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Chapter 1
There are times in a man’s life when he has to pull up roots and get the hell out of town for his own sanity. If only to grow the hell up. Luka Shaw did just that.
In the middle of the night, at nineteen years of age he left Haley Cove, Ohio for parts unknown. He spent the evening at his girlfriend, Skylar’s house. She walked him to the door as she always did. At the last minute he turned and looked at her feeling regret at what he was about to do to her.
Through the screen, he gazed at Skylar and for a split second Luka questioned his decision to not just leave Haley Cove but Skylar as well. He had never been anywhere. Had never seen anything outside Haley Cove but goddamn, he loved this girl.
Then he forced himself to walk away without looking back. He climbed inside his truck and started it up. He wanted to look at her one more time but if he did he was certain that wouldn’t leave Skylar behind.
All over the United States, Luka traveled in a beat up Ford pick-up truck that once belonged to his Daddy. The old man had just died of a heart attack a few weeks prior. Luka wasn’t proud of the fact that he left his mother and four brothers alone to fend for themselves but it had to be done. His mother had wished him well when she told him goodbye.
Luka knew as did his mother that he would have suffocated in Haley Cove. He had to find his way in life and it had to be away from this small-ass, nowhere town and Luka did find his way. Floundering for a while until he found a place that wasn’t like Haley Cove; Luca found a way of life that made him more money than he knew what to do with. He retired at the ripe old age of thirty before his career got him killed.
Discovering the world of MMA fighting or being discovered; he was damn good in the cage. All that pent up anger from living with an abusive father had fueled his rage in the cage. He was glad the old man had died when he did. The sorry bastard. There were times that Luka would have killed him had his mother not stopped him.
He had taken a ten-year sabbatical from Haley Cove and he was back home where his mother still lived. His four younger brothers were here too and Skylar Bradford.
Skylar was everything he had left behind. He thought she would be better off without him at that time in his life when he had a nowhere job. No way of becoming more. He had graduated high school with no college education. No jobs within a reasonable distance except farming. He hadn’t wanted to be a farmer like his father.
When Luka called home to speak to his mother or brothers, he always asked about Skylar. He received the same nondescript, damn answer. No one would give him too many particular details about her. What she was doing. How she was. If she was seeing anyone.
Skylar’s fine.
No, she isn’t married. Too busy running the ranch.
That sure didn’t answer the question about whether or not she was seeing anyone though. Skylar Bradford was his. He would make damn sure of it when he was settled in Haley Cove again.
Her parents had died within a year of him leaving home. His mother had called to tell him about their accident. He almost went home for the funeral. Luka had known Skylar had to be afraid. She was suddenly responsible for her younger siblings even though an elderly aunt came to stay with them. She was just eighteen then.
He wasn’t ready to go home to Skylar yet. He hadn’t made his fortune, so he had waited. Luka knew that Brett would take care of Skylar. Brett, his younger brother. He and Skylar were always close.
In his mind, Luka tried to picture a twenty-seven-year-old Skylar Bradford. At halfway to seventeen when he left she was a stunning beauty. Her raven hair hung nearly to her waist in soft chocolate brown waves. He had tangled his hands in its softness on more than one occasion lying in the back of his truck in an open field behind her daddy’s house. So many nights, beneath the hazy, moonlight, on a warm summer night usually naked, they hid out by the pond where no one would catch them making love.
Skylar had soft skin with freckles across her pert nose. Her full, pink lips were tempting. Too tempting. Her big, brown eyes like milk chocolate. He had taken her virginity when she was just sixteen years old. He thought he had found heaven in Skylar Bradford. He loved her then, he loved her now.
His thoughts were running rampant in his head as he thought about Skylar. Everything about her that made him crazy for her. Damn, he had wanted to take her with him but there just wasn’t a way. She was underage. Secondly, he had no way to support her.
The decision was made for them both by fate, by him when he had walked away that night and left her standing at the front door of her parent’s home. No woman had ever left their mark on Luka Shaw like Skylar Bradford. Ten years later, he sat in front of her ranch on the two-lane road, trying to decide if he should stop in and see her or just go on home to see his mother. Any normal person would have driven on home knowing she wouldn’t want to see him but he wasn’t normal.
Luka was an arrogant man who wouldn’t take no for an answer. He came home for one reason only. Skylar. Just a glimpse of her would satisfy his curiosity for now. He had to see her. Was she still as beautiful as she had been? Still the soft, sweet Skylar with a gentle heart. Kind of shy but then they were still young lovers filled with passion that scorched them both in the back of his pickup truck on so damn many nights. He hadn’t forgotten them at all. He dreamt of her. Holding her. Kissing her. Making love to her again.
He put the expensive truck, no more beaters for him, into gear and drove down the long driveway towards the house. A two story, white, vinyl sided farmhouse with black shutters. An old screen door that he remembered well. Luka hadn’t forgotten a damn thing about the house or about her.
The haunting memory of Skylar looking through it at him the last time he had seen her was always fresh in his mind. Her big, brown eyes that always appeared golden in the noon day sun were staring at him as if he were her hero.
He was nobody’s hero. Especially not hers. He knew that he had hurt her. She had loved him and he had left her. He parked in the circular drive and sat there for a minute. The air conditioning blowing in his face, cooling him. Cal
ming his nerves at seeing her for the first time in ten years.
He looked in the field and saw her riding a horse. A large, black stallion. Reining the stallion in with the expertise he had only heard about, Skylar guided the horse towards the gate; coming to see who was sitting in her driveway in the big, fucking Escalade. It made a statement that is why he had bought it. He was no longer Jacob Shaw’s kid from the wrong side of the tracks. He was Luka Shaw, heavyweight champ of the MMA fighting world. People knew him and they respected him.
A child walked out onto the porch catching his attention. A dark haired girl with wavy hair like Skylar’s. Luka lowered his aviator sunglasses to the end of his nose. He cocked his head to the side and gazed at the kid. The girl seemed familiar to him but he didn’t know why. He couldn’t see much of her from this distance.
Then Skylar walking out of the gate distracted him from the child on the porch. He noticed that she had tied her horse to the fence post. Making her way around his truck Skylar waited expectantly for him to get out but he had to sit there for a moment.
She hadn’t recognized him yet or she probably would have kicked the truck by now. Skylar took his breath away. She was wearing sunglasses herself so he couldn’t see her eyes but she hadn’t changed a bit. A little fuller figure but damn she was still a stunning woman and he just wanted to drink in the sight of her after so many years when all he had before was his dreams. His memories to tide him over.
She was getting impatient. He could tell so Luka took a deep breath. He had faced fierce competitors in the cage and wasn’t this scared. Skylar was all of five foot two if she stretched. She couldn’t weigh much more than she did in high school, he thought as he took in every inch of her. Her slender shoulders and arms were bare in the white tank top she was wearing. Her skin just lightly tanned.
Her hip hugging jeans were snug across her ample bottom. She had on white sneakers. He laughed. Who did ranch work in white sneakers? Skylar did. He opened the door and let his boots hit the gravel driveway. “Skylar,” he greeted her.
Her hands went to her hips. Skylar cocked her head to the side and then she was shaking it. “Son-of-a-bitch,” she said under her breath but not quite softly enough. Luka heard her and chuckled, a low husky sound of appreciation.
“Now is that any way to greet me, sweetheart?” He had decided to be smooth and charming. He wanted to win her over right off the bat. He knew Skylar. If he knew Skylar, she wouldn’t fall for it. Not one bit.
She took her aviators off and sat them on her head. Her braid fell over her shoulder and she smirked at him. “You have some nerve coming around here, Luka Shaw.”
He nodded. He did but he couldn’t help himself. She was an addiction he had never forgotten. An itch he needed to scratch. A love he had always remembered. Every bone in his body ached for Skylar Bradford. He wanted to yank her into his arms and kiss her madly.
Luka didn’t blame her for being pissed off at him but he had to see those eyes of hers and he was rewarded. Big, brown and innocent. Her hair still long but hidden in a tight braid that he wanted to undo and tangle his hands in while he pulled her lips to his. Damn, she was exactly the same. So beautiful she took his breath away.
“Momma,” the little girl on the porch called to her.
Momma?
Luka’s stomach dropped to his feet. His gaze traveled to the front porch. Now that was something he had not expected. Something, he had not been told. He looked between the child and Skylar several times wanting to see a resemblance but couldn’t find one.
“In the house Ava,” Skylar said without taking her eyes off him.
The child hesitated. She was looking at him. “Who is he Momma?” She called to Skylar.
“No one,” Skylar responded in a hurt filled tone.
One of his thick, black eyebrows shot up at her response. At one time he had been somebody. At one time they laid in the back of his beat up Ford and talked about their future. Together. A big ole house, with a white picket fence surrounding it. In town, not out in the country where they had both grown up.
Both of their fathers had owned ranches and they wanted more than the hard work of farm life for their futures. Two or three babies. He had wanted little girls who looked like Skylar. She had wanted two little boys and a girl. One girl, her brothers would look after. They were idealistic. He had ended that dream by skipping town and leaving her behind without even saying goodbye.
