by Lee Wardlow
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
Luka turned his head and saw where she was looking. “Who is he with?”
“Kay Samson, one of his groupies. Divorced mother of three. Her daughter Amber plays soccer with Ava.”
“I can only assume you aren’t jealous he’s already with another woman,” Luka replied implying that she had already had sex with him so why would she be.
Skylar tipped her sunglasses down to the end of her nose and gazed at him over them. “I’m not dignifying that with a response.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“Why Kay?” She pushed her glasses back in place. “A woman who has a daughter the exact age as Ava. Plays soccer with her. Isaac told me when I came back yesterday from Ramona’s that they had been warned to ticket me if I was one mile over the speed limit.”
He looked back across the field. The woman he was with was not Skylar but she was attractive enough. She was wearing jeans and a shirt not unlike what Skylar was wearing. Her hair was cut bob-length and was bleach blonde. She laughed at something Tag said. “Is she somebody we went to high school with?” He asked.
“Boy, your memory is bad,” Skylar teased him.
“Why is that?” He asked. He glanced back at the woman now clutching Tag’s arm possessively then at Skylar waiting for her to respond.
“She was a year younger than you. You took her to basketball homecoming right before you started seeing me.”
“That is Kay Allen?” He clearly did not remember her.
“Kay Samson now,” Skylar replied.
“Wow, she has changed.”
Skylar just laughed. “She hasn’t changed that much Luka.”
They were walking towards the field now where Ava was warming up with her team. Amber was keeping the ball from her whenever possible until their coach hollered at her to stop it.
“She and Kyle had Amber at the same time I had Ava, got married. Had two more kids and got divorced two years ago. Kyle was cheating on Kay,” Skylar explained.
“Do you think Tag suggested that she do that?” Luka asked referring to Amber messing with Ava on the field.
“No, I think Kay did. His groupies were always jealous of me being with him.” She had seen the sly looks she was getting from Kay. She would look at Tag then at Skylar ensuring that she saw who had Tag now. Funny thing was Skylar didn’t give a rat’s ass about Kay having Tag Richardson. She tried to focus on the field and not Kay and Tag.
Brett moved in beside Skylar with Ramona on his other side. “You know they are still watching you.”
“I don’t care,” Skylar replied. Sky crossed her arms over her middle and watched the game as it was starting. There were subtle pushes at first. They looked innocent enough. Skylar could see Luka getting tense beside her. She knew he was seeing what she was. At halftime, the coach pulled Amber aside and was talking to her. She just nodded. Sky noticed Amber look across at her mother and Tag.
Amber was somewhat of a bully anyway. Ava had experiences with the girl at school so this was nothing new and Ava was small so she was picked on more frequently than most kids by Amber among others.
When halftime was over Ava and Amber went back onto the field with the team. The first part of the quarter nothing else happened. Then it started again. Pushes that were so slight you wouldn’t notice them unless you were looking for them. They were usually done when both girls were in the middle of the pack. Amber was good at hiding her dirty tricks. “I’ve about had enough of this shit,” Luka growled.
Skylar reached out and tucked her arm inside his crossed arms. “You need to calm yourself. Ava is pretty scrappy,” she whispered. Luka glanced down at her, scowling.
Amber tripped Ava and she went sprawling face first into the dirt. “Skylar,” Luka said her name warning her he was going to say something if she didn’t.
“Let her handle this,” Skylar said.
If anyone knew what it was like to be small, it was Skylar. She knew her daughter had to stand up for herself or she would get stomped on her whole life. Brett had taught her to defend herself. She had used his moves on more than one occasion. Ava might be small but she was nobody’s doormat. “She’s a head shorter than Amber,” Luka argued.
“You’re more than a foot taller than me. Have I hurt you before?” Sky asked him.
He shook his head remembering all the times she had put him in his place when he needed it. He turned his focus back onto the field. The other team called a timeout. The coach was shouting at Amber now. They were too far away to hear what he was saying. Skylar glanced down at Kay and Tag. His eyes met hers and he smirked at her. Skylar just shook her head. What an ass, using children out of pettiness to get back at her.
They went back into the game. Ava’s team was winning by one goal. Ava was moving the ball down the field. She might be short but she was fast. She shot the ball at the goal and scored. Skylar was jumping up and down on the sidelines. Brett and Luka were laughing at her while her other uncles were whistling between their fingers.
Ava got back into position for the kickoff. Skylar could see that every opportunity Amber kicked Ava’s legs even if she wasn’t pushing her or elbowing her. Her own teammate. At the end of the game, Ava’s team won by two goals. Both teams ran through the bridge the parents had created with their hands clasped together in two opposite rows.
Luna, Ramona and Sky went out on the field to help form the bridge while Luka and his brothers stayed on the sidelines. They felt it was in his best interest to stay put since Tag and Kay were part of the parents’ bridge. Sky started to walk away then she heard the loud gasp. She turned and saw Amber lying on the ground holding her bleeding nose.
“Bully me again during a game Amber and the next time I’ll do worse,” Ava told her. Kay was making her way towards Ava and Amber. Skylar and Ramona were closer so they cut her off. Skylar stepped in front of Ava.
“Your hooligan just punched my Amber in the nose.” Kay’s voice was shrill when she shouted at Skylar.
“Your Amber deserved it,” Ava smarted off.
Their coach stepped over as Tag was lifting Amber off the ground. “Amber plays dirty like that again Kay and she won’t be playing at all.”
“What?” Kay shouted at their coach.
“You heard me. She’ll be off the team. She dogged Ava the whole game. Ava, I hate to do this but you can’t just punch a person in the nose no matter what she does to you in a game. You’re suspended next weekend. You can practice with us this week but you can’t play.”
“What?” Ava shouted.
Luka had made his way out onto the field. Skylar had said nothing yet. He put his arm around Ava and started guiding her off the field. “Let’s go have our picnic,” he suggested to his daughter maintaining his cool. Skylar was fuming inside. She turned on her heel with Ramona and Luna right behind her, she walked after Luka and Ava.
“Who uses a child to get back at someone?” She grumbled.
“Honey, let it go,” Luna advised. “We’ll go have a nice picnic in the park and forget all about this.”
When they arrived at Brett’s truck, Luka had taken off Ava’s cleats and was rolling down her socks. He removed the shin guards and Skylar growled. Her daughter’s legs were already starting to bruise where Amber had kicked her throughout the game.
Ava leaned forward and showed them her back. It too had a bruise forming where Amber had elbowed her repeatedly. Luka scooped her up into his arms and held her close to him. “I’m sorry baby girl. You all right?”
He glanced at Skylar who had tears in her eyes. “This is my fault.”
“No it isn’t Momma,” Ava replied. “It’s Amber’s fault.”
Luka wrapped Skylar in his embrace too. He kissed the top of her head. Everyone was waiting on them to get in their car. Luna, Ramona, his brothers. He didn’t care. His girls needed comforting.
The girls’ coach stopped as he walked by the truck on the way to his car and saw Ava’s legs. �
��Ava,” he said. They turned towards him. “I’ll suspend Amber too.”
“Her back is bruised too,” Luka said.
“I don’t need to ask who you are,” her coach said. “Ava looks just like you.”
“Luka Shaw, Ava’s father.” He extended his hand to Ava’s coach. He released Skylar long enough to shake the coach’s hand.
“Marty Smith, coach of the team. My daughter Bianca plays goalie.”
“Nice to meet you,” Luka replied.
“I don’t mean to be rude but are you MMA champion, Luka Shaw?” He asked.
“It’s him,” Ava replied before Luka could.
“Well now I know where Ava gets her right hook,” Marty told him.
“Nope, that was Momma.”
Skylar started blushing. “Actually it was Uncle Brett who showed me how to throw a right hook,” Skylar replied.
Luka’s eyebrow shot up over his big, blue-green eyes. He pulled her in a little closer. “Your knees are dangerous enough. I didn’t want you throwing punches at me too,” he whispered.
“Well this is really chummy considering you and I just broke up Skylar.” Tag had stopped at the back of Brett’s truck on the way to his car.
Luka put Ava in the back seat of the truck and shut the door. “When a man fights his battles by having little girls fight dirty against their own teammates in a game of children’s soccer, do you really have to ask yourself why Sky stopped seeing you Tag?”
Skylar watched Ramona slide into the center of the truck’s front seat. Brett climbed in after her. The coach appeared uncomfortable as well. Skylar didn’t know why that would be.
Tag took a step closer. “Are you accusing me of something Luka?”
Luka rubbed his hand over his whiskered jaw. “I’m not accusing,” he said. “I’m stating the facts.”
Tag’s face turned brilliant red. He shoved Luka. “I’m the mayor of Haley Cove. No one talks to me that way.”
“You do not want to do that again,” Luka told him.
“Do what?” Tag looked confused.
“Shove me.”
“Yeah, I don’t think you want to do that,” the girls’ coach agreed.
Tag glanced at him before glaring at Luka.
“I don’t give a shit if he’s some cage fighter,” Tag replied to Martin. “Or one of Jacob Shaw’s punks.”
“Oh boy,” Brett said from within the truck.
“Now Luka,” Skylar said. She could see his temper flaring in the hard set of his jaw. His eyes were burning with anger.
“Daddy,” the one voice of reason that kept him from completely losing it on Tag Richardson broke through his lust of anger. “Get in the truck so we can have our picnic. Please Daddy.”
Skylar glanced through the glass window and saw the concern on her daughter’s face. She put her hand on Luka’s arm. “Let’s go Luka.”
“Get in the truck Sky,” was all he said. She opened the door and asked her daughter to scoot over in case she had to intervene again.
Luka glanced back and shut the door when he saw Skylar was safely tucked into the back seat. He stepped over and blocked her door from view; effectively keeping her from opening it again too.
“Now, I’m telling you this once and once only. You fuck with my daughter or Skylar again and you won’t have to worry about being mayor of Haley Cove because you will be pissing out of catheter in your hospital bed. Got it?” His voice was low but Skylar could hear what Luka was saying. She glanced over at Ava, she didn’t seem to have heard him.
“He threatened me,” Tag said to Martin.
“I heard nothing,” the coach replied. He walked away; heading towards his car in the row behind theirs.
“That wasn’t a threat. That was a promise,” Luka replied. He stepped back and slid into the truck by Ramona. “Goodbye Tag.” He slammed the truck door shut.
The cab was quiet. No one was saying anything until Ramona put her two cents worth in. “Tag is a pansy ass. You could have taken him.”
Skylar watched Luka’s head turn towards her sister slowly. Brett was trying not to laugh.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence Ramona.” His tone was sarcastic.
“I’m just saying,” she replied.
He just shook his head at Ramona.
Chapter 8
Nobody said anything else while they drove to the park near Skylar’s ranch. When they were parked in the lot Sky could see Luna had enlisted the three remaining brothers to unload her car with a ton of food that was now laid out on the picnic table in the open surrounded by woods. It was a beautiful day for this.
“You didn’t bring any other shoes did you?” Skylar asked Ava as she was about to climb out of the truck.
“Nope,” her daughter replied then she hopped to the ground and was following her uncle and aunt to the table.
“She’s just like you. I seem to remember someone else who never had shoes on her feet.”
“She apparently has your penchant for fighting.”
“Amber deserved that,” Luka told her.
“Luka, I have raised Ava to react with her words not her fists.”
“Yet you taught her how to defend herself,” he replied.
“I’m not totally stupid. She’s tiny…most likely she will always be small. She needs to know how to defend herself because her Daddy and her uncles aren’t always going to be there when she needs them.”
He stopped walking. Skylar looked back at him. “What?”
“Boys,” he said.
“What about boys?” Skylar’s nose was wrinkled in confusion as she looked at Luka. He swallowed hard.
“Someday there will be a nineteen-year-old boy who will have my baby girl lying naked in the back of his truck in an open field while he takes advantage of her innocence.”
Skylar laughed out loud. “Is that what you did to me?” She teased him. Luka growled at her.
“Come on Daddy. You have a while before that happens. I’m hungry.”
“Six years Sky. She’s only six years younger than when you did that with me.”
Skylar walked back to him and took his hand in hers. “Maybe she will be smarter than I was.”
“God I hope so.” Skylar glared at him over her shoulder. She should have been insulted but she let it slide as she practically dragged him to the picnic table.
“What’s wrong?” Luna asked glancing up as she finished laying food out, when Luka sat on one of the benches with a heavy thud. Skylar looked over where Ava was looking at wildflowers on the edge of the woods with Ramona, Brett was close behind them.
“He just realized his daughter is only six years younger than me when I got pregnant with her,” she explained pointing at their daughter.
Luna glanced over her shoulder at her young granddaughter. “Scary thought isn’t it Luka that some young boy could take advantage of your daughter and hurt her the way you hurt Sky?”
“Thanks Mom.”
His mother chuckled. She walked around the table and kissed her oldest son on the head. “Have I told you how glad I am you are home?”
“No, you haven’t.” He rolled his eyes at his mother.
“I am. Your daughter is thrilled she finally has her father in her life. There are no more secrets. Believe it or not it was hard on your brothers and I to keep this from you. That is why we were so vague when you asked about Sky.”
“I figured that one out already. I’m not totally dense.”
Sky sat down next to Luka. He glanced over at her. “She knows where you slept last night,” she whispered quietly so Luna wouldn’t hear. She had moved down to the end of the table to tell Stellan he was doing something wrong with her potato salad.
“My mother?”
“No your daughter.”
“What did she say about it?” Luka leaned over on his knees. He was staring into the distance waiting for Skylar to respond.
“She was questioning me about how we felt about each other or rather how I felt about yo
u. She seems to already know how you feel about me.” He shot her a glance out of the corner of his eye.
“I told her she needed to let us figure things out. She had nothing to worry about. You would always be there for her.”
He nodded. “I will Skylar. I didn’t know that I could love somebody so much, so quickly.”
“It’s an amazing thing,” Skylar agreed.
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.”
