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His mother leaned against a post at the top of the stairs. He knew her. He knew she was contemplating what to say to him. How to fix this? That was what Luna was good at; fixing things.
“You be mad all you want,” she finally said. “I did what Skylar asked of me. We both knew when you left her like you did that you were taking a chance.”
He snorted. Luka looked away from his mother. He shook his head at her. “I deserved to be told dammit.”
“Maybe you did Luka but she was devastated when you left. I wasn’t sure the poor girl was going to survive then a month after Ava was born John and Nancy Bradford were killed coming home from a show.”
He dropped his head low towards the ground. I would have known had I come home, he thought. He shook his head sadly. “Is Ava why you told me about their death?” He asked.
“Partially,” she replied. “I hoped you would come for Skylar. Then you would have known about Ava too. She was so lost, not that John and Nancy were that great of parents to the girls but suddenly Skylar felt she was responsible for four sisters and a newborn. An aunt came to live with them until Skylar turned eighteen. Then she was all alone.”
“She could have had my support Mom. I would have been here for her and Ava. You know that.”
His impassioned plea didn’t fall on deaf ears. His mother shook her head in agreement. She had lived with her guilt and her regrets for ten years. Luna had kept a secret from her son that she knew would tear him apart if he ever found out.
Then she strolled down the steps to walk towards Luka. She stood before him and noticed all the ways that he had grown and changed. Luna reached up and cupped his face with her delicate hands. “I know.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?” He snapped.
“I’ve explained that already Luka. Skylar wouldn’t have been able to handle you coming home because she was pregnant. Don’t you see?”
Hell no, he saw nothing but the fact that he lost ten years of his daughter’s life. When he didn’t respond Luna continued. “Luka, she was the talk of Haley Cove. Most people assumed that you left because she was pregnant. Ran away from your responsibilities.”
“Great,” he snarled looking away from his mother’s face in shame.
“Oh, your brothers beat the hell out of anyone who said anything bad about you or Skylar. I’ve bailed Brett and Dalton out of jail more times than I care to remember because somebody said something about one of you they didn’t like.”
“Traitors, they didn’t tell me either.”
“Don’t,” she told him. “Don’t turn your back on them. They’ve had your back. They’ve taken care of Skylar and Ava like I have. We respected Skylar’s wishes that you not be told. She didn’t want you back that way. Luka, she never got over you. Can’t you see that?”
He shook his head and rubbed his boot in the dirt. “The woman I saw this afternoon didn’t appear to still have feelings for me. She called me a bastard.” His mother chuckled. He didn’t think it was funny. “She told me to get the hell off her property. That our daughter didn’t need me.”
“She’s hurt Luka. Give her time.”
Luka couldn’t remember the last time he had cried. He pressed his fingers to his eyes to stop the flood of tears wanting to escape. He had a child. A little girl that looked a great deal like him. A little girl his brothers and his mother had been here to watch grow up but not him because nobody told him about her.
In ten years, not once had he made an effort to come home to Haley Cove. He talked to them on the phone regularly. He kept that tie that bound him to Haley Cove just in case he found it in himself to return home. He couldn’t sever it completely and he knew why. Skylar Bradford.
No matter how many women crossed his path, laid in his bed they weren’t Skylar. He had never stopped loving her and that is why it hurt so bad that she kept this from him. “Luka,” his mother’s voice was so soft. “Are you going to let the past control you or are you going to make the best of your future?”
He removed his fingers; his lashes damp with unshed tears. Luka was filled with immense regret that he hadn’t been here for Skylar. If only she had told him that night before he left Haley Cove. If only he had known.
Chapter 3
Luka spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the sofa in the living room looking through pictures that his mother had taken over the last ten years. Pictures of Ava. Some of Skylar as well.
She even had a few of Skylar’s baby shower that she and Nancy had apparently thrown for her. Only her best friends and a few relatives were present for the special occasion.
One picture stood out. He just kept going back to it. She didn’t look happy but he thought it was because they were taking a picture of her. Her hands were cupped low under her belly to make her loose fitting sundress tight over her rounded stomach. He ran his thumb over the picture and he sighed. Luka could see the sadness in her eyes. A sadness that he had put there.
Then a few from the hospital. She held Ava in her arms. She wasn’t looking up in any of them except one. Her eyes were lovingly focused on the child she cradled against her chest.
Ava had a head full of hair when she was born. Her round face was peeking out of a blanket wrapped snuggly around her body. Skylar looked a little happier in these pictures. She definitely loved their daughter. He could see it in every one of them.
He began to look through the stack of photos again. First birthday. She was a mess when she was done with her cake. Skylar was holding her away from her in one; most likely on their way to the bathtub.
A cheesy smile on her second birthday right after blowing out the candles. She had already begun to look so much like him it made him ache. He rubbed his hand across his whiskered jaw. Her third she had a cast on her arm.
