Page 8 of My Forever Soldier

She held his gaze, kept her chin high. She wasnotgoing to allow her heart to be broken again. This was it, and she couldn’t take a chance on trusting him when she didn’t know how long he’d be here, and how long he’d be gone next time. It had been too easy for him to leave, and now he’d come back to them, hoping to start again.

“I want a divorce, Luke.” The words were hard to say, but she had to tell him. Because if she didn’t she’d be kidding herselfand him.

“A divorce?” He stepped back as if she’d hit him.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, tears making it hard to speak as she walked away. “I just can’t do this. Not again. What we had didn’t work, Luke, and we both need to understand that.”

All Olivia had ever wanted was a family of her own, a husband who loved her, but that fantasy was past its use-by date. It was just her and Charlie, and she couldn’t let Luke thunder back into their lives like a tornado. Charlie needed a father who hung around, or was at least a whole lot better at staying in touch when he wasn’t.

“Olivia.”

She heard Luke say her name, but she didn’t want to turn around.

“Olivia, please.”

But there were no words he could say right now to change how she felt.

4

OLLIE’S CHEEKS HURT. She could hear her own laughter echoing around them as Luke twirled her, over and over again.

“Stop!”

He drew her in, hard against him, his muscled body tight against hers.

“Say you love me.”

“Luke, let go of me!” She squirmed in his arms.

“Say it, baby, or I’ll toss you in the water.”

He lifted her off her feet so only her toes trailed on the sand, and started walking her toward the ocean.

“I love you, I love you!” she cried, her arms around his neck.

“Too late.”

She started to tell him off, to swat at him, but he dropped her into the water, diving in himself. Her hair was plastered to her face, mascara dripped into her eyes, but she still couldn’t stop smiling.

He resurfaced. “Come here often?”

Luke lay next to her, half floating on his stomach, and pushed his hair off his face. Water fell from his dark lashes, and she felt herself fall apart. Those brown eyes looked straight through her, past her insecurities and worries, straight into her heart.

“Look what you’ve done to me.” She giggled, rubbing beneath her eyes. “I’m a mess.”

“You,” he said, kissing her nose, “are—” another kiss “—not a mess.”

She kissed him back then, their wet lips pressed together, her hands in his hair.

“I do love you, Luke.”

“I know, honey, I know.”

Ollie woke with a fright.It was just a dream.She wanted to cry, sob her heart out, because here she was, dreaming about the man she’d fallen head over heels in love with, the only man she’d ever loved, who was so close yet so far away. Her own husband, in the spare room, so near that she could wake him just by thudding on the wall. But not the same man he’d been back then.

Her heart stilled, but she was rattled. It was always the same dream. The day she’d gotten pregnant, the one time they hadn’t used protection. The same day she’d decided that Luke was the man of her dreams, before everything had slowly started to unravel.

A gentle tap made her stare at the door. Charlie would never knock; he would just come marching on in.

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