Page 17 of My Forever Soldier

Luke chuckled as he took it from him. Of course it was a picture.

He scanned the squiggly lines and tried to figure it out without asking for a clue.

“It’s me, you and Mom.”

Huh. He guessed it could be, if he squinted. Kind of.

“What’s the big round thing over here?”

Charlie was already walking off, leaving Luke to trail behind, still looking at the drawing.

“It’s a plane,” Charlie told him.

“You like planes, huh?”

Charlie shook his head vigorously. “I hate planes. They take you away from us. That’s why I put it there.”

Luke felt an ice-cold press of dread. Wow. Talk about a kick in the guts. By a four-year-old.

“I’m not going to fly off and leave you again, Charlie. I’m not.” He wished he could make his son realize how determined he was not to let him down again.

Charlie had settled himself at the table. Luke kept his voice low, not wanting Olivia to hear what they were talking about.

“I promise, bud. I’m not gonna leave you, okay?

Charlie smiled but didn’t look convinced. “I’m hungry.”

“It’s coming now,” Olivia called out.

Luke stood back, fighting the urge to either walk from the room to find somewhere to be alone, or grab his kid hard and hold him tight, until he convinced him how much he cared. Because he’d done to his son what he’d hoped never to do. What he would regret for the rest of his life.

He’d given a little kid issues, and he had no excuse for it. He should have known better. But when Luke had finally come to his senses, he’d thought he’d come back in time. A four-year-old should be worrying about what toy to play with, his favorite television shows, and instead Charlie was worried about keeping his father here. About a parent not coming home again. Luke had never wanted a child of his to know what it was like to have a dad, then have him snatched away, but that’s exactly what he’d done. Just because Luke hadn’t died didn’t mean his son had felt the loss any differently.

If he hadn’t been sure before, he was now. It was time to break that cycle, to be a man and step up to his responsibilities. What worried him was the knowledge that if he hadn’t almost died over there, he might never have realized what an idiot he’d been, and hightailed it back home.

“Dinner’s ready.”

Olivia stood at the table across from him. She had an apron tied around her middle, her hair pulled back off her face into a ponytail, and her cheeks were flushed from standing over the stove. Luke had everything to fight for, so why the hell had he been such an idiot?

He knew why. He’d met Olivia, thinking she was pretty and fun, and then it had turned into something more with- out him even realizing that fact. He had fallen for her hard, but he’d always planned to leave, and they’d never planned on having a baby. Hell, he’d never even thought about marriage until Olivia had taken the home pregnancy test. Then reality had come calling.

But the army had been his life, and when Charlie arrived Luke had faced the hardest decision he’d ever had to confront. And all he’d been able to think was that he should have kept walking, that first day he’d set eyes upon Olivia. If he’d kept walking, he would never have had to deal with being a dad, when he’d never wanted to be one. Or being married to a woman who deserved so much better.

“Luke?”

Olivia had sat down at the table next to Charlie. They were waiting for him. His perfect little family was watching him, wondering why he was standing still and staring at them like that.

He shook himself from his trance. “Sorry, I was a million miles away.”

She started to dish food onto their plates, and Luke sat down. They’d been waiting for him a long time, his family. If he logically figured out what he had to do, it was to make them both—Olivia and Charlie—realize that he had been worth the wait.

Luke had to be honest, and make them understand just how hard his decision to stay away from home had been.

6

OLIVIA HADN’T BEEN able to think about anything other than Luke since they’d seen Kelly. Now Charlie was tucked up in bed, and that meant they had to talk about the tough stuff.Now. Before she lost her nerve and ended up calling it a night and heading for bed.

She doubted Luke wanted to talk about the past any more than she did, but it was a conversation they had to have, and as soon as he came back with their coffee, it was time to start.

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