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“I do but I wanted to hear it from your goddamn, treacherous mouth.”
She gasped. Skylar whirled around to face Luka. “You bastard. You left me and I’m the treacherous one?” She poked him in the chest. “How dare you?”
His hands were now gripped tight at his lean hips. She knew him. He was trying to control his temper. The one thing about Luka Shaw, Skylar knew better than anyone else was that he had a hellacious temper.
Luna Shaw always prevented him from going after his father when he hurt one of his younger brothers or her. Luka had gotten too big for him to beat on anymore so he went after the others when he was drunk and looking for a fight. With nothing to take out his frustration on Luka would smash things in the barn. Break old glass jars that he then had to clean up so the horses didn’t get hurt on the broken glass.
Usually she was there to pick up the pieces when he had wanted to kill his father but she had seen his notorious temper. She just waited for it to cool down then she soothed him with her loving. That wasn’t going to happen this time.
Not that he had ever hurt her. Not that he ever would. She knew that without knowing him for the last ten years. He hadn’t changed that much; she was sure of it. He wasn’t going to hurt her but he was pissed right now and probably rightfully so. She had kept Ava from him. “My mother and my brothers knew how to reach me,” he told her.
Her eyes teared as she gazed up at Luka. Somebody she thought she would never see again. At least she had convinced herself of that notion, probably for self-preservation because the thought of seeing Luka again was too painful, yet here he was. Skylar was still standing for now. She didn’t know what would happen when he left her driveway.
“You didn’t want me anymore Luka. You stole out of Haley Cove in the night like a thief. You couldn’t even say goodbye to me?” It was a painful question that she didn’t really expect an answer to. “Why would I think you would want to be saddled with me and a kid?”
“Because she’s mine,” he shouted in her face unable to control the level of his tone of voice.
A tear rolled down her cheek. That was the last straw. Her fragile emotions that had been fraying piece by piece since she saw him climb out of that truck like he didn’t have a care in the world exploded in Skylar in a barrage of tears. He looked at her without regret. Her tears were not going to move him; not one little bit. She had withheld something from him that was too precious for words. His child.
“There was a time when I was yours too. We both know how well that worked out.” She started to walk away as she wiped her hand across her cheek. He grabbed her arm and hauled Skylar back to his side.
“This isn’t over.”
Skylar pulled her arm out of his tight grip. She rubbed her arm where his fingers hand been biting into her skin. “It is over Luka. It’s been over for ten years. Ava doesn’t need you.”
“Bullshit,” he barked at Skylar. “Did you know the night I left?” He asked.
Her eyes shot up to his face. She had known that she was pregnant with Ava that night. Skylar had been trying to find a way of telling him. Inside, she cringed knowing that he was going to be even more pissed off when she answered that question.
She had loved this man so much at one time. Her eyes searched his face. Luka Shaw, her first love. Her only love. No one over the years had been able to compare to him or maybe she just kept her heart so tightly wrapped under lock and key afraid of getting it broken again.
She had Ava too. Her daughter was her number one priority. There were times when she wondered if she even needed a man. Skylar’s heart had shattered when she discovered that he was gone without a word to her. She didn’t know if it was even mended ten years later. “I knew,” she whispered.
“Why the fuck did you not tell me? I wouldn’t have left you.” He ran his fingers through his hair and Skylar watched it fall perfectly into place.
She chuckled a sad sound not even close to a happy one. “I was trying to find a way to tell you Luka. Then you disappeared on me. Honestly, knowing what I know now I’m glad I hadn’t told you yet.”
His features had taken on a harshness that should have scared Skylar but she knew him. No matter how angry he got at her, standing over her, furious as hell he wouldn’t raise a hand to her. “And why is that?” He sneered.
“I would have always felt like I trapped you Luka,” she told him. “Now get the hell off my property.” She started towards the house. She just had to get away from Luka Shaw before she collapsed in the stones of the drive at his feet and sobbed. His presence created that much raw emotion in her.
“I’m getting a lawyer Skylar,” he informed her with an iciness to his tone that rattled her. She hesitated for the briefest of seconds. Then she didn’t bother responding. It just wasn’t worth it. She went inside the house letting the screen door slam shut behind her. Let him get a lawyer then, Skylar decided. She had always known this was a possibility someday. That day was now here.
Chapter 2
Luka climbed behind the wheel of his truck. There were some family members at home who had some explaining to do. They had to have known about his daughter. He was more furious at them than at Skylar.
He started up the truck. His hands were trembling. He sat back against the seat and took a deep breath to calm the turmoil in his gut. He had a daughter. Then he saw her out of the corner of his eye. She looked over her shoulder inside the house; she had obviously snuck outside. He watched Ava run down the steps to the drive; her dark hair flying behind her in thick waves just like her mother’s hair. That much she had gotten from Skylar.
He turned off the truck when Ava stopped at driver’s side door. Luka just looked at her through the window; drinking in the sight of her. His daughter. Ava pecked on the window with her finger so he opened the door. She stepped back so he could climb out.
Luka found that his hands were trembling. His palms were sweating. She was his. A part of him. Something he and Sky had created out of love. Damn he had missed ten years of her life. He felt tears sting his eyes and he blinked. He couldn’t cry in front of his daughter. “I wanted to talk to you,” she told him.
They both looked at the house. Then at each other. “Come to the back. We can sit on the gate of my truck.”
She nodded eagerly. Ava was wearing blue jean shorts with a pink tank top and no shoes on her feet. Something else her mother used to do all the time. He smiled while watching her skip to the back of his truck. She was energetic like her mother too apparently. Luka followed his daughter to the back of the truck.
He put the tailgate down and Luka turned to Ava. “Lift me up,” she told him. She was short like Skylar; too short to get up there on her own.
