Page 46 of My Forever Soldier

Kelly sighed. “You need some time alone, without Charlie around. Stay away the whole weekend if you like, but just make sure you dosomething.”

Maybe she was right. The last thing he wanted was to leave his son, not when he was enjoying him so much. But a day or night away with his wife? Just the two of them?

“Charlie’s only been out of hospital two days. I don’t think Olivia will go for it,” Luke stated.

“Don’t think I’ll go for what?”

Olivia stood in the doorway, her eyebrows arched in question. She had her arms folded, forming a barrier over her chest. And she didn’t look impressed.

“Hey, Liv.” Kelly put her coffee down and stood to give her a kiss on the cheek.

Olivia went through the motions, but still didn’t look convinced.

Luke shrugged, trying to ignore the question.

“Don’t think I’d go for what?” Olivia repeated.

Luke looked at Kelly, but she wasn’t being any help. Damn it. This whole thing hadn’t even been his idea, and he was the one undergoing the interrogation.

“Kelly has offered to look after Charlie if we want to spend some time together tomorrow,” Luke told her.

She uncrossed her arms. At least she didn’t look so angry now.

“I can’t leave him.” It sounded as if there was no room for changing her mind, but then Luke had expected that. “What if he had an asthma attack again?”

“He’s not going to, Ollie. We’ve got everything under control,” Luke assured her. “But I feel the same as you, so if you don’t want to, I understand. He still coughed a lot last night.”

“I…” She’d gone pink in the face, her cheeks flushed.

“You know you can trust me with him, Liv” Kelly got to her feet. “I’Il leave you guys to talk about it, but I’m happy to help out. Just pick up the phone and I’ll be here.”

Olivia walked Kelly to the door and Luke stayed put. Itwasa good idea, he’d give her that. They needed to spend time together to see if there was any chance for them to ever go back to what they’d once had. He’d proved to her that he loved Charlie, and enjoyed every single moment in his son’s company, even when things were tough. But for them to figure things out between them, to get their marriage back to a point where they could build a future? It was something that needed more than time to heal. It needed action.

Olivia walked back into the room and picked up one of Charlie’s books. She held it in her hands before dropping it into a basket.

“I just hate the idea of leaving him,” she said. “I’ve never left him. Not even for a night.”

Luke walked toward his wife and stopped a few feet from her. He reached out and touched her arms, one hand to each of her elbows, wanting to be close to her but not wanting to push her, to crowd her if she wasn’t ready.

“Why don’t we go to Laguna Beach?” he suggested. “Lunch at a nice little restaurant, stroll past the shops, walk along the beach? We could just go for the day?”

She slowly nodded her head, almost reluctantly. But he’d known she’d want to go there, because it was the place they’d first met.

“Is that a yes?” he asked, the corner of his mouth kicking up into a grin,

Ollie smiled back at him. He tried not to watch that smile, not to focus on her mouth, but it was hard. Those pouting, pillow-soft lips were tempting, but he restrained himself. He had to keep his desire in check, rein back on what he wanted. If she gave him another chance, there would be plenty of time for that. Right now he needed her to trust him.

“So we’d only be gone for five or six hours?” she asked.

“We could take our overnight bags just in case,” he suggested.

Olivia shook her head fiercely. “Uh-uh. No.”

He stooped slightly to look into her eyes, hands still on her elbows. “Just in case?”

“You’re pushing it, Luke” She looked panicked now, as if the whole idea of leaving terrified her more than he’d even come close to understanding.

He stepped back. Surrendered. “Okay, we’ll just drive there for lunch, take a few hours.”

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