by Lee Wardlow
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.
“I don’t need saving,” Skylar insisted. She turned and started for the picnic table. He pinched her butt and she squealed. She flashed him an evil look over her shoulder. “Stop that.”
“You used to like it when I did that.”
“I was young and stupid then,” she told him.
“Is that right,” he said. She nodded.
Skylar took a seat between Dalton and Benji. They both looked at her strangely then shrugged. Luka glanced at her with frustration then took a seat by his mother. Ava sat next to him.
“What did you find baby girl?” He knew she had something in her hand.
Slowly, Ava opened her hand. Luka jumped back against his mother. “You know Ava, that is a real nice grasshopper you have there. I think you should put it back in the grass though sweetheart.” His brothers were trying not to laugh at him.
“Ava,” Skylar said. “Put the grasshopper down.”
“Daddy,” she squinted her eyes and cocked her head. “Are you afraid of my grasshopper?”
“No darlin, I’m not afraid.” He looked like he wanted to swallow his tongue. “Why don’t you listen to your Momma and put the grasshopper back,” he looked around. “How about over there in the woods.” He pointed across the grass a-ways. “Then we can eat.”
“Daddy, I think you are afraid.”
“He’s terrified,” Dalton told his niece.
“Shut up Dalton,” Luka told his younger brother. “Or I might tell Ava what scares the bejesus out of you.”
Ava rose and walked over to the edge of the woods where Luka had pointed. He watched her until she bent over and dropped the grasshopper back into the grass. His mother started pushing on his back.
“Do you think you could move a little or are you afraid that the grasshopper might come back and I’ll have to protect you because you are practically sitting in my lap Luka and you are twice what I weigh.”
He moved glancing over at his mother apologetically. “Sorry Mom. She startled me.”
Ava returned to his side. She put one arm around his shoulder. “All better Daddy?” His brothers all burst out in laughter. The loudest was Dalton.
“Ava, sweetheart, if you ever find a really wooly caterpillar Uncle Dalton would love to see it.”
She laughed. “He would not. He hates caterpillars.”
“Uncle Brett likes frogs.”
“Not going to work,” she told him. “I know he’s afraid of frogs too.”
“Never mind.” He rolled his eyes.
Ramona was looking at Brett. “I’m not afraid of frogs,” Brett declared.
“You are too,” Ava told him. “We were fishing at the pond that one time and a big ole bullfrog jumped out and you almost peed your pants Brett.”
“Thanks Lil Mess.” Brett glared at her. She just giggled.
“What are you afraid of Miss Ava?” Luka asked.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” she declared.
She began eating her Grammy’s cold, fried chicken one of her favorite picnic lunches. Two of her uncles cleared their throats. Luka glanced at them then at her. Skylar spoke up. “She won’t ride since the two idiots put her on a horse and she broke her arm at age three,” she told Luka.
He glanced down at Ava. She looked up at him. “I’m not afraid. I just don’t want to break my arm again. I’m smarter than that.”
He put his arm around her. “Ava, you can’t be a Shaw and not ride a horse.”
Her head shot up and she looked at him with eyes wide, her lower lip trembling. “Technically, I’m not a Shaw. My last name is Bradford.”
Luka turned to Skylar, “I’ll take care of that Ava,” he told his daughter.
The rest of the picnic was quiet. The others made small talk. Skylar and Luka didn’t speak at all. His brothers were loading up the remainder of the picnic lunch into the back of Luna’s car. Ava was swinging on a playground set. Skylar was avoiding Luka at all costs because she knew that he was pissed. Was he such a bastard that she couldn’t even give his child his last name? She could practically hear the question going through his head.
Luka watched Skylar to the point that every now and then she had to look at him and the pain in his eyes and the heat of his anger bore into her so she had to look away. That was something no one had told him. That was something that he hadn’t even though of. He just assumed Ava was a Shaw.
“Skylar, could I talk to you?” She turned and looked at him.
“Nope,” she replied. “Not now Luka.”
He crossed his arms over his massive chest. His mother and her sister were looking at her then at him. “Just tell me one thing.”
‘What?” Her voice trembled. She knew what he was going to ask.
“Is my name even on Ava’s birth certificate?”
She shook her head no. She couldn’t even say the word. He turned and started walking. It was like a kick to the balls and the heart. He knew how she felt that day finding out that he had left her. He had no claim to his own child.
“Luka, where are you going?” She called after him.
“God dammit, Skylar just let me walk.”
&
nbsp; She let him go.
Chapter 9
“Momma, where’s Daddy going?” Ava asked.
“To blow off steam,” Skylar explained.
“Who is he mad at?”
“Me, baby,” Skylar explained.
“What’d you do?”
“Something a long time ago,” Skylar told her.
“So why is he mad now?” Ava asked.
“Ava, honey. Stop worrying. Daddy will never leave you. Not ever.” She put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “I promise you that.”
“He went away once,” she said. It was obvious that Ava had concerns that they had not eliminated. She needed reassurance. “He loved you.”
Skylar looked up at Luna. She was about to cry as well. “But he won’t leave you Ava. You are his flesh and blood. That means something to him. Momma needs to fix some things for your daddy.”
Brett walked over to them. “We have everything loaded now.”
“Could I play for a little while?” Ava asked.
“Sure honey,” Luna told her. When she walked away she said, “It will give Luka time to cool off.”
“I think he needs more than a little while after this.”
Luna sat beside Skylar at the picnic table. Brett and Ramona went to the other side. The other brothers went to the playground with Ava.
“I was only seventeen,” she defended herself. “I was so hurt that he left me. I didn’t want anything that reminded me of him.”
“We know that sweetheart,” Luna replied. “He’ll understand that when he’s not so angry.”
“How do I make it right for him and Ava?”
“Talk to Ava,” Luna suggested. “She’s been a Bradford for the first ten years of her life. He just can’t go changing that if she doesn’t want it. If she does, then make that change for them both. Add his name to the birth certificate for him. That one is easy.”
“I should never have left him off it,” Skylar said staring across the park at Ava.
“No, you probably shouldn’t have.”
“What if something happened to me? I don’t even have a will. I need to do one to protect Ava. He and I need to discuss all these things now that he’s back so she is taken care of.”
“Skylar,” Luna said trying to calm her. “Ava will be fine.”
“My parents weren’t fine.”
“No they weren’t but you girls were,” Luna reassured her.
“Because of Sky,” Ramona said. She tucked her arm through Brett’s and laid her head on his shoulder. “Only because of her. Our aunt was loving but otherwise she was useless. She was just an adult to live at the house so we could all stay together. Sky finished raising us. Hell, let’s be honest.” Ramona snorted. “Skylar raised all along.”
“Thanks for that Ramona.” Skylar glanced over her shoulder at her sister.
Brett patted Ramona’s hand resting against his forearm. “I’m happy for you two,” Skylar told them.
“We have a long way to go,” Ramona insisted.
Skylar chuckled. Brett scowled at her sister. “She will not give me a break.”
“You’ve come in and out of my life Brett. I just need to be sure.”
He kissed her temple. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Luna and Skylar exchanged glances. It seemed the Shaw men had a habit of being aloof in their relationships. In Brett’s case, Sky thought it was because he wasn’t sure of Ramona’s feelings and she wasn’t good at explaining herself either.
Two hours later, Brett was dropping Ava and Skylar at the ranch. He leaned over his seat and looked at his floor as Ava wrapped her arms around Ramona’s neck to hug and kiss her goodbye.
“Lil Mess, don’t forget your socks. You always leave something behind.”
She kissed him next as Skylar scooped up the socks. She pecked her sister’s cheek. Then Brett’s before she climbed out of the truck. She grabbed Ava’s hand and they walked inside together.
The house was quiet. Ava glanced up at her. “Daddy?” Ava called uncertainly.
“Honey, he’s here somewhere.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am. The park isn’t that far. I’m sure he came here. You run upstairs and shower. I’ll go out to the barn. Maybe he’s out there.”
“Okay,” Ava replied.
Skylar laid her sunglasses on the side table. She stepped through the screen door and jogged down the front steps. She had a feeling he was in the barn. Hopefully not breaking her things. She opened the barn doors. He was there. In shorts and tennis shoes. He had found a beam that his hands were wrapped around. He was doing rep after rep of chin ups. His muscles were flexing with every move of his body. A fine sheen of sweat covered his torso.
“Are you going to hold against me something I did ten years ago when I was seventeen?” She asked.
He stopped between reps. Skylar stepped into the barn and plopped down on a stool. He dropped to the ground and turned to her.
“Yeah, I am. You succeeded in making me feel as bad as you did. Happy? She’s my daughter, Sky. Why take everything away from me? Even the piece of paper letting me claim her.”
“No, I’m not happy. I can fix that part. I believe I can go to the courthouse and file a new birth certificate with your name. If not, I’ll do what I need to get your name on it.”
He shook his head. He didn’t feel any better. Skylar could see that. “Your mom suggested we talk to Ava about her name if she wants to be a Shaw then I’ll change that too.”
“I want her to be a Shaw.”
“It isn’t about what you or I want Luka. It is about what Ava wants and right now she’s afraid that you will leave her.”
His eyes flashed with something that she wasn’t sure whether it was anger or hurt. “I would never leave her. I would have been here had I known about her and I wouldn’t have resented either of you.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry Luka.”
“You should be.”
She was getting irritated. She rose from the stool. “We need to talk when you are calmer.”
“About what?” He snapped.
Skylar turned to him.
“Dammit Luka, things I never thought about until today. Things that I should have thought about considering I lost my own parents before I turned eighteen. I never wanted to think about but you not being on her birth certificate but I was reminded that my parents died before any of us were eighteen and we need to protect Ava. We need wills. We need to be sure that if I die before you, you are named her guardian. Things like that, we need to discuss Ava’s future.”
He sat on another stool. “Come back here.” The fight and the anger had gone.
Skylar turned at the barn door. “What?”
“Just come back here,” he said.
Skylar walked back and sat on the stool that was on the other side of the barn directly across from him. As far from him as she could be and still talk. “What?”
“We’ll see an attorney on Monday and do what we need to do to write wills for both of us naming her as my beneficiary with you as my executor. We need backup guardians too in case we both pass.”
“We do. How about Brett and Ramona?” Skylar suggested.
“That’s a great idea.” He rubbed his hand across his face. “There is so much I hadn’t thought of.”
“Me neither. Luka, I only did it so I didn’t have to think of you. Not to hurt you. Honestly, I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”
He looked across the barn at her. “I hurt you that much.” She nodded.
“Can I come in?” Ava asked peeking around the barn door.
Skylar glanced to the left. “That is the fastest shower you have ever taken,” she told her daughter.
“I was eager to see Daddy. I wanted to know if he was all right.”
“I’m fine baby girl. Come here.”
He held his arm out to Ava and she went to him. She slipped onto his knee and wrapped her arm around his neck so he could hold her c
lose. “I love you Ava. I’m not going anywhere no matter how angry I get. You are stuck with me forever now that I know about you. Nothing will take me from you,” he reassured her.
Ava laid her cheek against his. “I’m glad to hear you say that Daddy.”
“Ava, Grammy suggested that we ask you what you want. Do you want to be a Bradford or do you want to have Daddy’s last name of Shaw?” Skylar asked. “Because I’m going to see our attorney on Monday to write a will so that Daddy is named your guardian in case anything happens to me. I can have him start the paperwork changing your last name.”
She looked at Luka. Then she looked at Skylar. “Can I think about that? I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
“Ava,” Skylar said her name. “My feelings won’t be hurt. I think Daddy’s might be but mine won’t. I didn’t give you his name because I was hurt and didn’t want to think about him. I wasn’t thinking about you and your feelings. Now, he and I need to do what is best for you.”
She leaned into her father. Skylar knew without asking that she wanted to be a Shaw like the rest of them. She wouldn’t let it show but so did she. That had been their plan all the time. She was supposed to be Skylar Shaw, married to Luka, living in a house in town having his babies. She pushed that thought out of her head. She was a damn fool, thinking about those dreams still.
“Ava, you want to be a Shaw, don’t you?” She asked her daughter.
“I do,” she whispered.
It gave her security somehow. Like she really was Luka’s if she had his name. Like he really would never leave her. Skylar guessed she understood that. “I will have Jason draw up the paperwork changing your name sweetheart.”
“Sky, are you sure?” Luka asked.
“Ava wants this Luka. I can see it in her face.”
She rose from the stool where she was sitting. “I’ll make an appointment for us Monday morning to see him. We can take care of everything then.” She started walking out of the barn.
“Momma, thank you for understanding. I love you.”
“I love you too Ava.”
Skylar left the barn and went inside the house. She felt like she was losing Ava to Luka even though she knew it was just the need to hold onto him because she hadn’t had him in her life in the ten years of her existence. Her daughter was making up for lost time.
