Only Her

“Amber deserved that,” Luka told her.

“Luka, I have raised Ava to react with her words not her fists.”

“Yet you taught her how to defend herself,” he replied.

“I’m not totally stupid. She’s tiny…most likely she will always be small. She needs to know how to defend herself because her Daddy and her uncles aren’t always going to be there when she needs them.”

He stopped walking. Skylar looked back at him. “What?”

“Boys,” he said.

“What about boys?” Skylar’s nose was wrinkled in confusion as she looked at Luka. He swallowed hard.

“Someday there will be a nineteen-year-old boy who will have my baby girl lying naked in the back of his truck in an open field while he takes advantage of her innocence.”

Skylar laughed out loud. “Is that what you did to me?” She teased him. Luka growled at her.

“Come on Daddy. You have a while before that happens. I’m hungry.”

“Six years Sky. She’s only six years younger than when you did that with me.”

Skylar walked back to him and took his hand in hers. “Maybe she will be smarter than I was.”

“God I hope so.” Skylar glared at him over her shoulder. She should have been insulted but she let it slide as she practically dragged him to the picnic table.

“What’s wrong?” Luna asked glancing up as she finished laying food out, when Luka sat on one of the benches with a heavy thud. Skylar looked over where Ava was looking at wildflowers on the edge of the woods with Ramona, Brett was close behind them.

“He just realized his daughter is only six years younger than me when I got pregnant with her,” she explained pointing at their daughter.

Luna glanced over her shoulder at her young granddaughter. “Scary thought isn’t it Luka that some young boy could take advantage of your daughter and hurt her the way you hurt Sky?”

“Thanks Mom.”

His mother chuckled. She walked around the table and kissed her oldest son on the head. “Have I told you how glad I am you are home?”

“No, you haven’t.” He rolled his eyes at his mother.

“I am. Your daughter is thrilled she finally has her father in her life. There are no more secrets. Believe it or not it was hard on your brothers and I to keep this from you. That is why we were so vague when you asked about Sky.”

“I figured that one out already. I’m not totally dense.”

Sky sat down next to Luka. He glanced over at her. “She knows where you slept last night,” she whispered quietly so Luna wouldn’t hear. She had moved down to the end of the table to tell Stellan he was doing something wrong with her potato salad.

“My mother?”

“No your daughter.”

“What did she say about it?” Luka leaned over on his knees. He was staring into the distance waiting for Skylar to respond.

“She was questioning me about how we felt about each other or rather how I felt about yo

u. She seems to already know how you feel about me.” He shot her a glance out of the corner of his eye.

“I told her she needed to let us figure things out. She had nothing to worry about. You would always be there for her.”

He nodded. “I will Skylar. I didn’t know that I could love somebody so much, so quickly.”

“It’s an amazing thing,” Skylar agreed.