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“You two.” He looked between them. “It’s still the same. You put everyone else you are in a relationship with after each other then you wonder why the relationships don’t work out.”
“Now wait a minute. Are you trying to say that is why we broke up?” Skylar asked.
“It definitely made me feel better leaving you knowing my brother would be there to pick up the pieces. Brett to the rescue,”
he said sarcastically.
She clenched her fists at her side. “You are a bastard. Do you know that Luka Shaw? You are truly a bastard.”
Skylar headed to the barn. Brett glanced up at Luka then he shook his head sadly. “If I were you and I wanted her back I’d stop being an ass,” Brett informed Luka. “You need to do a little groveling bro. You damn near killed her when you left and now you stand there and try to make yourself feel better by pushing some of your guilt off on our relationship and how it affects those that we are with?” Brett was shaking his head at Luka.
“You know that Sky and I have always been friends. I have never had that type of relationship with her. No kissing. No sexual desires. She’s like my sister, man. You know that.”
“Brett, it is easy for you two to say that but for those of us on the other side of the fence sometimes it just plain sucks feeling like the odd man or woman out when you two only appear to need each other.”
Luka started to walk away from his brother. He was tired of arguing with him. “She needed you,” Brett told Luka. “She always needed you more. Why don’t you get that?”
Luka hesitated hearing the tone of Brett’s voice. The sadness because he had been here picking up the pieces of Skylar when Luka left her. Then he turned and looked at Brett. “Oh I get it Brett. If somebody had bothered to tell me that she was pregnant I would have been here by her side every step of the way.”
Brett snorted in derision. “Luka, you really don’t get it, you, dumb bastard. That is the problem. She didn’t want you that way. She didn’t want to trap you in the relationship. She wanted you to love her enough to want to be here of your own accord.”
Luka was getting irritated with Brett and his brother could see it on his face but he couldn’t stop himself. He had to know the answer to one more question.
“I see the clothes you are wearing that are expensive.” Brett nodded over his shoulder towards the truck. “An expensive vehicle too. Is the money worth what you lost?”
Skylar waited inside the barn because Brett and Luka were arguing. She delayed heading towards the house because that is the only place she wanted to be right now but she really wanted to hear Luka’s response. “No, it wasn’t worth what I lost. Are you happy?” Luka shouted at Brett. “Knowing that I hurt Skylar as badly as I did. I had convinced myself she would be all right because she had you. I haven’t been happy a day without her Brett.
“I retired from fighting before something bad happened to me or I had permanent brain damage from taking too many kicks to the head. I came home for Skylar. Ava was a hell of a shock.”
Brett smiled at him. “But what a shock she is,” he told Luka. “I held her in my arms as a tiny squalling red-faced baby only a few hours old. I went to every soccer practice and game. Every ballet recital until I convinced Skylar for her that she hated ballet.”
Luka had tears in his eyes. “Are you rubbing it in Brett?” He asked. His voice husky and harsh.
“No man. I just wanted you to know she had me as a substitute. I tried to make it up to Ava that you weren’t here. Don’t you see man? I couldn’t replace you in either of their lives. That is the point I’m trying to make. Ava still wanted her real Daddy and Skylar still wanted you.”
Skylar had tears running down her cheeks as she listened to Brett explain eloquently what she and Ava had been feeling. He left her that was his fault but he hadn’t left Ava. That was her fault. Skylar walked out of the barn. She wiped her hand across her face.
“I was wrong about something Luka,” she told him. He wiped at his own face although she saw no tears on his cheeks.
“What was that?” His question was thick with emotion.
“Ava does need you. I was blind to that all these years. A girl needs her father. I should have realized that from the poor excuse I had for my own father. I also owe you an apology for keeping her from you. I am terribly sorry. I hurt both you and Ava.”
She walked across the lawn towards the drive. Luka glanced over his shoulder at her, watching her go but she didn’t see that because she was focused on getting to the house before she started to cry again. She wouldn’t keep crying in front of Luka Shaw.
Chapter 6
They all went to Luna’s for an early dinner. Luka insisted that Ava and Skylar ride with him. She relented rather than argue with him especially in front of Ava. The problem was that brought him back to the house with her where she didn’t want Luka to be.
She meant what she told him this afternoon. Ava did need him. She had made a disaster of things by not telling Luka about Ava but she could not let him back into her heart. Skylar’s biggest fear was that the longer Luka was home he would wear her down.
He pulled into the driveway at his mother’s house. Brett’s truck was already there. Dalton, Stellan and Benjamin, Ava’s other uncles and Luka’s brothers were there as well. Ava was looking for Ramona.
“She’s not here Momma.”
“She will be here Ava. I spoke to her right before we left.”
Ava walked in front of them along the walkway heading towards the front door of the spacious ranch home that was Luna’s alone now that all the boys had moved out. She refused to sell it even though it was still a lot of work and not a producing ranch any longer. It was her home. It was where each of her boys had grown up.
