The Luck of Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

came to her place in the home. They’d encouraged her to go out in the big wide world and make a name for herself, to actually use the college degree that had bankrupted her. That had forced her into the position of hiring out her womb to a gay couple. But she liked it here. She tended the house and yard, looking after them all as though she were born to the role.
    Lucas often wondered how that fulfilled her, but it seemed to. She was happy. She enjoyed her life, and there was no shame in that. No shame at all. He worried that she’d get bored, but she hadn’t yet.
    It was why he pushed her to see if there was a course she wanted to take at the local school. The idea that she could be unhappy here unnerved him and made him want to fix it, to make it better. Just what it was, he’d yet to figure out.
    Although he was predominantly stateside, he worked a lot of hours. His position as an MP was mostly administrative now—he didn’t work on any active cases—but he was still on the job more than he liked. And Josh was worse.
    She spent a lot of time here, alone.
    Was that good for her?
    He frowned at the thought and took a seat on one of the benches. It creaked under his weight, but then this stuff was for one-hundred-and-twenty-pound women, not men used to carrying that deadweight on the battlefield.
    Staring out at a view that encompassed the local town and the city in the distance, he tried to relax, but as had been the way for the last month or so, he couldn’t.
    He concentrated on the calm of the moment as he sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes to focus on the stillness of the evening. His hearing picked up on the tweets of the birds, the rustle of something in the lawn, and then, the faint click of the door opening and closing.
    Knowing it would be Josh, he kept his eyes closed. Moments later, a hand on his shoulder squeezed down gently, and his lover’s voice rumbled, “I didn’t mean to lay you out on the floor earlier.”
    “I know.”
    “You deserved it, though.”
    He jerked a shoulder. “I guess.”
    “You’ve got Gia all in a twist. She’s nervous as hell something’s going on with you. I’m starting to think she’s right.”
    Luke absorbed that and, in as bland a tone as possible, commented, “My orders came in. I’ll be downrange this time next month.”
    Silence was the first reply to his words, and then came “Where?” Josh’s voice was like gravel.
    “Libya. We’ll be training Libyan security forces, assisting them on active cases. It’s a covert operation. We’re there, but we’re not.”
    “How long?
    “Nine months.”
    “Not long,” he whispered, but Luke heard the solemnity in his tone.
    “No. But long enough.”
    “For what?”
    He shrugged. “To see what a normal life will be like.”
    Josh’s hand clenched down on his shoulder. “Are you serious?”
    “It’s hardly a time for jokes. This is my fifth round, Josh. With ISIS lurking about, fuck knows if I’ll be as lucky as I’ve always been.” He pulled in a breath, and when it didn’t hurt, he realized he could think about not coming home without his chest aching now. Without thinking about everything he’d lose.
    See Gia grow round with his child, watch Lexi turn into a woman, grin as Josh finally went gray.
    Okay, maybe he was wrong. His chest ached like a son of a bitch again.
    “Don’t say shit like that to me,” Josh snapped and rounded the bench to glare down at him. “You’re going there with a fucking target pinned to your chest? You want to get killed?”
    Luke shook his head, smiling a little at Josh’s rage.
    “You think this is funny?”
    “No. But you’re beautiful when you’re angry.”
    “You’re a fucking asshole. Do you hear me?” Josh gritted his teeth. “You’ve got that woman in there crapping herself because she thinks you want to leave us, and instead, it’s a deployment. It will hurt her to know you have to leave, but better that than thinking you’ve fallen out of