back home with Clara—and her. “I wasn’t sure exactly what time you’d be home, so I wanted to make your pizza last. It’ll go into the oven now, so it stays warm, but there are other pizzas if you’re hungry now, plus a salad and some snacks.”

“I want my cheese pizza!” Clara declares, stepping off her step stool and running toward the set table.

“Let’s wash your hands first,” Liv offers, sliding the pizza into the oven. She wipes her hands on an old pair of jeans that have so many holes in them they might as well be shorts.

Clara surprisingly listens to her. She turns around and heads to the sink as Liv assists her in washing her hands.

“Wow,” I remark, sliding off the barstool. “It seems whenIask you to wash your hands, you have nothing but protests.”

“What’s protest mean?” Clara asks as Liv helps rub soap all over her hands.

“It means when I ask you to wash your hands, you tell me you can’t do it, but when Liv asks you, you listen right away. What’s up with that?”

Clara shrugs, a wide smile on her face as she looks at Liv. “Livvy ask nicer.”

This makes Liv let out a snort of a laugh.

A low growl comes from me as I raise my eyebrows. “I ask nicely, too.”

Clara finishes washing her hands before wiping them off on a towel. “Sure, Daddy.” She laughs at me and shakes her head as if my comment is the most ridiculous thing ever. “You’re the best, Daddy. But you are a little grumpy.” She holds up her thumb and index finger to really hit home with her words before she skips over to the dinner table.

“She’s so sassy,” Liv comments as she fills up a pitcher with water.

I let out an amused sigh. “Yeah, she got that from her mother.”

Liv stops, her eyes trained on me as a soft smile passes on her lips. I realize this might be the first time I’ve openly talked about Selena with her. It felt good to be able to share the small nuances of my daughter that she got from her beautiful mother. I make a mental note to do it more.

We just stare at each other for a moment. It’s one of those moments that feels both heavy and light all at once. Light, because even though today was only her first official day, having Liv here feels like she’s this light at the end of the tunnel for both Clara and me. That maybe with Liv’s help, we’ll finally find the consistency and routine we’ve been looking for.

It also feels heavy, because despite knowing I absolutely shouldn’t, I’m fond of Liv. Not because she’s Clara’s nanny…but because she’s just Liv. And I know if she stays around long enough—which I really hope she does—that she has the potential to mean a lot to me.

More than she should.

And that realization is absolutely terrifying.

21

LIV

“Pumpkins!”Clara yells excitedly as she jumps out of Dean’s truck the moment he unbuckles her from her car seat.

She takes off ahead of us, running toward the large entrance to the pumpkin festival.

“Wait!” Dean calls, his eyes pinned on his daughter. “Clara, you have to stay with me and Liv, okay?” he tells her as he catches up with her and grabs her hand.

Clara bounces on her feet, clearly unamused with the pace at which Dean and I walk into Sutten Mountain’s famous pumpkin festival. “I want to climb the giant pumpkin,” Clara whines, holding her hand out for me to take.

I gladly take it as the three of us join the group of people walking toward the front entrance. Clara’s quickly become my tiny best friend over the last week, so it was a no-brainer when Dean mentioned he and Clara were going to visit the festival this afternoon and invited me to come along.

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