by Lee Wardlow
She could fight until she was dead and buried but she loved Luka Shaw and he loved her. He would never go away again. She wasn’t sure that she wanted him to anymore. They were good together as a family.
Yesterday before Tag took her, she was on the phone with Luka, giving him instructions on what to get at the store. It felt like they were already married. At times, they were already in a routine. Doing things together as a family. Making meals. Going to soccer practice. Games. Recitals someday if Ava wanted to take dance again. She hated ballet but Ava was talking about doing tap and jazz. Skylar couldn’t imagine him not being there.
A knock on the door caused her to turn. A female office was standing in the entrance. She stuck her head in the room with a smile on her face, “Hey, your family is here if you want to follow me I’ll take you to them.”
She was excited. Skylar went around the table in the middle of the room and followed the officer out into the hallway. She could hear them. Hell, did they all come? There was a lot of noise at the entrance to the police station. They turned a corner then she saw them.
All four Shaw brothers. All of her sisters. Chloe, she hadn’t even seen yet because Tag took her before she got inside the house. She hugged her first. She was closest to her.
“I’m glad you came home. I’ve missed you.” Her sister laughed at her.
“I’ve missed you too but this wasn’t the homecoming I expected.”
“Yeah, me neither.” She shrugged. “What can you expect around the Bradford house?”
Luna was next, standing behind Chloe. Then her sister Ramona by Brett. “He knows thanks to Luka,” Ramona told her. Skylar smiled at her sister.
“About time,” she told her.
Then she smiled at Brett. “Hi Daddy,” she said to him. She hugged him the hardest.
“When this has passed I have a bone to pick with you,” he said to her but he smiled at her and she knew that everything would be fine with him and Ramona. He would be a great father to their child.
“Really, you do?” She shook her head at him. “I don’t think so.”
Then she saw them. Holding hands at the back of the pack. Tears in her daughter’s eyes. Sky dropped to her knees by Ava. “I’m okay baby.”
“I know. I’m just happy to see you,” Ava told her. “I reassured Daddy that you would be all right when he was crying like a baby.”
Skylar’s head shot up to Luka’s handsome face staring down at her and their daughter. He lifted her from the floor. His hands slid around her waist and he drew her against him.
“I just need to hold you for a moment,” he whispered. Her feet didn’t come close to touching the floor with his arms wrapped around her. Skylar clung tightly to Luka’s neck. She was where she belonged. He kissed her cheek. His breath warm against her skin made a shiver run the length of her spine.
“He didn’t hurt you right?” He had to ask. He had been frantic; worrying about Skylar.
“No, he didn’t.”
“Good.”
He was relieved. She could hear it in his voice. “I need to tell you something Luka.”
He sat her on the floor. Then he looked down on her and began to laugh. “This is why I always tell you to wear shoes Sky.”
“No kidding.” She held onto his forearms for a moment staring at his broad chest. She took a deep breath. It was like jumping out of an airplane with a parachute for the first time. She had to take that leap and trust that it would open taking her safely to the ground. Luka would always catch her though. She was sure of it. He would never hurt her again. “Luka, I love you.”
The statement was simple. She didn’t need to make a flowery speech as she spoke straight from her heart. Three simple words that he had been waiting to hear. Luka crushed Skylar to him and held her for what seemed like minutes but was only seconds.
“I didn’t think I would ever hear that again from you.”
“Funny how life and a kidnapping has a way of showing you what is important to you. I wasn’t sure if I would see you again.”
His hands gripped her tighter. “I wasn’t so sure myself.”
“So you were crying?”
He touched his forehead to hers. “I was. I thought I had lost you. Mom received a phone call from Tag’s mother letting her know you were all right. The relief was overwhelming.”
She chuckled at him. He took her hand and led her into the station. A few officers asked for his autograph. He was upset about it because he wanted to take care of her but she didn’t mind. They had been nothing but kind to her. She squeezed his arm and reassured him she was fine. She urged him to go ahead. The officers surrounded him while she waited with the rest of the family. She glanced at Brett. “So is this going to happen wherever we go?”
“Probably,” he replied. “We’ll have to keep him from getting a fat head about it.”
Skylar laughed out loud. “I don’t think so. He’s no cockier than he was when he left.”
Brett put his arm around Skylar then he put his other arm around her sister and hugged them both. “I am damn glad you are all right.”
“Me too.”
She glanced around him at Ramona to be sure that her sister was okay with Brett holding her and she was. She sighed with relief. Maybe things could get back on track with her and Brett now too. She had been feeling like she was walking on egg shells with him so she didn’t upset Ramona.
Skylar breathed in a huge sigh of relief. She had everyone at home that she loved. She just needed to get back to Haley Cove.
The Chief of Police walked out of his office. “Miss Bradford?” Skylar leaned forward to see around Brett and Ramona. “Could I see you a moment?”
“Sure,” she replied.
Skylar walked into his office and stood in front of his desk. “Is everything all right?”
He was trying not to laugh. She could see it on his face. He had one of those faces. Nice but weathered. His thick mustache completely hid his upper lip which gave the added help he needed hat hiding his humor.
“Tag Richardson was picked up by the Columbus police at four a.m. this morning. They had been holding him for hearing this morning. He was near the airport, planning an escape.”
“That is good news,” Skylar replied.
“His arrest was for a DUI,” he told her. “He failed a field sobriety test.”
“What?”
“Was he drinking at the cabin?”
“He was. Pretty heavily too.”
He shook his head. “He would have gotten away had he not been drunk.”
“What an idiot,” she replied. “I guess I’m glad he was drinking so heavily last night. I was sort of surprised he left the cabin when he did.”
“His only chance to escape while you were sleeping,” he told her.
“I guess. Have a nice day Chief. I’m getting my family and going home now.”
“Go Miss Bradford and enjoy the rest of your weekend.”
Skylar was shaking her head as she walked out of the Chief’s office. Everyone was looking at her. Luka made his escape at that moment. He had taken enough pictures with the men at the precinct. He just wanted to get Skylar home. “Everything all right?” He asked.
She shook her head yes. Then she started laughing. She could just imagine how pissed off Tag was at getting pulled over for a DUI when he was being looked for in the connection of her kidnapping.
“What’s so funny?” Brett asked.
“Tag can’t catch a break,” she told them.
“What?” Luka was gazing at her waiting for her to explain.
“He got pulled over for a DUI. He’s in jail in Columbus. That is how they caught him. He was drinking heavily and was pulled over near the airport for driving under the influence.”
“What an idiot,” Ramona mumbled.
“That’s what I thought.” She grabbed Luka’s hand. “Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
Luka stood outside the bathroom door waiting. His hands were flat
against the solid grain of the wood. Palms up. He was nervous. She wasn’t responding. He wondered if she had locked it. He moved one hand and jiggled the doorknob. Damn, it was locked.
“Come on Skylar. What the hell is going on? You could have just let me come in with you.”
The door suddenly flew open and she held her hand behind her back. “Let me see,” he said.
She shook her head no. He couldn’t tell by the look on her face. She always was the best poker player in the group. “You know I can take that from you,” he told her.
She scowled at him. “Let me have some fun would you Luka?”
They had been married for six months. Trying for a baby for three. Brett and Ramona’s baby was due anytime. She was about to explode and her temper matched her figure at the moment. Brett had become her whipping boy then her shoulder to cry on because she had yelled at him. They were married right away after Tag had kidnapped Skylar. The four of them should have just had a double wedding they were so close together.
“So just tell me are you pregnant?”
She shook her head no. “I’m sorry baby. We can try again next month.” She handed him the stick in her hand and headed for the bedroom door.
Luka felt the same crushing disappointment he had the other two months. He wanted to experience fatherhood from the first moment of finding out. He loved Ava. He loved being her father. He glanced down at the stick in his hand and his mouth popped open. She had lied to him. She was already out the door. The window said, pregnant. “Hey Skylar,” he shouted.
She stuck her head back inside the door. “What Luka?” She asked.
“Come here,” he said.
She strolled through the door. “What?”
He tugged her into his embrace. Skylar gazed up into his eyes. “Why do you look like you’re about to cry Luka?”
“The test…the test says pregnant,” he told her.
“It does,” she laughed. “Are you all right?”
He guided her to the bed and sat down pulling Skylar into his lap. “No, I’m not.” He laid his head on her shoulder and just held her. “This means everything to me Sky. You don’t know.”
“I do know Luka. I really do.”
She pressed her lips to his cheek and her eyes closed. “We’re going to have another baby,” she whispered in his ear.
He turned quickly laying her on the bed on her back; his body hovering over hers. “I love you Sky. I always have.” His eyes were intense. The part of him that always drew her in.
“I love you too Luka.”
He lowered his head. She raised hers. Their lips were just a breath apart, ready to touch. “Momma, Daddy, Uncle Brett is on the phone. Aunt Ramona is at the hospital,” Ava shouted up the stairs.
Luka laid his head in the crook of Skylar’s neck. “That kid has impeccable timing. I’m surprised we were able to ever conceive another child.” He groaned. His breathe tickled her neck and she giggled.
“Come on. We gotta go.” Skylar wiggled out from under him.
“Where are we going?” He asked following her.
“To the hospital Luka. We’re about to become an aunt and an uncle for the first time.”
“What’s the rush?”
Skylar hesitated at the top of the stairs; she turned and gazed at him. “They need our support.”
Luka scratched his head. “To do what?”
She was heading down the stairs. She stopped again and glanced over her shoulder at him. “To give them support Luka. It’s their first baby.”
“Oh,” he still didn’t sound convinced that he understood their role.
At the bottom of the stairs, Ava handed her mother her purse. He grabbed the keys off the side table and they went out the front door to his truck in the driveway.
*****
Skylar played it safe at the hospital. She stuck her head inside the delivery suite door first. “Hi, how’s it going?”
“Get your fucking ass in here,” Ramona shouted. Brett gazed at her with trepidation bordering on outright panic.
“My daughter is behind me.” Skylar could hear Luka chuckling. “You won’t be laughing when it’s me big guy,” she informed him glancing over her shoulder at her husband.
“Probably not.”
“They can come in too.”
Luna was on the other side of the bed holding Ramona’s hand trying to calm her. Luka’s three brothers were leaning against wall where they could hear everything, see their new niece or nephew but not see so much and even they look scared. Skylar stepped inside the room and directed Luka and Ava to stand with Stellan, Dalton and Benji.
Skylar slipped in beside Brett and took Ramona’s hand. “What can I do for you?” She asked her.
“Make the pain go away.”
“Didn’t they give you an epidural?”
Brett cleared his throat. Skylar looked behind her. “She’s one of the small percentage that the epidural doesn’t work.”
Skylar turned her focus back to her sister. “I’m sorry. You can do this.”
“This baby is going to be an only child,” Ramona declared.
Luna looked across the bed and smiled at her son. “Why don’t you come over to this side and hold Ramona’s hand Brett and I’ll go over and stand with Ava and the boys.”
“Luna, thank you.”
She leaned across the bed and kissed Ramona. “You’re welcome sweetheart.”
Skylar brushed her sister’s hair back. “What do we need to do to make you comfortable?” She asked her.
She struggled to sit up. Brett and Skylar pulled her forward. “I’m so uncomfortable.”
Sky kicked off her shoes and got behind her on the bed so she could rub Ramona’s back while she breathed. Her sister leaned back into her. “Is this weird?”
“Not if you’re comfortable.”
Brett was holding her hand.
“I’m comfortable. I just wanted my sister here.” Tears formed in her eyes. “Maybe it won’t be my only one.”
Skylar chuckled. “You can help me in about eight months when Luka is too nervous to keep his head on straight,” she told her sister.
Ramona turned her head and gazed at her sister with a smile. “You’re pregnant?”
“I am.”
“I’m so happy for you.”
“Congratulations,” Brett told her.
“We’re pretty happy,” Skylar agreed.
**
Brett and Ramona’s baby arrived after three hours of pushing. Luna and Luka took Ava and Brett and Luka’s brothers out of the room when things became too intense for Ava.
Holding his newborn son against his chest Skylar felt tears prick her eyes. Her best friend and her sister had produced this ginger haired son that looked a great deal like her sister as a newborn. Brett couldn’t take his eyes off the baby.
“What are you going to name him?” Skylar asked.
“Brett James Shaw,” Ramona replied. “We’re going to call him James though to avoid confusion.”
Brett leaned across her and laid the baby in Ramona’s arms. He kissed her forehead. “I love you, babe.”
“He’s beautiful. Isn’t he?” Ramona was looking at her sister.
“He is Ramona,” Skylar agreed.
“I’m going to get Mom and the rest of the family,” Brett told them.
Ramona smiled and nodded. When he left she looked at her sister. “Would you take a picture and send to Chloe and Roxy?”
“Sure,” Skylar told her. Taking her phone out she snapped a picture of Ramona and James and texted her sisters.
Then she snuggled in beside Ramona and put her arm around her. “He really is beautiful Ramona.”
“I know. I’m just so amazed by him. How did Brett and I create this? I just can’t believe it.”
It was amazing. They each had a child now. Ramona had been such a strong influence in Ava’s life. She couldn’t wait to be there for all of James’s firsts too.
“Thank you,” she told Ra
mona.
“For what?” Her sister was looking at her in confusion.
“For helping me with Ava. Always being there for me. I love you Ramona. After Mom and Dad died I felt like it was you and me even though we had Luna and the boys. I’m so looking forward to being this little guy’s aunt.”
Ramona laid her head against Skylar’s. “I love you Sky.”
Everyone poured into the room. Brett’s brothers were slapping him on the back and teasing him about his red haired boy who looked like his beautiful mother.
Luka now held the baby in his arms. He looked even smaller. Ava had held him already so had Luna and the other brothers. Rising from the bed Skylar leaned over baby James to see his face and Luka leaned down to kiss her. He knew what she wanted. Just a kiss. That simple connection that reminded them of what they had. She rested on his shoulder after that and just looked at the baby in his arms playing with his fingers.
“What do you guys want the second time around?” Dalton asked.
Skylar glanced up at Luka letting him answer. He looked at Ava who was also waiting for a response. “I don’t care. I already got my Daddy’s girl.” He winked at her. “I just want it to be it be healthy. What do you think Ava? Is there room in our family for two pampered princesses?”
She rolled her big blue-green eyes at him. “I’m no princess. I am a Daddy’s girl though.” He just laughed at her.
“What about you Skylar?” Luka asked.
“I’m with you. A healthy baby.”
“There’s your answer Dalton.”
They stayed for a while with Brett and Ramona. Brett would stay the night at the hospital with his new family. Text messages of congratulations arrived from the two absentee sisters.
As Skylar left she saw the love in the room. It started with Luna and how she had raised her sons. She hugged her mother-in-law goodbye. She knew that Ramona and Brett would teach James the same love. She glanced at the three brothers who were preparing to leave. They each hugged her goodbye then told Ava goodbye as well.
She went to Brett and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you. I’m so happy for you,” she told him.