Mission: Soldier to Daddy by Soraya Lane

Author:Soraya Lane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

AFTER ALL THOSE years of being away, of living rough, staying in places that he never hoped to see again, Luke had never thought he’d be bunking down in a shabby motel in his hometown.

He’d hardly expected Olivia to be waiting for him like a dutiful wife, because he knew he didn’t deserve that kind of a homecoming. But he had expected to have a home. Even if only temporarily, until he figured things out.

Luke booted up the computer and sat back, deep in his seat, eyes shut tight. The memory of arguing with Ollie played through his mind, impossible to shut off, impossible not to regret. He could see the hurt, the sad slant of her eyes as she looked back at him. He remembered how choked her voice had been as she’d stood up to him.

Damn it! Why did he always have to mess everything up? The only thing in his life he was consistently good at was his job. Everything else he seemed to fail at miserably.

Luke could still see her boss standing there, looking so at home. Watching Charlie, Luke’s son, as if he meant something to him. Giving him presents as if...as if he were his father. Luke swallowed hard, then gripped his fingers tight around the chair. Maybe if Kelly hadn’t given him a dressing-down he wouldn’t have reacted, but she had, and he’d taken the bait.

He’d felt threatened. He was jealous that this man, this Ricardo, might like to be Charlie’s dad—had been acting like Charlie’s dad while Luke was gone. And he’d flown off the handle, when what he should have done was stand up and be a man. Prove that he’d come home to reprise his role as father and show that he meant it. By not walking away.

Instead, he’d done the exact opposite.

His entire career had been about no emotion and absolute control. He thought he’d been doing it so long that it was a natural part of his life. But the tears falling down his cheeks proved he was wrong.

He kept his eyes squeezed shut for another few seconds, then opened them again, though he could barely keep them open. The pressure to try and fit in with the family he’d left, impress his kid, reconnect with his wife, had been making sleep almost impossible.

Luke forced himself to snap out of it. Exhaustion was traveling on foot for days on end with only one bottle of water and no food. Tired was when you had nowhere to sleep, no spot to lay your head. When you were constantly trying to stay one step in front of an enemy.

He sat up straighter and tapped in his log-in details. Eight new emails. Not bad, considering he hadn’t checked for a few days. Luke scanned the one from Fort Bragg and felt a weight lift from his shoulders as the words lit up on the screen in front of him. Wow.

It was everything he’d ever wanted, the opportunity to make a difference, to be the soldier he’d trained all his life to be.

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