Page 3 of Forbidden Hearts
Once I’m sure she’s gone, I turn back to Liv. “I’m off today and the new nanny comes tomorrow, let’s make some trouble. Anyone we should invite?”
She grins.“Uncle Rowan!”
I laugh because, out of any of the Whitlock brothers, Rowan is definitely the most likely to cause trouble. “Get your sweatshirt. I’ll let him know.”
Olivia runs off, and I text my brother.
I’m heading to the creek if you want to come fish with Livvy.
Rowan
I have to finish up on the farm, but I’ll be done in about an hour. Not in the mood to see you, but since you mentioned Olivia, I’ll come.
Such a dick.
See you then.
As the oldest Whitlock, it was predetermined I would take over my grandparents’ farm, but they quickly realized that it was completely out of the realm of my capabilities. I hate the cows, and they hate me, so it was better for everyone that I was not in charge of anything livestock related. I gifted my brother the land and the bunk house on the back property for him to do what he wanted, and now he runs a dairy farm.
Rowan
Don’t forget to feed her before we go.
What the fuck is with everyone and feeding Olivia? I forgot one time and I’ll never live it down. Unreal.
Fuck off. She’s fed.
Olivia runs in with her sweatshirt, and I let her know our plan.“Uncle Rowan has to finish work, so we can go to the farm and annoy him before we go fishing, does that sound good?”
She squeals and, without hesitation, goes out back toward the barn where we keep all our fun toys—including the fishing gear. Liv is more like me than Sara would like. She loves the outdoors and doing pretty much anything adventurous.
Which makes her paranoid mother nuts.
I refuse to allow her inability to hear to hinder her life.
I meet her in the barn, laughing because it’s really not a barn. It’s more of a shack of toys. I have two ATVs and dirt bikes, which Sara does not know about. There’s also hunting and fishing gear, tents . . . you name it, and it’s here.
Olivia turns to me.“Can we take your dirt bike?”
“Not until your mother is in Israel and can’t kill me.”
She grins. I love that she’ll cover for me.
“I forgot something,”Livvy informs me and then rushes back into the house.
I watch her go through the big back door, smiling at how the house has turned out. I inherited my grandparents’ house upon my mother’s death. It’s small, but I love it. They raised six kids in this three-bedroom house, so it’s plenty big for me.
I did a bit of remodeling when my mother died.
Originally all three bedrooms were on the first level, and in order to give me, Rowan, and Brynlee more bathrooms, I gutted the attic. I put two bedrooms and a bath up there—one for Brynn and one for Rowan. Grady was never coming back, so I didn’t give much thought about him.
When Olivia was born, she was in the room next to mine, but about three years ago, Brynn suggested putting her upstairs with her. I wasn’t sure, but she and Brynn are thick as thieves, so I went with it. My annoying sister moved out a year later, and I converted her room into a play area. When Liv is here, I usually crash on the couch in there.
Downstairs, I just extended the house a bit to make the master bigger and then converted the other bedroom to be a suite in case I had . . . company. That way, my daughter never sees a girl coming out of my bedroom.
However, it’s been a long fucking time since I’ve needed to worry about that.
The house phone is ringing, and it’s incredibly loud because Liv can sometimes hear that noise, so I rush in to grab it because not many people call me on that line.
