Page 50 of 15 Summers Later

“That’s right. That means it’s your week for the dishes. Maybe I’ll decide to make some kind of complicated meal like my five-alarm chili that uses every dish in the house, to keep you from being bored.”

She stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at him, probably much the way Barnabas had to Madi earlier that day.

He smiled and nudged her with his shoulder. Being a single father was a thousand times harder than he’d thought it would be. It was also one hundred thousand times better.

His life might have been so very different without Sierra.

He and Johanna had only been dating six months when she found out she was pregnant. They hadn’t been planning to get married at the time. Neither of them had been ready, both too young with a year left in their undergraduate work.

In those first early days, as they considered all their options, they had talked about adoption. Johanna had been adopted into a loving family herself and had leaned toward that option rather than termination.

Thinking about it now, about not having Sierra in his life, made him vaguely queasy. Luke had been the one to suggest they could marry and try to make a go of it, for the sake of their child.

He had still been reeling from his father’s death eighteen months earlier and his own guilt and pain. He knew he hadn’t been in a solid place to be a husband, a father. Still, he couldn’t help thinking about what his father might have said and at the time felt like he could almost hear Dan’s words echoing in his head.

Time to man up and take care of your responsibilities, son.

So they had married and somewhere along the line, he had come to love Johanna and the life they created together.

She had been a wonderful mother to Sierra and had been devastated that she had been unable to have a second child. They had been talking about fostering to adopt and were beginning to work their way through the process when she had caught COVID from a patient and died two weeks later.

Afterward, he had floundered for a long time, not sure he could handle being a single father and running his vet practice at the same time. His mom had helped. So had Nicki and dozens of others in town. Sierra had been surrounded by a loving community.

He wasn’t ready for all the challenges her teenage years might bring. But like it or not, his daughter was growing up and his responsibilities as her father were changing right along with her.

Fortunately, he had a good support network to help them both through.

Sierra considered Madi an honorary aunt. That’s exactly how Luke needed to think about her. She was part of the family and he had to remember everything that was at stake if he tried to shift the dynamics between them.

His brother Owen’s daughter ran over to them, dimples flashing as she reached out for her cousin Sierra to lift her up to the porch swing with them.

“Fast,” Lottie said, pumping her little legs with her lips pursed in concentration.

“I’m afraid this swing doesn’t go very fast,” Luke said with a smile.

She sat with them only a moment or two before she wriggled to be free. “Down,” she said.

“Do you want me to push you in the tire swing?” Sierra asked.

Lottie’s face lit up. “Yes! I want to swing fast!”

His brother was in for a wild ride with this one, Luke thought with a smile. He couldn’t wait to watch the fun.

Sierra hopped off and grabbed the young girl’s hand. “Okay. Let’s go swing,” she said, leading Lottie over to the playset where some of his stepfather’s grandchildren already played.

He sat alone for a time, watching the crowd. He was about to get up and head for another beer when Ava walked past.

“Are you leaving?”

She inclined her head toward Madi and Leona. “I came with my grandmother and she is apparently not done yet.”

“Have a seat,” he offered.

She looked queasy at the easy movement of the swing but finally sank down onto the padded cushion.

“Thanks,” she said.

“You made it through dinner with no punches being thrown.”

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