Page 15 of My Forever Soldier

They both laughed as Charlie ran in a circle to stay away from her, the last of his ice cream dripping on the ground.

“Charlie.” Olivia used her firmest voice and tried not to smile.

His avoidance tactics continued.

“Charlie,stop.”

Luke’s commanding voice rang out and the boy stopped dead in his tracks. Olivia rolled her eyes at Luke, but inside she was amazed. The little devil never listened to her when it came to things like this, but he was on his best behavior for his dad.

“Good boy,” she said, wiping his face.

“Hey, Charlie?”

He looked up at his dad’s voice.

“You need to listen to your mom, bud.” Luke gave him a nod and a wink, as if letting him in on a secret. “She’s pretty special and she’s the only mom you’ve got.”

Olivia shut her eyes for a heartbeat, still not sure how the hell they’d ended up here. How things were so normal and so weird all at the same time.

“Yeah?” asked Luke, his eyes on Charlie.

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed before finishing the rest of his cone.

“Liv!”

Olivia turned at someone calling her name.

“Kelly! You’re back from your vacation already?” She hugged her friend and bent to say hello to her little girl. “Hey, Bec, how are you, sweetheart?”

The girl twirled the edge of her skirt and looked away shyly, but Olivia knew this game. She gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and straightened again.

It took her only a second to realize she hadn’t introduced her friend to Luke, who was looking uncomfortable, sitting on the bench alone. Charlie was showing off to Bec, just as he always did, goofing around and being silly.

“Uh, Kelly, this is Luke. Luke, Kelly.?” She gestured with her hand, suddenly confused. Should she go stand next to Luke or stay beside Kelly?

Luke smiled and stood. “Nice to meet you.”

Her friend nodded and smiled, but Olivia could feel the tension and knew exactly what Kelly must be thinking. She’d made it clear what her thoughts were on husbands walking out, and it sure wasn’t in Luke’s favor. Even if Oliviahadbeen honest with her about accepting some of the blame for the demise of her marriage.

“We’ve just had ice cream. Luke’s been hanging out with Charlie at the park and…” She knew she was blabbing, but the tension in the air wasn’t exactly helping her to stay relaxed. “What have you two been doing?”

Kelly was still looking at Luke, but the question seemed to snap her out of it. “The visit to my parents’ place was pretty hectic, not much of a vacation.” She reached out and touched Olivia’s arm. “How have you been?” Her voice was lower, but Luke was standing less than two yards away.

“Fine, great. Anyway, we best get going,” Olivia said.

Luke excused himself to follow Charlie, leaving her to deal with her burning hot cheeks alone. Talk about embarrassed!

She watched as he walked off, hands stuffed into his pockets, probably feeling like a complete outsider. And she hadn’t done anything to make him feel more at ease.

“Daddy!” Charlie flung himself against his dad when he realized he was being followed, and Luke swung him up into the air and onto his shoulders.

Olivia watched, unable to look away.

It was things like that she felt sad about, or had felt sad about before, when she’d seen other kids with their dads. It wasn’t that she didn’t have a great time with her son, but seeing Luke play with him, tussle with him, made her cringe. Some things men were just better at than women. Like play fighting, Letting kids ride on their shoulders, pretend gunfights…all things she loved seeing fathers and sons do together.

“Liv, you’re drooling. Snap out of it.” Kelly laughed, but Olivia didn’t miss the concern in her voice.

“Sorry, it’s just...” What?

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