Page 13 of My Forever Soldier

“You sure?” He felt silly questioning a kid, but he had no idea if they were at the right apartment or not, and he didn’t even have his wife’s cell phone number to call her and ask.

Charlie nodded and reached on tiptoes to push the buzzer.

Just when Luke was ready to call off the idea, Olivia’s clear voice rang out through the intercom

“Bolton residence, who is it?”

Luke swallowed. “Olivia?”

“Mom, it’s me! Let us up!”

That solved the problem of explaining why they were there.

“Hey, honey, come on up.”

Luke followed, starting to get used to the idea of being the one who did as he was told, rather than the other way around. Perhaps his son was destined to follow in his footsteps. The idea put a smile on his face as they walked up.

Charlie bounded on ahead and, breathless, jumped into the elevator. “You just push the button and it takes you to the right floor,” he explained.

“Righto.” Luke nodded.

Seconds later the doors swished open and they stepped into an apartment like he’d never seen before.Wow. The guy clearly had plenty of money.

Jealously made Luke grimace, but he shrugged it away. Perhaps if he knew the man wasn’t actually interested in Olivia he’d feel differently.

“Hi, sweetheart!” Ollie enveloped Charlie in her arms and kissed his head. “What are you two doing here?”

She directed that question at Luke, and he stuffed his hands deep into his pockets, feeling uncomfortable. He didn’t like being in another man’s house, especially when he wasn’t exactly sure how to explain himself.

“We were at the park and Charlie decided he wanted to see you,” Luke told her. “I hope we haven’t interrupted.”

Charlie hung on to his mom’s leg, too preoccupied to chime in and tell her that they were here because Luke had told a strange woman at the park that’s where they were heading.

“Nice place your boss has,” he said.

Olivia smiled and turned back to the kitchen, Charlie trailing after her. “It’s not exactly a bad place to work,” she said over her shoulder. “Do you two want lunch?”

Charlie was already nodding, and Luke just smiled when she turned around to face them.

“How about you both sit down and I’ll whip something up,” she said.

Luke walked around the living room, his eyes picking up on all the things around him. Photos lining one sidepiece, the odd painting, plus a few stacks of magazines and a couple of pricey-looking artifacts. Nothing over the top, but everything in the room looked expensive.

He stopped at the cluster of photographs and squinted, not liking what he saw. A handsome, dark-haired man was smiling back at him, his arm slung around a woman.

He was in most of the shots, and it didn’t take a genius to work out that the man was the owner of the place.

“Is this your boss?” Luke asked.

Olivia hardly even looked up. “You mean the one with the pretty blonde? That’s Ricardo with his sister.”

Luke couldn’t help the tight clench of his jaw. She obviously knew the photos intimately and he hated it. He could only hope that she was so familiar with them because she dusted around them regularly, not because she liked looking at her boss.

Jealousy wasn’t an emotion Luke was familiar with. and he wasn’t liking it at all.

“Lunch is ready.”

He forced a smile and walked to the counter, trying to ignore the soft sway of his wife’s hips, the way she smiled as their son ate his crusts, and the shine in her eye when she laughed. Olivia might be Luke’s wife, but he had no right to be jealous of the people she knew, or who was in her life right now. But seeing her boss, acknowledging his jealousy toward him, was only making Luke want to fight all the more for what he’d lost.

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