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Authors: Shirley Jump

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BOOK: The Sweetheart Rules
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Five

Luke draped his arm around Olivia’s waist, the move now as natural as breathing. How his life had changed in six months, in ways he’d never expected, never dreamed. Running the shelter with Olivia, getting engaged, regaining his sight and his health.

Everything was different now, thanks to one stray dog, one determined woman, and one grandma’s not-so-subtle matchmaking. Chance, that stray dog, once near death, was now running around the yard, as exuberant as a puppy, while Olivia’s bichon, Miss Sadie, made a vain attempt to catch the golden’s tail.

Luke’s fiancée—Lord, what a beautiful word that was—stood beside him, looking amazing in a pale blue sundress that offset her blond hair and wide green eyes, and kept his gaze focused on her bare arms and shoulders and incredible legs. Okay, on every inch of her.

“How long until everyone goes home?” he said into Olivia’s neck, laying a kiss along the delicate warm skin. She fit against him like two pieces of wood dovetailing, something that still amazed him, even now. He loved her light floral fragrance, loved her flirty dresses, loved the way she had her hair up in a messy bun today, which gave him direct access to the tender valleys of her skin.

She laughed, a merry, light, sweet sound. “Mike hasn’t even arrived yet. At least let the man eat before you kick him out.”

He kissed her neck again, peppering a path along the soft edges of her hairline. Her perfume teased at his senses, reminded him of her waking up in his arms this morning, warm and sweet, and how wonderful it had been to ease into her body, into that feeling of home he found every time Olivia was near. “I hope he eats fast. I don’t want to wait that long to make love to my fiancée.”

Another laugh. “Again? Already?”

“You’re lucky I ever let you out of that bed.” He grinned.

“Say it again, Luke.”

“What? That you’re lucky I ever let you out of that bed?”

“Not that.” She gave him a light swat. “The fiancée part. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing that.”

He chuckled, then leaned in to whisper against her ear, the heat of his breath mingling with the heat of her body. “If my fiancée wants to hear me call her my fiancée a hundred times a day, I’ll gladly oblige. Because I am madly in love with my
fiancée
. Enough?”

Olivia giggled, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “It’s a start.”

“You two better get married quick,” Diana said as she strode across the lawn, looking like her older sister’s twin today in a pale peach dress that swirled around her legs and complemented the strappy gold flats she wore. Luke rarely saw Diana in a skirt or dress. Was it the barbecue or the guest list that had her dressing up? “You’re making all us single people jealous as hell.”

Olivia laughed as she broke away from Luke and crossed to hug her sister. “Does it help that I made chocolate trifle?”

“Definitely.” Diana grinned, then handed a big plastic bowl to Olivia. “I made salad. That should balance out the trifle.”

“Of course. It’s the Diet Coke and large fries theory of counting calories.” The two sisters walked toward the picnic table, their heads together and their conversation flowing, as natural as two rivers in the woods. No one would ever guess they’d only met a few months ago. Diana helped Olivia arrange the dishes on the table, then headed inside while Olivia stayed outside to work on the flower beds lining the western wall of the house.

Her brows knitted in concentration and her shoulders tensed as she slipped her hand between the tender annuals and tugged out budding weeds. Luke’s heart melted a little. His Olivia, who cared deeply about everything in her life, even the flowers struggling to grow in the Florida heat.

She straightened and cocked her head to one side, grinning at him. “Hey, sexy, you better stop staring at my butt and get back to cooking before you burn something.”

Luke laughed. “How’d you know I was staring at your butt?”

“When are you
not
staring at my butt?”

He feigned deep thought. “When I’m staring at your amazing breasts.” He wiggled his brows and gave her a leer.

She shook her head, laughing. “Dinner now, loverboy. Breasts later.”

“Is that a promise?”

“It’s a date.” She blew him a kiss, then went back to the flower beds—with a little extra sass in her movements that Luke took a second to appreciate before returning to the grill.

Luke lifted the lid, grabbed the tongs and turned the chicken over, then dropped the heat a little more. If Mike didn’t show up soon, they’d be eating petrified poultry. It wasn’t like Mike to be even a split second late. Maybe his friend had decided against coming after all.

Luke was reaching for his cell when he saw Mike walking down the driveway, trailed by two little girls with the pissed off expressions of reluctant army conscripts.

“Sorry I’m late,” Mike said. His face bore the strain of battle, one that clearly hadn’t ended well or easily.

Luke bit back a laugh. “No problem. A little trouble mustering the troops today?”

Mike rolled his eyes and waited until the girls peeled away from Mike and headed for the dogs, who had stopped running circles in the yard and were now resting on the shady grass by Olivia. “It would have been easier to stage an invasion of Russia.”

Luke chuckled, reached into the cooler at his feet, and handed Mike a Coors. “I think you need this.”

Mike accepted the beer with a grateful smile. “I need a part-time job is what I need. I finally resorted to
paying
them to come today. Between the toys I’ve bought, the pizzas I’ve ordered, and the chore bribing, not to mention the curse jar—”

“Curse jar?”

“Don’t ask. If I start explaining where that
brilliant
idea came from, I’m going to be broke by the end of the day.”

The normally unflappable Mike, who had ridden through wild storms and life-or-death medical crises with calm strength, had been undone by a couple of winsome little girls in sundresses and flip-flops. Luke gave his friend a wry grin. “And what is the going rate for being seen in public with your father?”

“Ten dollars.” Mike took a swig of the beer.

“That’s not too—”

“Ten. Per kid. Per hour.”

Luke let out a low whistle. “For that much,
I’d
pretend to be your kid.”

“You might have to. I have a feeling these two are staging a mutiny behind my back. Revolt against authority and all that.”

“You, my friend, are the poster child for authority figures.” Luke had known Mike a long time, and if there was one man in the unit who stuck to the rules like glue, it was Mike Stark. He thrived on the detail-oriented life of the military. Being a stickler for an orderly, scheduled life was a great attribute in the Coast Guard; not so much with kids. Even childless Luke knew that, but he could see Mike had yet to accept the fact that his life off-base was bound to be chaotic. “I take it you aren’t having much luck keeping the peasants in line, Napoleon?”

Mike snorted. “Remember that time we had to extract four fishermen during a hurricane?”

Luke nodded. “One of them panicked and tried to jump out of the helo. We had to restrain him just to get the other three on board. And avoid ditching into thirty-foot seas.”

“That was a cakewalk compared to taking care of kids.” Mike leaned against the house and watched the girls, who had settled on the grass by the dogs. “Take my advice and stick to dogs.”

Luke figured this wasn’t the time to tell Mike that he couldn’t wait to have a kid—heck, a half-dozen of them—with Olivia once they were married. “Your daughters are beautiful.”

“So are Venus fly traps and sharks.” Mike chuckled. “Okay, yes, they are beautiful. But they hate me and blame me for their mother taking off, and the general miserableness of their lives.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Are they right?” Luke knew Mike well, and that meant he knew Mike’s faults. A true type A soldier. Strong, determined, focused. The kind of man you could depend on when the stakes were high and the chances of success as slim as a piece of paper. He did his job, and did it well, but kept his heart guarded and closed. Maybe it was a side effect of being in the military, because Luke used to be the same way; or maybe it was just that the two of them were cut from the same relationship-averse cloth.

Mike leaned against the house and let his gaze travel over the girls, clinging together like two saplings in a storm, while Olivia tried to strike up a conversation about the dogs. “Yeah. They are. I screwed up as a dad, if you can even call me one, given how little time I spent with the kids. Now I’m trying like hell to straighten it out. But I only have a few weeks, and then they’re back at Jasmine’s. I’ll be back at Air Station Kodiak for God knows how long, and when I see the girls again, it’ll be like starting from scratch.” He took another sip of the beer and sighed. “I don’t think I’m cut out for this parenting thing.”

“You could always transfer down here. Move closer to the girls. And your mom.”

Mike scowled. “She doesn’t care if I live here or in Timbuktu. As for the girls, they’re counting down the days until they go back to their mother.”

“And how’s that make you feel?”

“Hey, if I want a Dr. Phil session, I’ll pay a shrink to hand me some scratchy tissues and lecture me about sharing my feelings. So do me a favor and—”

Diana had exited the house, a pile of plates and napkins in her hands. Mike stopped mid-sentence and watched her cross to the table. Luke knew that look. He’d probably worn it himself the day he met Olivia.

Any fool could see Mike was still hooked on the pretty veterinarian he had met while on leave last winter. Luke didn’t know the details of their relationship; only that Mike had seemed happier during the weeks they had dated than he’d ever been in the years Luke had known him. Then one day, Mike just up and left, before his leave was up, and returned to the base. He’d talked to Luke several times since then, and e-mailed regularly, but never once asked Luke how Diana was doing, as if Mike had forgotten her the minute he got on the plane—or wanted to pretend he had.

Given the way Mike was staring at Diana right now, with that hungry hound dog look in his eyes, he hadn’t forgotten her. At all.

Luke cleared his throat. “Gee, Mike, is there any particular reason you came back to Rescue Bay? As opposed to staying in Georgia with the girls? Or going to, I don’t know, Disney World?”

Mike shrugged as if he weren’t still staring at Diana, and his body language weren’t screaming,
Wish I was over there instead of here
.

“You had an empty house,” Mike said, with an air of indifference. “I needed a place to stay.”

“Uh-huh. You know, there are these things called hotels. Available for temporary stays.”

“Is that your way of telling me you don’t want me staying next door?” Mike fiddled with his beer, pretending he wasn’t watching Diana, but he might as well have glued his eyeballs to her slender frame.

Diana, on the other end, hadn’t done so much as flick a glance in Mike’s direction. She joked with Olivia, set a fruit plate on the table, and generally acted as if the lieutenant didn’t exist.

“Just my way of saying you wanted more than a vacation by the beach and a chance to catch up with me.” Luke tipped his beer in Diana’s direction. “As evidenced by your fascination with the sexy veterinarian. You know… she’s not seeing anyone right now. You should ask her to dinner or to go for a picnic on the beach. Or maybe a little stargazing from the backseat of your car.”

“What are you? The happy-ending fairy?” Mike scowled and shifted so his back faced Diana and Olivia. “I am not here to date her—or anyone, for that matter.”

Yeah, then why did the air simmer with unanswered questions? Time travel back six months, and it could have been Luke pretending he wasn’t fascinated by his new neighbor. Luke flipped the chicken and affected a disinterested tone. “You never told me what happened between you two.”

“Nothing happened.”

Luke arched a brow.

“Okay,
something
happened. But it didn’t mean anything. We both knew that. You know me, not one for settling down. The Coast Guard owns me now, body and soul.” Mike sipped the beer and squinted into the sun, his face still wearing that mask of easy calm. Luke knew, as well as he knew himself, that beneath Mike’s placid exterior there was a veritable ocean of shit churning. Shit that Mike never shared, never talked about, because he wasn’t, as he’d said earlier, interested in Dr. Phil moments. Luke understood that, and respected the
NO TRESPASSING
signs. There’d been a time when Luke had had a few of those himself.

“You did get married and have two kids,” Luke said. “You’re not a total commitment-phobe.”

“Jasmine was a mistake. A huge mistake.” Mike’s gaze swiveled to his daughters, the two of them now sitting on the picnic table and talking to Diana while the dogs sat at their feet and watched the conversation. Jenny was smiling, her hands waving as fast as her mouth moved, telling a story that Ellie acted out in excited wriggles and giggles. Mike’s features softened. A smile played on his lips. “Well, maybe not entirely. My grandmother used to say that all mistakes come with hidden blessings. I’ve got two of those right there. Even if they drive me crazy and hate my guts half the time.”

BOOK: The Sweetheart Rules
12.69Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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