Only Her (Haley Cove Book 1)

by Lee Wardlow

  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.

  Luka gazed at Ava for a several seconds. Then he placed his hands under her arms and raised her to the tail of his truck. Gently, he placed her on her the hard plastic of the gate. He hoisted himself up beside her and removed his sunglasses sitting them behind her so he could see her clearly without the obstacle of the shades, then Ava could see him too.

  “You wanted to talk?” He prompted her when she didn’t say anything.

  She nodded eagerly. “I know who you are.”

  He was surprised by that. He put his hands together and clasped them between his legs to keep from touching her. Hugging her. She was his. Luka wanted to grab Ava and hold onto her. “Who am I?” He finally asked.

  “You’re my Daddy?”

  The words coming from between her sweet lips were more than he could take. He cleared his throat trying like hell to keep the emotion he was feeling in check. “How do you know that?” His tone was husky.

  Ava smiled at him and Luka realized that she had the same dimple in her right cheek that he had. Her eyes were a deep blue with flecks of green around the pupil. They were his eyes. Her long black lashes curled on the ends just like his did. She was the female version of him, he realized. Luka wiped his hand across his brow and asked her to continue.

  “Because Momma has a box under her bed,” she began. “In that box were pictures of you with her. You were a lot younger then though. She told me it wasn’t nice to root through other people’s belongings.”

  “She’s right about that,” Luka had to agree but without Ava snooping she might not have recognized him.

  “Then I heard her crying when I left the room. She thought I had gone to my own room.” Ava was swinging her legs back and forth. She couldn’t sit sti
ll, he realized.

  He almost smiled at her; thinking about Skylar who used to do the same exact thing. Always unable to sit for very long unless she had something to occupy her brain or her hands.

  “When was this Ava?”

  “I was seven,” she told him.

  “How old are you now?” He could guess at her age.

  “I’m ten,” she said indignantly like he should know since he was her father.

  “So how did finding that box of pictures, tell you who I was?”

  “She had other things in there too. I went back and took a picture out to keep for myself. I asked Uncle Brett if that was my Daddy in the picture.”

  He nodded his head. So Brett knew and the Bastard hadn’t told him. “How long have you known Brett?” He asked. He was struggling with every word. Caught somewhere between anger and tears that were threatening to strangle him.

  She frowned at him. “Since I was born, duh.”

  “Yeah, dumb question.” Brett and Skylar had always been close so of course he would have known about his daughter since she was born but he hadn’t told his own brother. “What else is in Momma’s box?”

  She lowered her eyes. “A bracelet.”

  He thought back to the Christmas before he left. He had brought an imitation tennis bracelet as a for present for Skylar. It was all he could afford at that time but she had loved it. He told her someday it would be the real thing. Not that she cared it wasn’t real.

  “She doesn’t wear it?” He asked.

  Ava shook her head. “The things in that box makes Momma sad.”

  “Why Ava?”

  “You tell me.”

  He chuckled at her. “I’m not sure that we should talk too much about mine and your Momma’s past without her okay.”

  “She had a ring in the box too.”

  “My class ring?” He asked knowing most likely it had to be that ring.

  He had given it to her after their third date. He smiled at the memory. So many things overwhelming him at the moment. So much heartbreak that he had caused by leaving her. “Is it big and silver with a blue stone in the center?”

  “Sounds like it,” Luka replied nodding his head.

  “She had a bunch of cards from you too. A few letters. I didn’t read them.”

  “Probably a good thing Ava.” He remembered some of the intimate things he had written in those cards and letters. Not for his daughter’s eyes to read for sure.

  “Where have you been?” she asked just a little too quietly. He had inadvertently hurt her too.

  His head shot around to gaze at the young child. His child. He moved his hands from between his knees and cupped her face with his big hands. Luka tilted her chin up to his face. “I didn’t know about you, baby girl,” he told her. “I would have been here if somebody had told me.”

  Suddenly Ava was wrapped around him, her thin, little arms laced around his neck. “Will you stay now that you know? I always wanted you to come home.” She sounded so desperate it broke his heart.

  “I will,” he promised. He patted Ava’s back comforting her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  “Good.” She slipped out of his arms. Luka wiped the tears from Ava’s face. They both heard a throat clearing behind them. Then Luka looked over Ava at Skylar who didn’t look pleased.

  “Momma, I asked Daddy if I could talk to him. It isn’t his fault.”

  “You told her,” Skylar snapped.

  He was throwing Brett under the bus. After all, he had hidden something so precious from him. “I didn’t.” His voice was soft and controlled. “Brett told her. She recognized me from pictures under your bed.”

  Skylar’s face turned crimson. He knew her. She was thinking I should have thrown that shit out a long time ago but he would bet that if he went to her room right now or six months from now, that same box would be tucked under her bed and a year from now it would still be there filled with the same pictures and trinkets that were in it now. Those were memories that Skylar would never be able to throw away.

  Luka secured Ava in his arms and hopped down to the ground. He closed the gate on his truck. Then he walked around to the side where Skylar was standing.

  Ava clung to him like a little monkey. He started to sit her down on the ground and she hung onto him. Luka hesitated with her in his arms. Both of them looking into each other’s faces.

  “Remember your promise Daddy,” she told him.

  “I will.” She pressed her soft lips to his cheek. Then she squeezed him hard. Only then would she let Luka put her on the ground at Skylar’s feet.

  “I have to go now.” He had to go or he would break down and cry right here in front of her and Skylar.

  “Bye Daddy,” Ava told him.

  Skylar said nothing. This time when he climbed behind the wheel and started the truck he drove around the circular drive and down the long lane to the road in front of the ranch.

  He watched his daughter in the rearview mirror standing by her mother. Skylar Bradshaw had given birth to his child and no one saw fit to inform him of this good news? He gripped the steering wheel hard. Somebody better have some damn good explanations for him.

  **

  “Baby, I need to run inside for a minute,” Skylar told Ava. “Could you lead Majestic to his stall for me? I’ll come unsaddle him when I’m done in the house.”

  “Sure Momma.”

  Skylar practically ran into the house. She went to the kitchen and grabbed the phone off the wall. Her hand trembled so hard she could barely dial the number. Tapping her foot against the tile floor, she waited for somebody to answer. Luna answered on the third ring.

  “Luna, Luka was here,” Skylar told her.

  “What?” Luka’s mother sounded breathless. She must have hurried to the phone.

  “I think he’s on his way to your house. He’s angry.”

  “Oh no. He saw Ava.”

  “He did. Did you know he was coming home?” Skylar asked.

  “I didn’t sweetheart. I would have told you.”

  “He’ll be there in ten minutes,” Skylar told her.

  As soon as Luka left her Skylar knew she had to give Luna a head’s up that he was on his way to his mother’s house. He had nowhere else to go. He would want explanations. She wanted Luna to be as prepared as possible with such short notice. Skylar knew how angry he was without him telling her.

  “I guess it is time to face the music, love. We kept this from him for ten years. That is a lot of time to keep a man’s child from him.”

  “I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  “Do you still want me to watch Ava tonight?”

  “Of course I do, if you don’t mind. I need to be at the town square meeting and at least part of the square dance.”

  “Skylar, I’ll come over there instead of you bringing her here. Less drama that way,” Luna offered.

  “Thank you. I would appreciate that.”

  They talked for a few more minutes. Both women filled with regret at the path they had taken. At the time, Skylar couldn’t see any other way.

  “I hear his truck coming up the drive Skylar. I’ll see you at eight.”

  “I’m sorry Luna. So sorry I put you in this place with Luka.”

  “You didn’t twist my arm and force me to keep this from him.”

  “I didn’t but I still feel responsible.”

  “I’ll handle Luka, sweetheart. Don’t you worry.”

  They disconnected the call. Skylar placed the phone back in its cradle. She laid her head against the wall next to the phone. Luka Shaw was back in Haley Cove.

  **

  Luka slammed his truck door when he got out. He slammed it so hard the window rattled in the frame. He was always careful with the expensive vehicle but right now he was furious.

  He glanced around at the farm where he had grown up as the memories flooded his brain. His life here had been hard. His father was an unfeeling, mean man who drank too much. Only one t
hing softened him and that was the four Bradford sisters.

  He hadn’t wanted to be like him so he left Haley Cove to avoid becoming a bitter old bastard who hurt his family. He took a few steps and he faltered. The old barn had been repaired. The woodshed to the back of it where Jacob Shaw had doled out punishment with a heavy hand, switch or a wooden paddle had been torn down. The sadistic fucker enjoyed it, Luka was sure of it. He was happy the structure was gone. He might have enjoyed having a hand tearing it down to the ground and burning the remnants.

  He remembered the whooping he had had gotten time and again sometimes because he said I don’t know instead of yes sir or no sir. He had never known what to expect out of his father or what mood he would be in.

  As he got older, it was a punch to the face when he was too old for the belt or the paddle if his father thought he was back talking him or looking at him the wrong way. The sad part was he was too much like the old man. That is why he had run away from Skylar. He had his temper.

  What he had discovered living away from Haley Cove was that he didn’t have to be exactly like him. Every time he stepped inside that cage, he let go of some of the rage that consumed him. Luka knew he would never strike a woman, never strike Skylar the way that his father had hit his mother. He knew that he would never strike his child the way that his father had hit them. He wasn’t his father’s son after all. Luka was his own man.

  He wiped his hand across his brow. The ghosts of his past were haunting him though, which is why he had left in the first place. Now they were asking him why Sky hadn’t told him she was pregnant before he left? He dropped his head towards the ground and rubbed his hand across his jaw. So much regret filled him.

  He heard the familiar squeak of the front screen door and he turned his gaze in that direction. There stood his mother Luna. Part Hispanic, part Native American, part Scottish. An odd combination that created such a beautiful woman. He still thought so after ten long years.

  She was wearing her hair short now, an almost pixie cut that showed off just how white her hair had become. Peppered in was her natural, nearly black hair. He and Ava had gotten their eyes from his mother. His brothers had brown eyes like their father.