The Luck of Love (3 page)

“You should have told me, Luke. Why the hell didn’t you?”

“What can the school do? They can’t help what the pupils say.”

A choked sound escaped Josh. “Are you serious? You’re excusing a five-year-old for persecuting our daughter for having two fathers? You think that’s okay in this day and age?”

“No, but Mrs. Jacobie has already spoken to the parents. There’s not much more she can do.”

“Bullshit. I’m going to see her in the morning. If I don’t see results, then we’re pulling Lexi out. I’m not having her crying over this.”

“She needs to get used to it. It’s the world we live in, and our relationship is odd.”

Gia froze and pulled away. Her hands were annoyingly quivery when she yanked some of the sheet up and used it to dab her eyes. “Do you really mean that?”

Lucas’s jaw was so tense the skin bled white, which told her without words he did.

“You think our baby girl should have to listen to stuff like that? You want her to be upset?”

“It’s life. It happens.”

“Not to Lexi.” Josh growled. “Since when were you such a fucking defeatist?”

“I’m a realist,” Lucas barked.

“She’s
five
, Luke! She’s too young to be thinking about anything other than her books, her dolls, and her paint sets.” Gia shook her head. “You want her to hear this, be subjected to it, because the school has a great French department?” When he reached for her again, she held him off. “Do you? Honestly?”

“No, of course not, but it’s true.”

“Screw that.” Josh glowered at him. “We had to fucking hide our relationship when it started, thanks to our jobs. We held on to them by the skins of our teeth when the news came out, and you honestly want our daughter to be ashamed of us? Of what we have? After all those years of denying who we were to each other? Is that what we’re fighting for?”

“You’re taking this too hard. It’s kindergarten, for Christ’s sake.”

“No. This has more consequences than you're letting on. You know our intention was for her to carry on at the academy for first grade. It’s not just
kindergarten
. But regardless, I want to know where the hell this apathy has come from, Luke!”

Lucas turned away. On the rumpled mattress, in his combats—or his BDUs, as the guys called them—his black boots a heavy shadow on the white sheets, he looked like a petulant boy. Only he’d left that age group a long time ago.

Of the pair of them, Lucas was the one who was classically handsome. His blond hair was regulation length, so short it hid the curl she’d seen in the pictures of him at college. It glinted silver and gold when the sun hit it, and with the heat wave, it was blonder than ever.

His blue eyes, tanned skin, strong Roman nose, and wide-set, rose-tinted lips added to his handsomeness. But the strong jaw with that stubborn nick in his chin, the broad forehead, added to his masculinity and made him a punch to the ovaries for any woman.

Josh was blond too, but he was darker. Swarthy rather than golden. His lips were more generous, his jaw harder, firmer. Lucas could pass for early thirties, but Josh's face was scored with the lines and wrinkles of his age and rank. The responsibility on his shoulders was immense, and he wore that every day along with his uniform.

His gray eyes held silvery striations. His nose had at least three bumps from being broken.

When she’d first met them, the pair had made her feel on fire with need and in two different ways. Living with them, actually hearing them have sex sometimes—it had killed her. Seriously and
selfishly
destroyed her.

The only thing that had made it bearable was knowing how right they were for one another. Their love had been palpable, and simply being around it had made her feel better, safer, and stronger.

Seeing him sitting there, in discord with Josh, hurt her. Until now, everything had been going great. Since Lexi started school, stuff had been changing, and not for the better.

At least, not between Josh and Lucas.

Heart aching at the thought, she whispered, “Lucas, this isn’t right. You know that. I don’t know why you’re being like this. It scares me, honey.”

He sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “You don’t have to be scared, baby.”

“Well, tough. I am. I don’t want to be, but you’re frightening me. We’re falling at the first hurdle. We always knew this would be difficult when Lexi started school, but we can’t let it get us down.”

He kept his regard focused on the sheets, so she grabbed his leg and squeezed gently, trying to grasp a hold of his attention.

Apparently irritated by her careful approach, Josh was anything but hesitant. His fist came flying out of nowhere to smash into Lucas’s arm. The move made her freeze, but Lucas fell backward onto the floor.

Clapping her hand over her mouth, she gawked down at a now-sprawled and furious Lucas, then glanced at a rebellious, glowering Josh.

She couldn’t help it.

She really couldn’t.

Laughter burst from her. It pealed from her lips like a torrent of released tension. She toppled against the bed, her amusement making her stomach ache as her chuckles went on and on.

When Lucas climbed back onto the bed, her chuckles died into sniggers, but as he crawled over her, covering her completely with his shadow, she finally bit back her chortles to grin up at him.

He loomed above her, but she raised her arms and legs, then curled them about his back and hips and dragged him down against her. God, he felt so right there, like he was made for her embrace.

She pressed her mouth to his and mumbled, “You think this isn’t worth fighting for?”

“I didn’t say that,” he grunted, raking his teeth along her lip.

“You did.”

“Didn’t.”

“Children.” Josh growled. He turned on his side and pressed himself close to the pair of them. “She’s right, Luke. You want to give this up? You want to give
us
up?”

“Of course I don’t,” he said with a sigh. “I want what’s best for Lexi.”

“Then that’s her daddies together and her mommy too.” Gia shook her head. “I don’t care if it’s unusual or different. I don’t care if people don’t know the reason why I’m here. I need us to be together, and she does too. I hoped you two felt that way as well.”

“We do; don’t we, Luke?”

He hesitated but nodded. “Yeah, we do.”

She frowned, noticing the minute hesitation like it was the white elephant in the room. “What’s wrong?” She could have brushed over this, could have kissed him and drawn him into her arms. Reminded him of what he had with her and Josh. But this was too important. Sex only papered over the issues, and what they had together was far more than sex.

He swallowed. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit. You’ve been on edge for way too long. I’ve let you get away with dodging the subject, but no more. Do you hear me? What’s going on?”

When he stayed silent, Josh grabbed his shoulder. “Luke. Talk to us. How can we make it better if you don’t let us know what’s going on?” He shook his head. “What is it with you two? I thought I was the crappy communicator. At least I tell you stuff.”

She snorted, but Luke’s tension soared. “I-I have to go downstairs. Lexi’s waiting on dinner.”

Before she could hold him to her, he maneuvered off the bed, then headed out of the bedroom.

She gawked at his back, then blinked. “Did he just walk out of here?”

“Yeah, he did.”

She looked at Josh, whose eyes were like a raptor’s. Intent on its prey, narrowed, and those pearly-gray irises sparking with anger.

“I’m spending too much time at the office,” he snapped and climbed off the bed. Josh slipped into a pair of jeans he found tucked neatly into a mahogany chest of drawers.

When she lay there, watching him, he cocked a brow and held out a hand for her. “Aren’t you coming?”

“Be kind to him, Josh,” she ordered, knowing they were heading for dangerous territory, only not understanding why. “Something’s going on.”

He nodded. Once. And that was all the reassurance she had.

Knowing him like she did, it was no reassurance at all.

Chapter Two

Lucas watched Lexi color in the princess drawing. With her tongue peeking out and her hair a scraggly mess, she looked so goddamn cute his heart nearly melted. It didn’t help she was the spitting image of her mother. All chestnut curls, pixie nose, silvery gray eyes, and a generous mouth wrapped into one ethereal package.

If she was anything like her mother when she grew up, she was going to cause them hell. Gia’s body had the curves of her heritage. The Italian in her roamed wild and free in the generous slopes of her form. Gia was sex personified. Luke knew Josh was going to be worn out threatening all the boys who were going to show up at their door to date their baby girl.

The notion should have made him smile. Instead, it made him ache.

It was going to be hard not seeing her every day.

It was going to be hard not seeing any of his family every day.

Deployments… They were tough. He knew that, had braved them before, but it felt different this time.

The orders coming in so close to his time in service being over felt like an intervention from the Fates, who had always been kind to him.

It was a chance for Josh and Gia to behave like a normal family. For Lexi to have a mom and dad like all the other kids.

He clenched his jaw at the thought as he fought back the mixture of panic and steadfastness that had been hitting him ever since the orders came through.

This was it.

The gut feeling was there. He’d served four times in the Middle East. Making it out with barely there injuries on each occasion.

His luck was in. Surely?

Maudlin
wasn’t a word that belonged in his description, and morbidity wasn’t ordinarily a part of his nature, but things were changing.
He
was changing in reaction to what he felt sure was going to hit him the instant he landed in the Middle East.

It hurt that these doubts were coming now, during a period of his life when he’d never been happier. He loved Josh and would have loved to raise a baby alone with him, but meeting Gia had been a gift. Having Lexi with her, the circle of their bond—it had been amazing.

Since kindergarten had started, that circle had been unraveling, and he knew he was the only one to feel that way.

Such isolation hadn’t helped. Add to it the ever-approaching deployment, which was weighing heavily on his mind, and the fact that his baby girl was suffering for choices her parents had made…

Things were not good.

His vision blurred as his thoughts plagued him. That haze retreated, to be replaced with the sight of Gia’s dream kitchen. Amber marble counters, cream plantation-style cupboards, an island where she stood when chopping her vegetables for whatever beautiful meal she intended to create for them, and the raft that hung from the ceiling, weighed down by expensive copper pans.

This kitchen had been their three-year-anniversary present to her, and he clenched his fists at the memory of what they’d done to her on the counter. But rather than let himself drift deeper into hot and happy reminders of times past, he headed for the double fridge.

After grabbing some juice, he moved to the island, reached for a glass in one of the cupboards, and set it to one side. It smashed the instant it connected with the marble. He jumped back and spun around at Lexi’s, “Daddy! What’s wrong?”

Startled by his own clumsiness, he took a few seconds to reply. “Nothing, sweet pea. Stay there; let Daddy clear this up.”

She studied him nervously. The curls dripping onto her forehead hid the puckered scowl on her brow. Lexi was far too smart for her own good, and she saw far more than a five-year-old ought to see.

The sound of feet thudding down the stripped floorboards of the hallway had him swerving toward the utility room in search of a broom and a dustpan. Gia kept a tidy house, but her system was out of his ken. She appeared at his side, dressed in Josh’s BDU jacket and precious little else, if the glimpse of her ass when she bent over to reach for the pan was anything to go by.

Her smile was wan as she hurried back into the kitchen, and from the doorway, he watched them interact, the three of them the perfect nuclear family without him to skew the balance. He knew when he left, everything would settle down. The world would right itself when he was out of the picture.

It killed him to think like that, but when such a notion planted itself in the gut, it was impossible to shake.

As Gia cleared up the mess he’d made, Lexi asked, “Mommy, why are you wearing Daddy’s uniform? Are you a soldier now?”

Gia laughed. “No, baby. I’d make a terrible soldier. I’m a rebel without a cause.”

“What’s that?”

“It means she’s a hippie,” Josh remarked, grinning as he bussed the top of Lexi’s head.

Gia glowered at him in midsweep. “It does not. Look how strict your daddies are, baby. All rigid and with all those rules. You’ve seen Daddy’s chauffeur, right? How he salutes?” She popped her hip to the side and saluted Josh and Lexi. “Doesn’t suit me, does it, princess?”

When Lexi clapped and giggled, Gia grinned, and despite his mood, Luke did too. Lexi’s laugh was contagious. “No, Mommy. Papa does it better, don’t you, Papa?”

He forced himself to grin and gave Lexi one of his best salutes.

She clapped again. “You need to take lessons from Papa, Mommy.”

“Oh, he teaches me things, honey. I promise you that.” She cocked a brow at him and waited for him to respond, but he couldn’t. Her gaze was warm, almost glowing with the memories of what they’d done to one another upstairs and in this room—hell, every room of the house. Those love-filled experiences shot sparks through those gorgeous eyes, making him swallow at her beauty.

“Will you teach me, Papa?”

When Gia choked, Josh snorted. “Don’t you learn enough at that school of yours, sweet pea? All that book learning’s going to turn you into a little genius before you’re six. We can’t keep up with you as it is.”

She shook her head, the movement exaggerated so her hair whipped about her shoulders. “Don’t be silly, Daddy.”