by Lee Wardlow
Brett was a smaller version of Luka at just over six feet two. Leaner musculature as well. His hair was just as dark as Luka’s but his eyes were brown like Jacob Shaw’s.
He walked over to the fence and looked at it. He had helped her repair many parts of this fence over the years. They went to the wagon and picked up a board together before going back to the spot where the board had rotted from weather and age. “How long have you liked Ramona?” She asked.
“Since I was seventeen,” he answered distractedly.
He dropped his end of the board and pulled out the old rotted piece of timber. Then he helped her slide the new one in. She walked over to the wagon and grabbed a hammer and nails. Skylar took them to Brett who was better at nailing than her. Her nails always went in crooked then he had to get them out for her and re-nail it anyway. She saved them time by letting him do it in the first place. “She turned fifteen, sprouted breasts and a fiery temper and I was hooked.” He nailed the board in place.
“Luka thinks we’re too close.”
He straightened and looked at her. “What?”
“He said we’re too close to see what is going on sometimes with the other one. That is why I never saw your feelings for Ramona.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe but he at times had difficulty with our relationship too so I don’t really know how impartial he is.”
“He did and so does she,” Skylar said to Brett.
He finished hammering the nails into the board then he turned and looked at her. “She does. She thinks I’m in love with you and she won’t be second choice for anyone. She made that emphatically clear before she threw me out.” He shrugged nonchalantly but Skylar knew him. She knew he was upset by this setback with Ramona.
“I tried to explain I’ve never had the desire for you only the caring but she threw me out anyway. Said that actions speak louder than words. I ran after you, she pointed out.”
“You did.” Skylar was being sympathetic with Brett.
“Because I care about your feelings. I thought you were crying.”
“I was mortified,” she clarified. “Not crying.”
“Whatever. Where is the next part that needs fixed?” He asked looking down the length of fence that ran her property.
“Two feet down.” He picked up the rotted board and threw it in her wagon. He grabbed another and told her to meet him down there. She climbed up on the tractor and glanced down at Brett. “Last night isn’t the first time you’ve slept with her is it?”
He shook his head no. Then he walked away from Skylar and she let Brett go. She started up the tractor and drove down to the next location. Then she turned it off and jumped down to the ground.
“Is that all you want from Ramona is sex?” She had to ask him that question. He tossed the rotted board to the ground a little harder than was necessary letting her know that he didn’t appreciate her question. “I’m sorry Brett. I had to ask. I’ll talk to her.”
“I really care for her Sky. I want to be with her but she keeps holding back.”
“Because she thinks you love me. When Ava was born, asking me to marry you probably didn’t help.”
He laughed. “Dalton asked you too.”
“He did.” She smiled at the memories of their attempt at being honorable. Dalton was only sixteen at the time, not even of age. She and Brett were only eighteen. “Dalton wasn’t even old enough to be legally wed without a parent’s permission. I’m sure Luna would not have given him permission to marry me but it was cute.”
Brett chuckled. “No he wasn’t.” He nailed the new board in place then he picked up the old one. He leaned against the wagon. “Do you know how many times I almost told Luka about Ava?”
She shook her head. Her eyes meet Brett’s. She saw the pain it had caused him lying to his brother. It was all pretty obvious to her now. She should have seen it. Like many other things, she missed this too. “Too many times I’ve lost count.”
“Maybe you should have,” she told Brett. “It would have been better for Ava.”
“And you Skylar. You still love Luka. The sooner you admit that the better it will be for everyone especially yourself. Luka isn’t going to give up. You know him.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist and held on tight. “I can admit that I still love him if only to you,” she said. Her tone was soft and trembling with emotion. “But I will never let him know that or let him have my heart Brett.” Tears threatened but Skylar refused to cry. “I can’t let him have the power to hurt me like that again.”
Brett walked over to Skylar. He tapped the end of her nose. “Maybe this time he won’t.”
“Maybe I won’t be giving him the chance to find out.”
“Stubborn. All you Bradford women are so damn stubborn.” He looked up to the heavens as if searching for an answer.
“You drive. I’m walking to the next spot that needs replaced.”
He nodded and climbed up on the tractor. He followed her around the ranch repairing boards in the broken fence; twenty of them in all. Both of them were stretching their shoulders and flexing their hands when she climbed up behind him and he drove back to the house. Her hand rested on his bare shoulder.
Brett parked in the side yard near the barn. They hopped down from the tractor. Then they heard Ava calling Brett’s name as she ran across the drive to meet them. He started to scoop her up in his arms then he reminded her how sweaty he was.
Brett looked across Ava’s head. His brother was walking across the yard too. He took his shirt and wiped his face and chest. Skylar could feel the emotion crackling between them. Luka grabbed Brett in a fierce hug. He held him close for several minutes. Then he whispered, “You didn’t tell me you bastard.” Skylar heard him but thankfully Ava didn’t.
Brett took a step back when Luka released him. “What can I say Luka? I’m sorry.”
“Not good enough.” Skylar glanced at her daughter who was watching her uncle and her father. Their voices were getting gruffer and louder.
“I did what I thought was right for Skylar and Ava at the time.”
“You did what you thought was right for you and Skylar.”
“What does that mean Luka?” Brett snapped at his brother. The anger growing between the two brothers.
She was about to say something when Ava stepped between them. She looked up from her four-and-a-half-foot height and cleared her throat. Then both men looked down on her. “No fighting,” she snapped. “I love you both.” She focused on Luka. “Daddy, I wouldn’t have known who you were when you came here yesterday if Uncle Brett hadn’t told me the truth. I just got you in my life I don’t want any drama between you two over me.”
Skylar had a proud smile on her face. She said exactly what she would have said but Ava beat her to it. “I’m sorry Ava,” Brett said first.
Luka looked at his brother then at his daughter. “Me too sweetheart.”
“I’m going inside the house now,” she informed them.
“I’ll be inside in a moment,” Luka told her.
Brett looked at Skylar. She knew what he was thinking. Luka really wasn’t going to leave. She chuckled beneath her breath. “So what happened with you and Ramona this morning?” Luka asked Brett.
He glanced at Skylar, you told him. She shrugged apologetically. Then he turned to his brother. “She threw me out.”
He looked between them. Then he said, “Let me see if I can get this right. You ran after Skylar, pissed off Ramona and she threw you out.”
“What’s your point?” Brett asked scowling at Luka.
“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.
The stone façade around the door accentuated the cream colored siding surrounding it. Lanterns adorned the walkway and lit up at night to guide the way. The big pine tree in the front of the house, blocked the best feature, the picture window in the living room. Ramona and Skylar had spent a lot of time here with Brett and Luka. Skylar had loved the ambience of this house that was missing at her own.
Her mother’s style had been staider. Less hominess than Luna’s house because it didn’t have the personal touches. No pictures adorned the walls because Nancy Bradford’s decorator thought personal pictures cheapened the home. That was one thing that Skylar had changed. There were pictures around the house now of her sisters and Ava. Even her horse. Her mother was probably rolling over in her grave.
Skylar had also replaced the two windows at either end of the upstairs hallway with the original stained glass windows that were there when her mother and father bought the farmhouse. The sunlight shone through one and lit the other as it rose high in the sky and when it set at night. It was a beautiful sight that she loved having back in her home.
The ranch belonged to all four sisters but only Skylar and Ava lived there now. She thought when the younger sisters graduated they would probably stay where they were. Chloe in Columbus where she attended college and Roxy in Louisville. Skylar couldn’t imagine either of them coming home again. They had never enjoyed the small town life. She thought Ramona stayed just because Skylar and Ava needed her.
Luna greeted them at the front door. She hugged Ava hard. “How’s my girl today?”
“Good Grammy. Can I feed the kittens?” The tiny kittens were always on her daughter’s mind. She had talked of nothing else since Luna’s barn cat had given birth to them.
“Sure, I left them for you. Bottles are on the table. Get one of your uncles to help you. The boys are in the kitchen.” They were once and would always be Luna’s boys even though they were all grown men now.
“Thanks Grammy. Daddy, come see Grammy’s kittens.”
“I’m coming sweetheart. Right away.”
“Mom,” Luka hugged his mother.
“I was beginning to think you had a new home.” She eyed Skylar trying to determine how she was handling Luka’s presence in her home.
“Funny Mom. I’ve just been enjoying spending the day with my daughter and antagonizing her mother.”
Skylar snorted in an undignified manner. Luna chuckled. “Run along and see your daughter’s kittens,” she told Luka.
With hesitation, he left his mother and Skylar alone. Luna stepped onto the porch. “I need to talk to you.”
“What’s wrong?” She searched Luna’s face which she
could now see was filled with concern.
“I had a call from Ramona this afternoon. She wanted to bring a date.”
Skylar looked at Luna with confusion. “Did she actually call it a date?”
“She did.”
“Oh no. She is pissed at Brett so she’s going to try to make him jealous by bringing someone with her.”
“Why is she mad at Brett?”
Skylar sighed heavily. “I popped in this morning to see Ramona to talk to her, caught them together.”
“Who?’ Luna was confused.
“Brett and Ramona.”
“I am under no illusions that my sons have had numerous sexual partners but is this a first time thing?”
“Uh no,” Skylar replied feeling weird discussing Brett’s sex life with his mother.
“Oh boy.” Luna rolled her eyes. She wiped her hand across her brow clearly concerned by this chain of events.
“Yeah, oh boy. Let’s go inside. We will wait and see who she brings.”
They went to see the kittens too. All five of the large brothers were crammed into the tiny laundry room with six mewling kittens and Ava. She was feeding the tiniest one at the moment. She turned her face up to Skylar who could only smile. Luka was sitting next to her on the floor and Ava was grinning so wide her dimple was showing in her cheek; the dimple she had like her daddy.
“See Momma, I’m feeding them.”
“I see baby. They are cute.”
“Aren’t they?” Luna agreed. “You can take one or two home for your barn.”
“No thanks. I have enough kritters Luna.” She smiled at her attempt to pawn the kittens off on Sky and Ava.
“Ah Momma,” Ava whined. “They’re so cute.”
Then they heard Ramona. “Hey, anyone home.”
Skylar glanced over at Brett who visibly cringed at the sound of her voice. Just wait until he finds out she’s brought someone after he woke up in her bed this morning. “Aunt Ramona, come here,” Ava called. Her sister ignored Skylar and slipped between her and Luna leaving her gentleman friend behind them. “Aren’t they adorable?”
Skylar looked over at Brett who was trying to figure out why there was a man behind his mother. He couldn’t see his face from his position on the floor by Ava.
