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Luka leaned back with his arm around Sky. He breathed deeply. He just wanted to enjoy the time they were spending together as a family. It had been so long since that had happened.
Luka had spent the last ten years without them. Watching them now he realized just how much he had missed them all. The Shaw’s had always been close. This is what he missed most.
“Momma, come look.” Skylar patted Luka’s leg and left him sitting on the picnic table.
He rose and walked to the edge of the area away from everyone else with his arms folded across his chest staring at the ground. Traveling the circuit, fighting matches that put him where he is now; earning a reputation that got him what he wanted but not what he needed, Skylar and his family. It took him ten years to figure out what kind of man he wanted to be.
Luka wanted to be home with them. He wanted to create something here where he could do what he always had done. Be with them. Having weekend dinners. Holidays that for the last ten years he had spent on the road or alone. Sometimes with just his crew. It wasn’t the same. Not without them.
“What’s wrong?” Skylar asked.
He glanced down at her. “I was just thinking,” he replied.
“You looked so lost,” she replied.
“I was Sky. I have everything that I wanted to find in life except this.”
“What is this Luka?” She asked.
“My family,” he told her. “I thought I had to make something of myself to prove something to everyone in Haley Cove about what kind of man I am. I don’t.”
“No, you don’t.”
He looked at her. “I can’t tell you what the last ten years were like Sky.” He looked over her shoulder where two more of his brothers had joined Brett and Ramona in playing with Ava. “I was focused. I really wanted to be somebody and make something of myself.”
He told her about working out at a gym in Arizona where he was discovered by a well-known fighter in the MMA world. He had his own dojo that produced several top contenders. The man started training Luka when he was nineteen. At twenty, he gave him his first shot at a couple real fights.
Luka worked hard at getting bigger, stronger and faster. He was aggressive. Skylar was right about that. He was angry. His father had beat the snot out of him so much he wanted to kill when a foot or a hand connected with his head reminding him of Jacob Shaw’s punishments.
Then he won his first heavyweight title. A battle no one expected him to win. He suddenly had more money being thrown at him for more matches that he continued to win. Then he had more money than he knew what to do with. He was twenty-five. Luka had fame and fortune but he still wasn’t happy. He had women throwing themselves at him but he didn’t tell Skylar that part.
That is when he decided on his plan to make his money and get out. He hadn’t suffered any brain injuries yet. A broken nose. A busted thumb. Some broken toes. A sprained ankle several times. Ribs too. No one had rung his bell severely. Not yet.
At twenty-seven, he had his first major concussion even though he still won the title match. The guy rung his bell before Luka knocked him out cold. That was his first experience with a brain injury and he didn’t want to make a habit. There was too much research on the subject regarding football players and boxers taking knocks to the head. He didn’t want to become a statistic. Things were just starting to heat up about MMA fighters.
So he made a plan, by thirty he wanted to retire. Three years he set a goal for himself to be heading back to Haley Cove. He planned his strategy and his fights. He was undefeated his last year. He had two more concussions and that was enough. Those were not as bad as his first.
“You know you can’t afford to lose any brains that you have Luka,” Skylar told him. “What made you decide on the MMA?”
“Brett and I took Martial Arts classes until we were freshman in high school. I was working out at a gym where I also taught a martial arts class to young kids as one of my part time jobs. This MMA guy asked me if I was interested.”
“So naturally you were.”
“Naturally,” he replied echoing Skylar’s sarcastic tone. “I made a shitload of money Sky.”
“Got your brains scrambled. That makes sense.”
“I got out before it was too bad.”
She shook her head. “Yeah, I saw how hard it was for you to get up off the floor after sitting for all of fifteen minutes Luka.”
He leaned closer, “Did I have any problem satisfying you?” He asked.
“That is not even the point,” she declared.
She took a step backwards to get out of his space. “Hey, you two come and eat,” Luna hollered.
“Saved by my Momma,” he teased her.
