The Luck of Love (8 page)

“Because I want to marry the pair of you.”

“Well, you can’t.”

“Thanks for clarifying that for me, Josh,” Luke snapped. “What would we do without you?”

“Boys, stop it. In a perfect world, of course, we’d all get married. But this is far from being perfect. As it is, what’s finally happening in the US is epic. Let’s celebrate. You two have been together for a lifetime, and I want to watch you get married. I want to see it happen. It will make me happy.”

“How can it? I don’t want you to feel left out.”

She couldn’t help but snort at that. “Baby, I’m in the bath because I’ve been anything but left out. You think I look like a prune now? Wait until I’m finished in here.”

Charmed when his cheeks pinkened a little, she smiled at him encouragingly.

“If we do this, then we make legal provisions for Gia, Josh. More than we already have done.”

Josh popped his cap off his head and crumpled it in his hand. “Of course. That was always a given.”

Luke’s jaw rose. The stubborn move had Gia waiting for the bubble to burst. “I won’t get married in a cheap, shitty chapel. I want a proper church.”

“I’m sure there’s something that will suit you in Las Vegas. We can go and recon the place, find something that will make you happy. You think
I
want Elvis to marry us?”

“Well, as long as that’s understood.”

“It is,” Josh bit out, sarcasm loading his tone. “Now, I’m going to lick some ass. And I’ll have you know that general ass is the worst kind. Don’t say thank you too soon.”

Luke pursed his lips, staying silent until Gia splashed some water at him. “Thank you,” he relented enough to say.

“Well, I finally know what it feels like to be engaged,” Josh remarked to the room at large. He stepped over to the bath, then leaned over and waited for Gia to reach him and kiss his lips. With a sniff, he pointedly ignored Luke and made to turn away.

Quick as a flash, Luke grabbed the back of his jacket. “Give me a kiss, jackass.”

“And you say
I’m
not romantic,” Josh complained, but he bent down and let their mouths connect. He sighed, then pressed his forehead to Luke’s. “Look, I love you, you dick. I want the world to know it. I want that fucking school to know it. You understand me?”

“No, I don’t, but I’ll do it.”

“You don’t want to rock the boat; well, screw it. We’re both reaching the ends of our contracts. I have to retire when I’ve served for thirty years because they’re not going to promote me any higher. And I doubt you’ll stay on. I say screw them. I’m sick of hiding this. I’m sick of having to lie about you. It’s all okay because Gia’s here and we have a child together. The generals can forgive it because we look like a normal family if viewed a certain way. Well, fuck that.”

“Since when were you a rebel?”

“Since the man I love wanted to leave this family because society sucks balls.” He paused. “And not as well as you do.”

Luke ducked his head, a sheepish grin on his face. Gia couldn’t hide her own smile. She’d written countless scenes thanks to the inspiration of watching Luke rim Josh’s ass before dropping down to lick his balls. Her exhausted and aching cunt twinged a little at the memory of the howls Luke jerked out of Josh during those moments.

Josh squeezed Luke’s shoulder. “I’ll be at the school tomorrow. When’s the appointment?” he directed at Gia.

“Nine forty.”

He nodded. “I’ll be there. Don’t say anything to that bitch without me being there. Do you understand?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” she called out, slopping more water over the side of the tub as she rolled onto her knees, the enamel rocking against her joints as she saluted him.

“At ease, Corporal,” he mocked, eying her slick tits.

“Corporal?” she grumbled.

“Okay, Lieutenant. That better?”

“A little.” She slithered under the water again. “I already told Lexi she could leave the school.”

Luke groaned. “Honey, you can’t let a five-year-old in on a decision like that.”

“She doesn’t like it there. And neither do I. All the parents are snobs, and the kids aren’t much better. Neither are the teachers.”

“I agree. I don’t like the way they’re handling our situation, Luke. I was going to threaten the principal with pulling Lexi out, but if she isn’t happy there…”

Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s a great school.”

“Maybe academically, but there’s more to life than academics. I want her to be happy, healthy, and rounded. What kind of impression are we giving her if we let her stay at a place where they actively slight our situation? Where they do nothing to protect her from the other children’s opinions?”

“We can’t wrap her up in cotton wool.”

“Since when?” she snapped. “Speak for yourself. She’s five, and she’s not too young to be swaddled. And we didn’t have to enroll her this year. She didn’t have to start until she was six.”

He waved a hand. “Where are we going to send her?”

“I’m going to get Dana on it.”

“You’re going to let your PA decide which school fits our daughter best?”

“No, I’m going to have her classify the available kindergartens and their programs, and then I’m going to make the decision because yours sucked. I don’t want her to speak French. What use is that nowadays? We need her to speak Russian or Arabic or Mandarin, for God’s sake.”

“Let’s concentrate on English first,” Gia retorted. “Now, before you completely wreck my afterglow, piss off to the office and work some magic. It will be wonderful to have a few days’ break without you having to run to the base.”

Josh smirked. “Pack those panties I bought you last month.”

“Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you, Brigadier General? We’re not going yet.” She grinned.

“No, but we will be.” A glint sparked in those silver eyes. He winked. “See you in the morning, baby.” He squeezed Luke’s shoulder again, turned on his heel, and left the bathroom.

“Why is he going tomorrow?”

“Because I told him Mrs. Jacobie terrifies me.”

Luke shook his head. “It’s a wonder we’re all still together.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve stopped sharing everything. We used to be very open about the things that mattered, but now we’re hiding things from one another. Hell, it’s petrifying to realize the most open one of us is Josh.”

She bit her lip. “Yeah, no wonder things have been strained. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry about keeping this tidbit about the principal from me but you're not really sorry about the writing, are you?”

Sheepishly, she answered, “No, I was protecting you, and I’ll keep on doing that.”

Her stout words made him grin. “Well, either way, I’m proud of you.”

She flushed. “I might write terrible books.”

“I doubt it. Nothing you do could be terrible.”

“Charmer.”

“It’s the way I roll.”

The bitch of it was he was right.

Chapter Six

“Goddamn hypocrite bitch.” Josh growled as he strode out of the principal’s office, Gia dogging his heels.

Mrs. Jacobie’s assistant glared at them as they strode past, and Gia grabbed Josh’s elbow, dragging him to a halt.

“Slow down. There’s no rush.”

“There is. I need to get out of this place. It makes the fucking army seem lax.”

While she understood his anger, shared it, she sniggered. “Aren’t you glad Lexi isn’t a part of this place anymore? I don’t care if the word
academy
is a part of the title.”

“We’ll find her someplace where
bigotry
isn’t on the curriculum.” He hollered out the word
bigotry
, earning himself another glare from the secretary.

The oak-lined walls, the somber mulberry carpet, and the high shelves loaded with the various accomplishments earned by the many students unfortunate enough to have attended this place in the past added a refinement to the air that was as stifling as it was impressive.

Maybe it was her past, and maybe Mrs. Jacobie picked up on that and had always treated her like she was less because of it, but either way, she was relieved as hell to get away from here. As it was, they had to wait for Lexi’s teacher to escort her to the principal’s office. Then they were out of Gold’s Academy for High Achievers. For the final time.

Gia nearly popped her hips and jerked her arms into a happy dance. “I hate this place.” Instead of dancing, she cupped her elbows, and he spotted the gesture, curling his arm around her shoulder to tuck her close.

“I can see why. It seemed decent that open day we looked around, but I’m not having it said that that brat can terrorize my daughter because it would infringe his right to free expression and stunt his verbal growth to be told otherwise.”

Those words were quoted from the “old bitch’s” mouth.

“We should sue.” He growled. “Goddamn, I’d love to do that. Drag this place through the gutter press.”

She patted his arm. “Brigadier generals in the US Army don’t do things like that.”

“No, but pissed-off fathers do.”

“Yeah, but you’re both.”

“It sucks.”

“I know it does. But our hands are tied.”

His mouth pursed. “If I asked for another post, somewhere not in the Bible Belt and somewhere Lexi might be allowed to have some freedom of expression of her own, would you be okay with that?”

“Texas is my home.”

“No,
we’re
your home.”

She bit her lip. He was right. “You’re serious? The whole place isn’t bigoted, love.”

“No. But it sure feels like it at this minute.” He growled again. “Imagine somewhere in California.”

“You can’t just pick and choose, baby.”

He grabbed his cap from his head and crushed it in his fist. Josh stayed quiet for a few seconds, something obviously percolating in his brain.

She was kind of relieved he’d had this reaction to the principal. It made her feel less of a wuss when she considered how often Mrs. Jacobie had tied her tongue into so many knots that she’d spent the rest of the day unraveling them all.

“How about we home tutor her?”

Gia blinked. “Home tutor Lexi?”

“No,
Luke
. Of course Lexi.”

She bumped her hip into his side. “I’m not a tutor, Josh. I couldn’t teach her the things she needs to know. Plus, she’d be missing out on interacting with other kids.”

“Screw that. We can take her to the park more often. Make her join groups or whatever. There’s always plenty of shit she can do to make friends. We can hire a tutor.”

“That will cost a fortune.”

“And this place wasn’t costing a bomb? We can afford it.”

“You want us to do that? Are you sure?”

“No, I don’t. I’d like to find her a nice school where the worst thing to happen on a daily basis is a storm cloud bursts and rainbows fly about. As it is, this is reality.

“I don’t care what Luke says. I don’t care that she has to get used to it. I don’t want her getting used to it yet. She’s too goddamn young to be worrying about stuff like this. And if
that
is an example of the school’s policy for dealing with ‘abnormal’—and I still can’t believe she called us that—family backgrounds, then this isn’t the place for Lexi.

“Maybe when she hits middle school, we could try again, but I’m not having her hurt because our situation is unusual.”

“I feel the same way,” she admitted, worrying her lip. “There are online programs. Maybe I could help out. I’m not a total idiot. I did well at school and college. I…I’ve never tutored or done anything like that.”

“We can see how she gets on. If it doesn’t suit her, then it doesn’t suit her.”

Tempted by the idea of having her baby at home all day every day, she nodded. It had killed her introducing Lexi into a school environment a year earlier than necessary. Lucas had told her it was important Lexi get used to being separated from them before it adversely affected her at school.

But it sucked.

She knew most mothers had separation issues at first, that it was only normal, but it did lighten her mood to know her little fairy would be dancing around the house a while longer.

She doubted Lucas would be as content as she.

He was a firm believer in education. And had Lexi been a boy, she had no doubt the child would have followed the same rigid path Josh and Luke had traversed.

Academy after academy, until they hit adulthood and had to go to West Point.

She was kind of glad Lexi was a girl.

Two soldiers in the family was quite enough. Not that girls couldn’t be soldiers, but Lexi was a lover, not a fighter.

The same could be said for Luke.

He was in the armed forces because it was what the boys did in his family. It was tradition. But he was here,
now
, all these years later, when his other brothers had long since retired to “civvy street,” because he was a peacekeeper.

She prayed to God Lexi went down the hippie route rather than the soldier route.

Having Luke deployed was a nightmare, but her baby girl?

Hell, no.

Looking down the hallway, she noted there were two swing doors with window panels in them. She peered through them, eventually spotting Lexi with her teacher, Miss Green.

They both wore smiles as they walked, but Lexi’s eyes lit up when they glanced over her parents.

Once Miss Green had opened the door, Lexi ran to Gia, then squeezed her legs, only to hurry over to Josh, who immediately hefted her up into his arms. Setting her on his forearm, he asked, “Short stuff, do you feel like breaking out of this joint?”

“Please, Daddy,” Lexi murmured, ducking her head with a coyness that made Gia’s lips twitch.

“Since when were you a shrinking violet?” Josh rarely beat around the bush.

Lexi peered around, then whispered something in his ear. Whatever it was, it made him grunt and grab Gia’s hand. As a trio, they made their way out of the building.

She and Josh nodded at Lexi’s ex-teacher while their baby girl shyly waved farewell. They strode out of the building and headed for their cars. They’d arrived separately, Josh with his aide-de-camp and Dana, his PA, and after Gia had dropped Lexi off, she'd waited for Josh to arrive so they could go to the appointment with the school together.