Only Her

He had given it to her after their third date. He smiled at the memory. So many things overwhelming him at the moment. So much heartbreak that he had caused by leaving her. “Is it big and silver with a blue stone in the center?”

“Sounds like it,” Luka replied nodding his head.

“She had a bunch of cards from you too. A few letters. I didn’t read them.”

“Probably a good thing Ava.” He remembered some of the intimate things he had written in those cards and letters. Not for his daughter’s eyes to read for sure.

“Where have you been?” she asked just a little too quietly. He had inadvertently hurt her too.

His head shot around to gaze at the young child. His child. He moved his hands from between his knees and cupped her face with his big hands. Luka tilted her chin up to his face. “I didn’t know about you, baby girl,” he told her. “I would have been here if somebody had told me.”

Suddenly Ava was wrapped around him, her thin, little arms laced around his neck. “Will you stay now that you know? I always wanted you to come home.” She sounded so desperate it broke his heart.

“I will,” he promised. He patted Ava’s back comforting her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Good.” She slipped out of his arms. Luka wiped the tears from Ava’s face. They both heard a throat clearing behind them. Then Luka looked over Ava at Skylar who didn’t look pleased.

“Momma, I asked Daddy if I could talk to him. It isn’t his fault.”

“You told her,” Skylar snapped.

He was throwing Brett under the bus. After all, he had hidden something so precious from him. “I didn’t.” His voice was soft and controlled. “Brett told her. She recognized me from pictures under your bed.”

Skylar’s face turned crimson. He knew her. She was thinking I should have thrown that shit out a long time ago but he would bet that if he went to her room right now or six months from now, that same box would be tucked under her bed and a year from now it would still be there filled with the same pictures and trinkets that were in it now. Those were memories that Skylar would never be able to throw away.

Luka secured Ava in his arms and hopped down to the ground. He closed the gate on his truck. Then he walked around to the side where Skylar was standing.

Ava clung to him like a little monkey. He started to sit her down on the ground and she hung onto him. Luka hesitated with her in his arms. Both of them looking into each other’s faces.

“Remember your promise Daddy,” she told him.

“I will.” She pressed her soft lips to his cheek. Then she squeezed him hard. Only then would she let Luka put her on the ground at Skylar’s feet.

“I have to go now.” He had to go or he would break down and cry right here in front of her and Skylar.

“Bye Daddy,” Ava told him.

Skylar said nothing. This time when he climbed behind the wheel and started the truck he drove around the circular drive and down the long lane to the road in front of the ranch.

He watched his daughter in the rearview mirror standing by her mother. Skylar Bradshaw had given birth to his child and no one saw fit to inform him of this good news? He gripped the steering wheel hard. Somebody better have some damn good explanations for him.

**

“Baby, I need to run inside for a minute,” Skylar told Ava. “Could you lead Majestic to his stall for me? I’ll come unsaddle him when I’m done in the house.”

“Sure Momma.”

Skylar practically ran into the house. She went to the kitchen and grabbed the phone off the wall. Her hand trembled so hard she could barely dial the number. Tapping her foot against the tile floor, she waited for somebody to answer. Luna answered on the third ring.

“Luna, Luka was here,” Skylar told her.

“What?” Luka’s mother sounded breathless. She must have hurried to the phone.

“I think he’s on his way to your house. He’s angry.”

“Oh no. He saw Ava.”

“He did. Did you know he was coming home?” Skylar asked.