Page 49 of My Forever Soldier

The sun had startedits descent, but fluffy clouds hid it from view. The wind had a hint of coolness, but then Olivia thought she was probably oversensitive right now. Luke had his eyes trained ahead and she couldn’t stop watching him.

His face had been ingrained in her memory for so long. She’d spoken to other army wives who’d worried they would forget the memory of their husband’s faces, but that was never something that had concerned her. It seemed as if every day, week, month that had passed made her remember Luke more vividly. As it he was a constant presence in her life rather than an absent one.

The breadth of his shoulders, even from side on, the curve of his dark eyebrows, the length of his eyelashes. They were things she would never forget, and yet had hoped so hard sometimes that she could. The memory of him had made every other man she’d met since unappealing, and yet the reality of him had, until now, disappointed her more than she could ever have imagined.

Luke. She breathed his name through slightly parted lips.Her husband.Would he still be her husband next week, next month? It seemed an age ago that she’d demanded he sign the divorce papers, and she wanted so badly for him to tell her he was going to stay. For good this time. But she was too scared to ask, didn’t want to know, because she didn’t want anything to cloud her judgment or the way she was feeling about him. What was developing between them.

“I think we’re both a little lost in our thoughts.”

Olivia turned her gaze back to Luke and nodded. “That could have to do with how beautiful it is here.”

He leaned closer and slung his arm around her shoulders. “Thinking about Charlie?”

She shook her head. “Funnily enough, no.”

“I was,” he admitted.

She would never have guessed, had expected him to be thinking about war. “What about Charlie were you thinking?”

“How lucky he is to have a mom like you.” Luke turned to face her, his eyes looking straight into hers, not letting her glance away. “You’re a great mom, Ollie, and Charlie’s a lucky boy. I just hope that one day he can say the same about his dad.”

Ollie smiled even though tears flooded her eyes. “He’s always been proud of you. Told everyone everything he could about his dad who’s away at war. I guess you just have to live up to the hero he’s created.”

“No pressure, huh?” Luke grinned.

“Oh, there’s plenty of pressure!”

They both laughed and started to walk again. The little place they planned to eat at was just ahead. “Come on,” Luke said.

And when he put his arm around her this time, she fell into his embrace and let her head touch his shoulder. Because it was where she wanted to be. Snug under her husband’s arm, rid of the memories of being left, and with a real chance at a future. Now she just needed to trust in him when he told her how he felt.

From across the table,Luke watched his wife. It was a word he’d said over and over in his mind when he’d been away.Wife. He knew he had one, but it hadn’t seemed real. From the moment he’d shipped out, it was as it the life he’d had for such a short time as a civilian had disintegrated. He’d been a soldier for most of his life, created a family for himself there, and the loyalties he had were so conflicted. Ollie was everything he’d ever hoped for. Sweet, kind and fiercely loyal.And that face. It had been her eyes he’d noticed first, from across the bar, where she’d sat laughing with girlfriends. Luke had abandoned his mates without a backward glance to go talk to her, and the rest was history.

Even now, he couldn’t explain how they’d managed to let their marriage fall apart as it had, and he was done with blaming it on his past. Yeah, he’d lost his parents, and foster care had been tougher than hell. But he and Ollie had had a good thing, only he hadn’t been able to convince his wife that he hadn’t just married her because she’d been pregnant. Because the truth was, he’d never wanted children, and he’d made the mistake of telling Olivia that... before she’d told him she was carrying his child.

“What are you thinking about now?” she asked him.

Luke jumped out of his thoughts and into the present. “You. Charlie. Everything.”

She smiled back at him, her eyes shining. This honesty thing was easier than he’d thought.

“Are you pleased you’re back here?”

He placed his beer bottle down and touched her hand across the table. “More than you’ll ever know.”

Ollie giggled. Luke looked down at his hand. Salty and greasy from the fries, not exactly romantic.

“We used to have fun, you and me. Before things went and got all complicated.”

She grinned and passed him a napkin. “I think we still do. Have fun, that is.”

He watched as she ate another fry, before pushing her plate away.

“I’m done.” She’d hardly left a scrap on her plate.

“If I didn’t know you better I’d say you hadn’t eaten in a while.”

It had always been a joke between them, how much food the girl could eat without putting on a pound.

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