Only Her

Luka had to get away for a while or he was just going to make things worse. He went to his mother’s ranch where he found her working in the yard. He parked in the gravel drive and climbed out of the truck.

“What are you doing here? I thought you and Skylar had an appointment this morning?”

“We did. We’re done.”

She wiped her brow with the sleeve of her shirt. “What happened?”

He took the hoe in her hand and started doing what she had been doing. His muscles rippled across his back. She watched him for a few minutes. Then she laid her hand on his arm. He glanced at her. “Just the top layer son. I don’t want to dig all the way to Hell.”

He shook his head at his mother’s sarcasm and sent her a little glance before making his touch lighter on the soil in her small garden at the side of the house.

“What’s wrong?”

He talked and hoed while she watched him work out his frustration. With Luka that is what Luna had always had to do. She had to listen to him expel his frustrations.

“Luka, sweetheart. You weren’t here. You have to understand everything that Skylar went through when you left her.”

Sweat glistened on his arms. His shirt was beginning to show his effort too in wet stains across his chest. “So tell me,” he said leaning on the hoe.

“You know the Bradford’s,” Luna told him. “Imagine for just a moment how hard it was for Skylar to tell them she was pregnant after you had left her.” He glanced down at the ground, knowing that she had taken the brunt of their mistake although he couldn’t imagine Ava ever being a mistake.

“They were rough on her to say the least. The word bastard was thrown around a few times by Nancy in regards to Ava. That broke Skylar’s heart. She loved that child from the first moment she knew about her. You know how harsh Nancy was with the girls.”

Luna could see the flare of disgust in her son’s eyes. “That baby was the light of her life after

you left her. That insult about tore Sky’s heart out. Then they died leaving the brunt of responsibility on Skylar for getting her siblings through school.” Luna shook her head. “That light that always followed her Luka was gone. She was different. Don’t you see it even now that you’re back? How different Skylar is? She’s softer and quieter.

“Skylar had to quit being a kid and become an adult overnight. She did a damn good job too.”

He was staring into the distance thinking about what his mother was telling him. “You’ve been back a few days. You can’t make up for ten years in a few days Luka. You need to be patient with Skylar.”

“She told me never,” he replied.

Luna sighed. “Maybe it never will be Luka.” His head shot up to look at his mother. He was letting her know without saying anything that he could not accept that. Her son was stubborn. “I hope not son but you have to give Skylar time.”

“I’ll work on my patience.”

He helped his mother finish her flower beds and gardens. He worked out his frustrations on the soil. Something he had always liked to do.

Then he headed home. Back to Skylar and Ava. As he drove down the lane he saw Ava leading one of the horses around the pasture by a lead. She wouldn’t ride one but she seemed to like them. He needed to help her overcome her fears like he needed to with her mother about him.

He parked in the drive and got out. His muscles were tight from working so hard in the yard with his mother. That type of exercise was different than what he did in a gym. He held onto the railing and pulled himself up the steps. Skylar was sitting on the porch swing.

“Are you all right?” She asked.

“Stiff,” he replied.

“What did you do all afternoon?” She asked.

“Helped my mother,” he told her.

She laughed. “You were,” she said. She knew that he was working on his frustrations to keep from arguing with Skylar more.

“Scoot over,” he told her. She was sitting in the middle. Skylar scowled at his bossiness but she moved out the middle to give him room.

He leaned elbows on knees and cracked his neck. “That bad?” She asked.

He glanced over his shoulder. “That bad,” he replied.