Page 21 of My Forever Soldier

It was times like this she could almost pretend he’d never left.

Luke watchedher from across the table. He couldn’t have dragged his eyes from her even if he’d wanted to.

“You first,” he said, sliding the plate her way.

Olivia looked at him, before shrugging and taking another mouthful.

“Good?”

She giggled and put her hand in front of her mouth, “Definitely worth getting fat for.”

She took another few mouthfuls before pushing it back toward him. “Thank you.”

Luke looked up from the pie. “For what?”

She shrugged her shoulders before sitting back in the chair, as if she wasn’t sure what she wanted to tell him. Or maybe she was, but didn’t know how to say it.

“For this,” she said, her voice low. “For remembering.”

As if he would ever forget about her. “When we married, we were so young,” he said, hoping it came out the right way. “After what I’ve seen, the things I’ve been witness to, I don’t want to argue, Ollie. I just want to give us a real chance.” Luke paused. “I had a lot of time to think when I was away, time to try to figure out where we went wrong, and you know what?”

Olivia hadn’t taken her eyes from him.

“I think things might have been different if we’d taken it slow. If we hadn’t rushed headfirst into marriage and a baby, even though we didn’t really have any control over that.” He smiled at her, wishing they could go back in time. “But I’d like to think we could start over again and go slow. Or at least consider it.”

She looked up before reaching for the fork resting on the side of the plate, and diverting her gaze. “I’d like that,” she said, her hand hovering midair as she met his gaze again. “I just hope we’re not already past the point of no return.”

Luke didn’t look away until she did. He hoped she was wrong about that.

“So tell me more about Charlie’s preschool,” he asked.

Olivia looked relieved that he’d changed the subject. “If we start talking about how brilliant that kid is at preschool we could be here all day.”

Funny, but Luke didn’t mind the sound of that. Not one bit.

Olivia smiled across the room at him and Luke grinned straight back. Every smile, every touch, every gesture made him feel as if he was getting somewhere. That having to work so hard was worth every scrap of effort.

When he’d been in foster care, times had never been easy. He’d learned to appreciate every minor victory, every day that didn’t result in a beating or a bad word. Every day that didn’t make him cry for the father he’d lost. And that was how he was approaching being part of his family again. Every day that went by without him messing up was a good one. A day he could be proud of. And one that made his regret that he’d ever left them run even deeper.

The one thing that was tough was not being particularly good at what he was trying to do. When he joined the army, he’d trained harder than any of the other recruits, he’d worked harder to ascend the ranks and he’d learned with rapid speed when he’d been accepted into Delta Force. But there was no course, no training, noanythingto practice when it came to being a dad. Being a great father meant learning through mistakes, and that was not something that came naturally to Luke. He liked rules, orders, strategies—but he was darned if he was going to give up this time without doing his best. Even if there wasn’t a rule book for him to follow.

Olivia’s voice made him look up. She’d walked back into the room.

“Would you mind taking care of Charlie tomorrow afternoon, Luke?”

No, he didn’t mind at all. “Sure.”

Olivia gave him a smile. He wished he knew if it was a thanks-for-helping-out kind of smile, or something more.

She picked up some of Charlie’s clothes and started to fold them. “I need to help Ricardo prepare for a party, but it shouldn’t take long. It just means I’ll be back later than usual.”

Ricardo. Luke hated every syllable, every letter, of that man’s name. He knew it was stupid, but there was something he didn’t like about the guy, or the way Olivia spoke about him.

“Luke?”

He tried not to show the jealousy throbbing at his temple.

“Sure. Fine. We’ll just hang out here.”

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