Happy Trail (Lucas Brothers Book 3)

by Jordan Marie

  I wrap her in my arms. That’s my woman. She has every right to hate the man. Shit, she has every right to hate me for allowing him into our lives and for helping to destroy our relationship early on, and yet she doesn’t. She loves me. She loves me so deeply that I will never doubt it. It shows in everything she does. I don’t deserve her, but I sure as hell am going to do everything in my power to keep her and make sure she never regrets that love.

  “He nearly cost me the two people I cherish most in the world. I have nothing left to say to my father.”

  “If you’re sure. I just don’t want you to feel like you can’t go to say goodbye because of me.”

  “I don’t, honey,” I tell her, sitting down on the sofa and pulling her into my arms.

  “This is nice,” she whispers, laying her head on my shoulder. “I’m never taking this for granted.”

  “What’s that?”

  “This. You and me alone, loving each other. Our son asleep in his room, all of it. It’s a gift, and I’m never taking it for granted.”

  “I know exactly what you mean. I have been thinking, though,” I tell her, kissing on her bare shoulder while lifting the spaghetti strap of her pajama top to kiss there, too.

  “What about?” she whispers, wiggling in my lap.

  I’m sure she can feel my hard cock pushing against her ass. Any more moving and this will be over much quicker than I want it to be.

  “Our family is almost perfect,” I tell her, letting my tongue slide up to the side of her neck and raking my teeth across the tender skin.

  “Almost?” she whispers.

  “Mmm… hmm…” I moan in her ear as my hand captures her breast. “Only one more thing would make it really perfect.”

  “What’s that?” she asks, her fingers pushing into my hair as she holds my head close.

  “We need a little girl.”

  “We… we do?” she asks, pulling back to look at me.

  “River needs a little sister to look out for.”

  “What are you saying, Luka?”

  “That I have this deep need to see you pregnant with my child again, Lo’. There was too much in the way before. This time, everything will be different. I want another child with you. I want your stomach stretched,” I tell her softly, my hand gently squeezing her tit. “I want your breasts growing, filling with milk to nurture our child. I want to feel our child kick inside of you, I want all of that and more.”

  “I don’t think I realized just how romantic you could be, Luka.”

  “If it helps, I also want to relive how damned horny you get when you’re pregnant,” I tell her honestly, making her laugh.

  “I’m not having another child with you unless we’re married, Luka.”

  “Are you proposing to me, Lotus Petal?”

  “Well, now that you mention it… I think I am.”

  “Shouldn’t you be on your knees?”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I think that’s tradition. You don’t want to fuck with tradition, do you, Lo’?”

  “You’re starting to annoy me, Luka Parish,” she sighs, but she slides down from my lap to get on her knees in front of me.

  “Damn, but I like you in this position.”

  “I can tell,” she notes, laughing and rolling her eyes as she looks at my cock, which is tenting my pajama pants.

  “Since you’re down there…”

  “Did you seriously just do this so you could get a blowjob?”

  “Lotus Petal Parish! Just because your mind is in the gutter doesn’t mean mine is. I was just going to ask you if you could reach under the couch. Something keeps hitting my foot. It’s annoying me.”

  “Are you for real?”

  “Honey, it could be something dangerous. You know how River is always trying to put things in his mouth. He kind of reminds me of his mother,” I tell her with a wink.

  “Keep it up, mister, and it will be a cold day in Hell before I put anything back in my—”

  “In your what?” I ask, but she’s found the box I had hidden under the edge of the couch. She leans back on her heels holding the blue box with the ivory ribbon in the palm of one hand.

  She stares at the box. “Luka?” Slowly she lifts her gaze to me. I bend down to take the top off of the box, revealing the ring underneath. It’s a beautifully cut diamond wedding ring, the diamonds make a heart and surround the biggest diamond in the center: a diamond that came from Petal’s original ring.

  “Years ago, I asked this seventeen-year-old girl to marry me in the worst way possible. I loved her with all of my heart, but I lost sight of that. I allowed people to get in my head, and I held her mistakes against her, ignoring the ones I made.”

  “That’s the diamond from my wedding ring. I recognize it… but how?”

  “I never wanted our marriage to end. I never got rid of the ring, Lo’. Even when you gave it back to me, I held out hope that someday, you would wear it again. We may have been apart, Lo’, but it was always you for me. It will always be you for me.”

  “Oh God, Luka,” she gasps, and she’s crying, but I’m thinking that it all means good things. There’s joy on her face.

  I take the ring out and hold it out in front of her hand.

  “Will you marry me one more time, Lo’? Will you marry me again—for the very last time?”

  “Yes!” She cries as I slide the ring onto her finger.

  I pull her back onto my lap, and she holds me close, hugging me tightly. Finally, everything is right in my world.

  “I love you, Lo. I will love you until the day they put me in the ground.”

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to put the ring on my finger until after a ceremony,” she says eventually, still in my lap, curled into me and staring down at the ring.

  “That ring is not coming off your hand. I got you a new engagement ring. We can use that in the ceremony.”

  “Isn’t that doing things a little backwards?”

  “We’ve never done anything exactly the way it’s supposed to be, Lo’, and look where it’s led us,” I remind her.

  “It has been a curvy road, for sure, to get to our happy ending.”

  “Honey, it’s not an ending. It’s just a beginning.”

  “That it is,” she agrees, and her lips find mine. The kiss is one of emotion, one filled with love, one filled with promises.

  Promises that I will make sure I fulfill for the rest of my life.

  The End

  Epilogue

  Petal

  “Oh, God! I’m dying. I know I am,” I whimper.

  “Stop that! You are not dying. You’re just a little green around the gills.”

  “I’m dying!”

  “Lotus Petal, if you don’t stop spouting that nonsense, I’m going to clobber you!”

  “Clobber?”

  “It seems more effective than spanking,” Mom says with a shrug.

  “I can’t go out there and face everyone, Mom!”

  “Of course you can! Why on Earth can’t you?”

  “I just threw up!”

  “So? People throw up all the time! Stop being dramatic!”

  “I threw up on Luka after the preacher announced us man and wife!”

  “It’s okay. I got a little sick myself at that part,” Mom says helpfully.

  “Mother!” I cry, unable to believe her right now.

  “What? I may like Luka now, but I don’t have to like his last name. I swear, I don’t see why he couldn’t have let me adopt him. He’d be so much better with the last name Lucas,” she grumbles. “Orange Lucas.”

  “Orange?”

  “For the color of his prison uniform! What do you think?”

  “I think you might really be insane, and besides you couldn’t have adopted him,” I sigh, having had this conversation with my mother at least a hundred times—at least it feels like that many.

  “Of course I could have! Why do you and Luka keep insisting on that?”

  “
Because he’s a grown man!”

  “So it’s still perfectly acceptable. I checked into it—numerous times,” she huffs.

  “Then you couldn’t have because it would have made Luka my brother! I can’t marry my brother!”

  “He wouldn’t have been your brother, dear, at least not by blood. It would have been fine. They make made-for-TV movies about that sort of thing all the time.”

  “Mom, please,” I whimper, holding my stomach.

  “And you should see the romance novels about this kind of thing. I found this one book by an author… What was her name, again…?”

  “Mother,” I sigh, knowing it won’t help at this point.

  “She writes the naughtiest stories about stepbrothers and sisters. They’re very hot actually. Why can’t I remember her name??”

  “Kill me now,” I plead, looking up at the sky for mercy. God doesn’t feel giving, though, because I’m not carried up into the clouds.

  “Actually, if you think about it, having Luka as your stepbrother might have spiced up your sex life. There was this one scene involving butt plugs that looked like rainbow—”

  “Oh, God, I’m going to be sick again,” I whine, then pull away from my crazy mother and lean over the commode, emptying what’s left of my stomach.

  “Lo’, are you okay?” Luka cries, worry thick in his voice as he comes barging into the bathroom. He somehow manages to get around my whack-a-doo mother and holds my hair while I puke my guts out—literally.

  “I’m dying.”

  “We have to get you to the emergency room,” Luka insists, trying to gather me in his arms.

  “She’s not dying,” my Mom interjects. “She’s being overly-dramatic. It’s a flaw she has. I think she got it from her father’s side. I can’t remember him that well, but he had that gift.”

  I turn to face her just as she’s giving Luka a cool cloth for me. I’m grateful for it, so her act of kindness ruins my look of annoyance I give her.

  “We need to have her checked out anyway. We can take my truck.”

  “There’s no need, dear. Lotus Petal will be fine.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  “I’m not going to be fine. I just threw up on my husband! At our wedding!” I cry.

  “Lo’ honey, calm down. That doesn’t matter. Let’s get you to the truck—”

  “Oh, Lord in Heaven. Will you two cut it out? Lotus Petal is fine. She’s just pregnant.”

  “She’s not… Wait… Lo’? Is she right? Are you pregnant?”

  “I… don’t know? I could be? I haven’t really been keeping track.”

  “Of course she is! You two have been going at it like rabbits. Besides, I’ve been making sure you drink the tea I make. What did you think was in that?”

  “You said it was medicine to help with the migraines I’ve been getting,” Luka mutters. “Stuff tastes like shit, though.”

  “Well, it does help with migraines, but its main purpose is to give some extra strength to your soldiers.”

  “I… My… Lo’, did you know about this?”

  “Of course not,” I whisper, but I’m holding my stomach. “I’m pregnant…?”

  “Definitely,” Mom assures me with a grin.

  “I’m going to be a dad again,” breathes Luka.

  “And I’m going to be a mother,” I whisper back, barely noticing my mother leaving the room.

  “Lo’. We’re getting our daughter.”

  “It could be a boy,” I warn him.

  “If it is, we’ll just keep trying,” he says with a smile.

  “I’m sorry I threw up on you and ruined our wedding.”

  “We’re man and wife. There’s not a thing ruined.”

  “We’re man and wife,” I agree.

  “Do you feel up to going outside to cut the cake?” he asks.

  “I’d rather lie on the bed and just let you hold me until the room stops spinning,” I tell him honestly.

  “Then that’s what we’ll do.” He takes me into his arms.

  As we settle on the bed and his fingers play in my hair, I can feel my eyes grow heavy. I know I’m going to fall asleep. There’s just one thing I want to say before I do.

  “Luka? Promise me no matter what happens in our lives together, you never ever get near me with butt plugs of any kind—especially rainbow-colored ones.”

  “Now Lo’—”

  “Promise me!”

  “We’ll negotiate,” he says as I drift off. I realize I’m going to lose the negotiation, but that’s okay. I have a feeling it will be a good loss.

  Epilogue

  Luka

  “Why are you in here alone at your wedding reception looking like you just lost your best friend?” Ida Sue asks as she comes into the kitchen.

  Lo’ and I got married at the farm. It’s become a family tradition, and since I’ve been accepted into the fold, I wanted that almost as much as Lo’ did. I want family. I want tradition. I want things to pass along to my children. It’s just…

  “I’m going to be a father again,” I tell Ida Sue.

  “You can’t tell me you’re not happy about that. You’ve been nailing my daughter every chance you get.”

  “I wouldn’t say—”

  “I can’t even go to the restroom at the bowling alley without seeing the two of you there.”

  “You really should have knocked before coming into that stall,” I tell her with a smile.

  “You really should have locked the door. I even lock the door to the kitchen when Jansen and I decide to give our thanks to the Lord above on the table.”

  “I really don’t think sex should be compared to praying.”

  “Then maybe you aren’t doing it right, son. So tell me. What’s really going on in that head of yours?”

  “Well, I mean, River’s a good kid. He takes after his mother, though. What if us having another child…?”

  “It’s a little too late to worry about what you’re passing on to your child, Luka. Is that what this is all about? Are you afraid you have some kind of crazy gene from your father?”

  I sigh, shaking my head.

  “You really have ‘being blunt’ down to a lifestyle, Ida Sue,” I complain.

  “I like people who are blunt. You never have to worry about what’s going on in their heads. And I’m about to be blunt again. Are you ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I tell her honestly, almost afraid of what she has to say.

  “I cornered the market on bad parents, Luka.”

  “What? Now you’re talking crazy. Petal talks about her grandparents fondly.”

  “That’s because they don’t really remember them, and I let them think all good things. That’s my way of protecting them. But let me ask you a question. What kind of parents allow their sixteen-year-old daughter to attend free love rallies?”

  “I… well…”

  “What kind of parents encourage their sixteen-year-old to take part in those rallies?”

  “Ida Sue, I mean… but you did live that lifestyle,” I answer, trying to keep anything near condemnation out of my voice. I’m not condemning her in the least. I’ve come to admire my mother-in-law quite a bit.

  “I did, eventually. But I didn’t before your father.”

  “Fuck. Ida Sue…”

  “That’s not said to make you feel guilty, sweetheart. I’m just saying parents are supposed to protect their children. My parents left me exposed. They let people think I was one type of girl, and they left me exposed to monsters… like your father who preyed on innocents.”

  “I’m so sorry, Ida Sue.”

  “That’s just it, Luka. You don’t have to be sorry. You didn’t do it. I survived, and I found a life for myself inside that commune for a while. I met men who made me realize that sex could be beautiful and that love wasn’t something I should be ashamed of. I found life in that commune.”

  “I’m not sure I want to discuss my mother-in-law’s sex life—no offense.�
��

  “None taken,” she says and laughs. “I’m just saying, good people grow from their life and the trials they’ve had. Bad ones just rot at their very core.”

  “Okay.”

  “You’re good people, Luka. I’m not my parents. I fight for my kids. I protect my kids, and I’m damned proud of them.”

  “I can see that—”

  “In the same way that you aren’t your father. You were barely able to stand, and yet you dove into that water to save your son. You did everything you had to do to protect him. You are a dad. A damned good one.”

  I let her words wash over me. Somehow, they give me a peace like nothing else could have.

  “I’m damned proud to have you as a son-in-law, Luka.”

  “I feel the same about you, Ida Sue.”

  “I still wish you’d let me adopt you, though. The Lucas name is a good one.”

  “That it is. Maybe I can name my next son Lucas.”

  “Or you could let me adopt you.” She shrugs, getting up.

  “Ida Sue,” I begin, not sure what to say.

  “Let’s just leave the offer on the table,” she winks.

  “Luka?”

  I look up as I hear Petal’s voice. She’s standing at the door looking sleepy and beautiful.

  “Go claim your bride, son. If you need a bit of privacy, there’s a playhouse out front that works real well,” Ida Sue says with a smirk, slapping me on the shoulder before walking to Petal and kissing her gently on the forehead and then leaving the room.

  I walk over to Petal, smiling, and for the first time since watching my father drive my son into the river, I feel free.

  “Are you okay, Luka?”

  “I’m better than okay,” I tell her completely truthfully. Then I pull her up in my arms carefully.

  “What are you doing? I think you’re supposed to wait to carry me over the threshold until we’re actually at a threshold!” She laughs, linking her arms up around my neck.

  “I was thinking you and I should go visit that playhouse out front while everyone else is partying.”

  “The playhouse? The same playhouse my entire family abuse at every wedding this family has?”