Breaking Through (Atlanta #3) (32 page)

"Hi Sophie!" Jenna beamed as Sophie reached for her. Jenna pulled her in for a big hug and then settled Sophie on her hip.

"Hi Jenna," she smiled. "Daddy said you got hurt and I need to be careful."

"Your daddy worries too much," Jenna smiled. "My hurts are all better. You have fun, ok?"

"Ok. Do you have markers?"

"I have highlighter markers all set at the table for you. Do you want to sit on my lap?"

Sophie's curls bounced as she nodded at Jenna. Jenna, unable to stop smiling, looked over to Luke who had nothing but peaceful happiness on his face. He shook his head in wonder at her and mouthed the words "I love you" to her while Sophie was scanning the marker selection for just the right choice. Jenna's smile softened.

"Purple!" Sophie squealed as she reached for a marker and some paper.
 

"I remembered you liked that one," Jenna grinned.
 

Luke sat down with the two of them and chatted about nothing much while Sophie interjected with the occasional opinion about Jenna's bare nails and Daddy's scratchy chin. When Sophie was done with her picture, Jenna showed her the end table drawers set aside for her. Sophie beamed as she dug through the treasures. Jenna sat on the floor with her as Luke continued to watch with heavy emotion in his eyes. This was the best afternoon Jenna could imagine.
 

Sophie suddenly announced, "I need to go pee pee."

Jenna giggled. "Good job letting me know! And guess what...I bought you a special Minnie Mouse potty. Daddy told me she's your favorite."

Sophie smiled and nodded and let Jenna lead her to the bathroom hand in hand.
 

Luke choked up every time he saw Jenna and Sophie interact. He couldn't help but notice the difference between Miranda and Jenna in every way. Truthfully, he wished Jenna were Sophie's mom. Even though they hadn't yet been together even a year, he already saw visions of a beautiful life with Jenna and Sophie together, and probably even more little toe-heads running around, too. Never in his life would he have expected to have dreams such as that, but now he couldn't imagine anything better.
 

For two hours he sat on the floor and had fun with his baby girl and the love of his life. The peace flowing through his body was beyond description and he only wanted more. Unfortunately, though, when the time came to take Sophie home, it would be time to talk to Miranda. That snotty woman needed to know about Jenna and that Sophie would be spending time with her. Luke had no doubt the "discussion" would be a fight and this would be the beginning of an ugly trail of arguments and probably court dates. Miranda was far too much the drama queen to work anything out rationally.

But, like everything else, Luke couldn't hide from his problems anymore. So a "discussion" it would be. He knew Miranda's mom would be home to keep Sophie while Luke took Miranda to a coffee shop. He hoped the public venue would keep her from throwing too big a fit when she found out there would be a new woman in Sophie's life. No matter where they talked, though, he knew this would be something nasty.

When the sad time came to take Sophie home, Luke watched as Jenna warmly hugged his daughter, told her how much fun she had, and she couldn't wait to see her again. The smile on his daughter's face was beautiful. The look on Sophie's face showed all the love Jenna gave her that afternoon. Luke wanted to kiss Jenna with every bit of his own love for putting the smile on his baby girl's face.
 

He waved as he walked hand-in-hand with Sophie out the door, but Sophie stopped short and said, "I'm not leaving." His girl threw out some adorable sass with her arms folded across her little chest. "I'm staying here."

Luke was about to intercede when Jenna kneeled down in front of little Sophie and spoke with a sweet smile and a kind voice. "Did you know here at my house, pouting and scowls don't work? I want you to stay, but pouting can't change it. So how about one more hug, and I promise you can come see me again. Deal?"

Sophie scowled harder and crossed her arms tighter.

"Still not working," Jenna softly smiled with love and understanding.
 

Sophie looked confused by the simple, sweet explanation. Luke could see his little girl processing the concept. When Sophie finally accepted Jenna was both smiling and serious, Sophie reluctantly said, "I want to stay."

"Me, too. That would be so much fun, but we'll save
that
fun for next time," Jenna offered. "Let's try to make it soon, ok? Markers again?"

Sophie's curls bounced once again around her sad face as she nodded and gave Jenna one more hug.
 

"Bye, sweetie," Jenna said, sounding a little choked up herself.
 

Sophie allowed herself to be picked up by her daddy. Luke leaned in and kissed Jenna on the cheek right before he walked out the door. He laughed because Sophie exclaimed on the landing, "Daddy! You kissed her!"

He loved the moment even more when he heard Jenna giggle on the other side of the door.

"Yes I did," he said to Sophie as he descended the stairs. "I do that a lot."

Sophie wrinkled her nose and giggled. "Why?"

"Because I love her and she makes me happy."

"I love her, too," Sophie said with innocent simplicity. "She's nice."

"Yes, she is. And I know she loves you a lot, too. Especially your drawings."

"I like her markers," Sophie said as Luke buckled her into her car seat.

Luke chuckled. "Yep. She's got good markers. You ready to go home?"

"Ok, Daddy. Are you going to stay?"

"No, but I wish I could play with you more. I have to talk to your mommy, so you're going to stay with your grandma."

Sophie reluctantly agreed and then chatted more about all the toys at Jenna's house and the pink potty she used. Luke smiled for the entire conversation.
 

When he dropped her off, he actually went inside the house. Miranda looked at him with her typical attitude. "Is there something you need?"

Luke tried hard not to grit his teeth. "Yeah. Do you have a few minutes to go get coffee or something?"

Miranda's face instantly lit up. "Of course," she beamed.
 

Fuck
. She thought this was a date.
 

"I need to talk to you about a few things," he tried to explain.
 

Her face still looked excited; she hadn't taken the hint.
Fuck again.
Luke watched Miranda grab her purse and head for the door. She turned around with a smile. "Where are you taking me?"

Luke forced himself not to snap her neck like he wanted to. "Just somewhere to talk. There's some things I need to tell you."

Her face brightened again.
Fuck!
This was going to be worse than he thought. He walked past her and to the car, specifically
not
being the gentleman he tried to be when he was with Jenna. Being rude didn't help. Miranda started babbling about how good it was they were finally getting a chance to spend time together.
Christ
.
 

The parking lot at the local coffee shop wasn't as full as Luke would have liked. The bigger the crowd the better at this point, but what could he do? He had to get this ugly conversation over with. He walked ahead of her into the shop and didn't bother holding the door. Being such an ass wasn't his usual style anymore, but he didn't want Miranda taking anything he did as encouragement.
 

They sat down after they ordered and Luke decided hitting the subject right off the bat was the best approach. That way, the "date" concept would be erased from Miranda's mind as quickly as possible. The only two girls in Luke's life were Sophie and Jenna, and Miranda needed to grasp the concept with no chance of misunderstanding.
 

"Ok, so here's the thing," Luke started. "I brought Sophie to play today at my girlfriend's apartment."

Miranda's smile instantly turned into an ugly scowl. "Excuse me?"

"I have a girlfriend now, for months. It's serious, and I want Sophie to know her. Sophie even sort of introduced us," Luke said with almost a half-smile. He didn't want to reminisce about meeting Jenna while he sat their with Miranda, but he couldn't talk about that day seeing Sophie on Jenna's lap without being affected by the memory.

"But what about us?" she threw her shocked and anger at him. "She's
our
daughter. I always thought you'd come back."

"There is no
us
, Miranda," he said directly. "There never was. I'm sorry, but when we hooked up it was a one-night thing. If it weren't for Sophie, I'd never have seen you again."

Miranda's face fell into a look of disgust, anger, hurt, and straight-up bitch. "So you have some whore now and you exposed my daughter to her?" Miranda snarled at him, now seething. She hadn't raised her voice yet, and Luke strained not to raise his own.
 

"You get knocked up on a one-night stand and you call
her
a whore?" he spat back. "You don't even know her."
 

"Fuck you," she hissed. "And I don't want Sophie anywhere near some random slut. That's it. You're done."

"I let it slide once," he hissed back. "But if you talk about Jenna that way again, we're going to have a problem." Luke clenched and unclenched his fists, trying very hard not to toss the table and get in Miranda's face. What a nightmare this was turning out to be.
 

"Jenna? That little thing from the doctor's office? You've got to be kidding me," she scoffed. "She could never handle you."

"That's not your concern. The only thing you need to know is I'm with Jenna, Sophie's
my
daughter, and they will be spending time together. Deal with it."

"You don't get to tell me who my daughter spends time with," Miranda said, now getting louder. "You don't decide any of this!"

"Keep your voice down," he gritted through his teeth. But it was too late. People at a nearby table were already starting to stare.
 

"No! This is how it is, asshole. You get nothing! Now get me home."

Luke was nearly shaking as he spoke in an angry quiet, "Miranda, don't take this out on Sophie. And you can fucking get yourself home."
 

He slammed his palms against the door of the shop and walked straight to his car…and drove straight to the gym.

The minute he walked through the door he didn't bother trying to hide his anger from Marcus; he'd never be able to anyway, not with rage coming off him this strong. He strode straight up to his trainer and let a piece of his gut-searing anger fly. "Leave me the fuck alone and fucking let me get this out."

Marcus looked almost shocked at the raw intensity coming off of Luke, but Luke didn't care. He needed to shred the equipment and himself in the process. He didn't give a shit he was backsliding. That damn conversation with Miranda was more than he could take. She actually thought they'd be a couple?! Ridiculous. And hearing her call Jenna a whore got every nerve in his system ready to strike out and destroy anything in front of him. Especially CB.

But because he'd learned some control, he made the deliberate choice to put a heavy bag in that position instead of Miranda. He didn't even bother changing into his gym clothes, and he could feel the stare of nearly every other trainee as he starting grunting and shouting through his workout. "FUCK!" he yelled more than once as he pummeled the dark green canvas. After a few minutes, Marcus came over and didn't say a word. All he did was steady the bag from the other side and let Luke get through the worst of his rage.
 

And as Bill had done for Marcus nearly two years earlier, Marcus waited until Luke exhausted himself enough to calm down a little and then got right up in Luke's face. "Done with your tantrum now?"

"Fuck you," Luke mumbled through exhausted breaths. "Fuck it all."

"You're better than this. Now change your damn clothes and tape your damn knuckles. Meet me on the mat because you're not giving in to this shit again.
Go
."

Luke glared but did as Marcus said. Now that he'd gotten some of his anger out, he realized how important it was to not backslide any further. He had to turn this around or Miranda would be right: he'd have nothing. By the time he got to the sparring mat, Luke was still angry and could still hear Miranda's ugly insults echoing through his head, but at least he was focused.
 

"Good," Marcus nodded when he saw some rational thought behind Luke's eyes. "Now jabs and hooks, and tell me what the fuck got you so worked up."

So as he and Marcus traded punches and blocks along with the occasional kick and take-down, he told him about the beautiful afternoon with Jenna and Sophie, and then the train-wreck of a talk with Miranda. Luke was so tense when he mentioned Miranda's undeserved opinion of Jenna, he actually managed to land a punch straight across Marcus's jaw and lay him out on the mat.
 

"Damn," Marcus grinned as he got up. "See what a little focus with your rage can do? Remember that when we get you in an official match. Now, what are you going to do about all this, because beating on everything at the gym blows off the rage, but doesn't solve the problem."

Luke dropped his hands to his knees and shook his head. "I don't fucking know. Maybe talk to Miranda again once she's had a chance to cool down. Maybe a miracle will happen and we can talk about it rationally."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jenna sat in her apartment unable to stop smiling. She had such a beautiful afternoon with Sophie and Luke. The three of them together was a dream come true for her, and she couldn't wait for more. Every deeply loving part of Luke came out strongly around Sophie and got straight under her skin. Jenna was his. Forever.

She treated herself to another quick bath and chose a favorite bath oil of Luke's. She knew he'd come back to her soon ready to passionately celebrate their afternoon of moving forward. Without a doubt he'd be as happy about their time with Sophie as she was. After nearly and hour, though, Jenna began to worry. Luke didn't appear in her window view like she expected; he didn't text or call.