The Power of Love (8 page)

When he was settled, she made to stand. “Do you want some bacon and eggs?”

He shook his head. “Don’t get up, Gia. I can serve myself.”

Gia clenched her fists as yet again, futility hit her. She wanted to help him, only he wouldn’t let her. Josh caught her eye and gave her the tiniest shake of his head. She took a seat and reached for her glass of juice, watching as Luke grabbed a muffin, the maple butter, and a few strips of bacon. He made them into a sandwich and started to eat.

The silence in the room was excruciating, and that had never been the way with them. Ever. There was always something to say, always something to chat about. But here,
now
, the quiet was an abyss, one that made Lexi wriggle in her seat.

“Papa?” she asked, her hesitancy making Gia cringe. She wanted to tell her to be quiet, but how could she? Luke had to know his daughter wanted to talk to him.

“Yes, Lexi,” he remarked, an ease to his tone that he granted only to their little girl.

“Today, I’m starting a new book. Would you like me to read it to you?”

Gia blinked, surprised at what was actually a good suggestion. She half expected Luke to refuse, but he wrinkled his nose in that way of his, one that made her pine for the Luke of old, and murmured, “Is it a girly book?”

Lexi giggled. “What’s a girly book?”

“You know what I mean, munchkin,” he teased. “All ponies and dolls.”

“Nope, it’s Harry Potter.”

Luke’s brows rose, and he peered at Gia. Knowing what he meant by that silent look, she shrugged. Lexi had worked her way through the local library’s selection for her age and the year above. That left books for eight-year-olds. “It’s illustrated,” she said weakly.

“Oh,” he replied, like that said it all. Maybe it did. This
was
Lexi after all. She zipped through books like ordinary kids zipped through the channels on TV. “Well, that sounds like my kind of book, Lexi.”

She beamed at him. “Can we start after breakfast?”

“Sure, poppet. Why don’t you go and grab it? We can read in my room.”

Lexi half hopped from her seat, then remembered her manners. “May I be excused, please?”

“Good save, kiddo,” Gia teased. “And yes, you may.”

Lexi scampered off with her parents’ attention fully on her.

“It’s a little old for her, isn’t it?” Luke asked as he bit into the muffin he’d loaded.

“Probably.” Gia jerked a shoulder. “What can I do? She’s reading like it’s going out of fashion. At least the first couple of books are relatively tame. If she’s reading it to you, then it will take her longer. Try to make a big deal out of the illustrations, eke it out.”

“Sure,” he commented. “It can be our book we read together before bed or whatever.”

“That would be great.” Gia bit her lip. “How are you doing this morning?”

Her nonchalant request was met with a sigh. “How do you think I am?”

“You look like hell. When was the last time you shaved?” Josh retorted before Gia could make a peep.

Luke glared at him. “Since when were you my keeper? I don’t have to keep to military regulations anymore. I’m thinking about growing it out.”

There was a rebellious tone to his voice, one that told her he wasn’t exactly serious but it didn’t stop her from squeaking, “You want a beard?”

“Why not?” he snapped. “It’s my choice now, isn’t it? I don’t have to follow any rules save for the ones I make myself.”

Josh pursed his lips. “You don’t have the face for a beard. It will make you look like a tramp.”

The unexpected comment had Gia’s eyes widening. Then, and she couldn’t help it, laughter burst free. It was unfortunate timing. The sip of orange juice she’d just taken tried to explode from her nose, but she grabbed her napkin and held it to her face as she chuckled at the truth in Josh’s words. “You would, Luke, you would,” she babbled, dabbing at her face and grinning as she did.

Josh had folded the paper
and
his arms and was smirking, proud that he’d made her laugh. He wasn’t entirely known for his humor—his serious nature was one of the reasons she loved him dearly—so whenever he got her going, there was always an air of achievement about him. “See,” he told Luke. “I’m not the only one who thinks that.”

Their lover huffed. “Well, I’m still going to try.”

“It looks like a bird’s nest the wind tore from the tree,” Josh commented. “And it’s what? A few days’ old? Get it shaved, for God’s sake.”

Luke took a bite of his muffin, a bite that was definitely aggressive. “I’ll see how I feel in the morning.”

Josh shrugged. “You want either of us to kiss you ever again, you’ll shave the damn thing off
today
.”

Before he could reply, and Gia could tell Luke was dying to make a comeback, Lexi skipped into the room, large book in hand. She returned to her seat and with the air of Shylock coveting his gold, reverently placed it beside her on the tablecloth. All three of them looked on in amusement at her behavior. The kid was destined to be a librarian; either that, or follow in Gia’s steps as a writer.

Gia had been obsessed with reading as a kid too, so she kind of understood Lexi’s voracious appetite, but her little girl was a far faster reader than she had been. Thank God for libraries…otherwise she’d have spent half their food budget on buying Lexi books!

“Eat your granola, Lexi. After you’ve read to Papa, I have some errands, and I want you to come with me.” Josh ruffled the paper he was reading, flicking the corner down so he could look at her over it.

Lexi’s eyes widened, and she pointed at herself. “You want me to come do errands with you, Daddy?”

Josh raised a brow. “You don’t want to come?”

“No! I mean, yes! I do. I really do.”

Gia smiled at Luke, and for the first time in an age, he returned it. It was impossible not to. They knew that of them all, Lexi spent the least amount of time with Josh. It was something Gia tried to rectify, but it was hard with Josh’s schedule. Nix that, it was impossible.

“Good, I’m glad to hear it,” Josh told her, his attention reverting to the paper. Gia realized he had no idea how happy he’d made his daughter. She almost despaired for him but then stopped. He’d figure it out eventually, and while he didn’t spend a lot of time with Lexi, there was no doubt, from any quarter, how much he loved their little girl.

“What errands?” Gia asked, curious as to where he was going on a Sunday. He wasn’t dressed in his BDUs for once, which meant he wasn’t intending on going to the base.

He peered over the broadsheet. “Errands, that’s all.”

“Are you going to the store?”

“No.”

Gia looked at Luke, wondering if he’d picked up on their husband’s caginess. From the scowl on his face, he had. “If you’re not going to the store, then where are you going?”

Josh clucked his tongue. “Out, for God’s sake. What is this? The Inquisition?”

Lexi immediately piped up, “What’s the Inquisition, Daddy?”

“Now see what you’ve started,” he growled at the adults in the room. “It’s a saying, sweetheart. It doesn’t matter.”

Gia snorted. Like that would fob their daughter off. “It was a war, love. A very old war.”

“There are lots of wars, aren’t there? Daddy’s been to war, Papa too. And Grandpa Robert.” Lexi sighed. “It’s sad. If people get hurt like Papa, then I don’t like it. It isn’t right. Did you go as well, Mommy?”

“Nope, I’ve never left America.” She took a bite of her muffin and then said, “When bad people do bad things, the good people need to stop them. That’s all it is.”

Another sigh escaped her, this one so large it made her narrow shoulders heave. “If you say so.”

“I do. Daddy and Papa are the good guys, love. All they do they do to protect us.” Gia reached over to cup her little girl’s cheek. “It’s not all bad, love.” When Luke huffed, she shot him a quick glare. It was the first time she’d done anything other than be careful with him, and he looked suitably chastened at the silent reprimand. “It isn’t,” she assured Lexi with a chirpy smile.

“Where
are
we going, Daddy?”

“Well, I need to do some things, but I thought we could round it off by going to the park.”

“Do we have to?”

He frowned. “Don’t you want to?”

She wriggled in her seat. “Not really.”

“Why not?”

Gia cleared her throat. “It’s dirty, isn’t it, Lexi?”

The answering nod was immediate, and all the more worrying for it. She’d tried to tell the pair of them how bad Lexi was getting where dirt and germs were concerned; they simply hadn’t believed her.

“Getting dirty isn’t always bad,” Luke murmured. “Think of all the fun you’ll have.”

“It isn’t if my skirt gets covered in mud,” came the gloomy response.

Josh twisted around to peer out of the window. “Unless I’m mistaken, there’s been no rain for the past two weeks, honey. There’s no mud to be had.”

“There will be if I go to a park,” Lexi retorted, folding her small arms and pursing her lips into a mulish pout.

A chuckle escaped Gia, but she quickly stifled it by pressing her knuckles to her mouth. “I doubt it, love,” she said. “Daddy’s right. If there’s no rain, then there’s no mud.”

“I’d prefer it if I didn’t have to go, Daddy.” She used her most polite tone—one that worked on everyone save Josh.

Luke shook his head. “Talk about an old head on young shoulders.”

“She’s getting worse,” Gia mocked.

“Well, I think I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think it’s fair for me to have fun by you reading to me but for you not to have fun too.” Luke’s cunning triggered the perfect reaction for their tiny bookworm.

Lexi’s brow puckered. “But Papa, that
is
fun for me.”

“Nope. I remember when I was a little boy. I loved the slide and the swing. And my daddy was like us, Lexi. He went away for long chunks of time, so when he took me it was so much more fun.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“But I
do
want you to, and I think if you could just try, then you’d have a wonderful time. Can’t you do it? For me?” he chivvied.

She crinkled her nose, then looked at Gia…obviously for help. “Remember what I said earlier, Lexi? About helping?”

Heaving a long-suffering sigh, Lexi mumbled, “I’d love to go to the park with you, Daddy.”

All three of them bowed their heads to hide their amusement at her glumness, but Luke was the first one to talk. “I think you should go and get comfy on my bed. I’ll be in in a couple of minutes, sweetheart.”

She nodded and jumped down from her seat. “Thank you for breakfast, Mommy,” she told her and went over for a kiss and a hug.

Gia patted her on the back and whispered in her ear, “There’s a good girl. Thank you, Lexi.”

“We don’t have to stay for long, do we?” came the quick retort. “Papa doesn’t have to know how long I stayed on the swing set, does he?”

“No, but he’ll know if you don’t try to have fun.”

Lexi huffed and with a disheartened moue, slinked out of the breakfast room without going to either Josh or Luke for a kiss. As the door closed, Gia slumped back in her seat. “I told you she was getting bad, Josh. But you didn’t believe me.”

“She’s worse than before I left,” Luke commented, taking a quick slurp of his coffee. “And she wasn’t great then.”

“We don’t make her go out enough,” Josh murmured, switching his attention back to the paper. “That’s all. And I did believe you. Why do you think I’m going out? We’ll go to the park, and if she tries to play, we’ll go to the store so she can pick out a book.” Astonished that he’d not only listened but was trying to help, Gia gawked at him, but he grunted at her consternation. “She’s used to getting her own way too much. They didn’t let them stay in the classroom during recess at school. Here, she doesn’t have to go outside.”

“He has a point, Gia.” Luke grabbed another slice of bacon and chomped at the crispy strip. “Maybe we should encourage her to go out more.”

She sniffed, trying and failing not to be annoyed at their remarks. She thought she was doing a pretty bang-up job of teaching their daughter, as well as maintaining the house, keeping up with her writing, and keeping everything running as smoothly as possible. “I’ll let you talk her into going outside come recess, Luke. Maybe you’ll have more luck than I do.” She got to her feet and began to clear up some of the breakfast dishes. “Do you want anything else or have you finished?”

Luke reached out and took hold of her wrist as she made to grab hold of a plate. “Don’t be mad. We’re not criticizing, only trying to help.”

“Yes, well, I can’t do it all by myself. What with Josh at the base and you in your bedroom, I’m doing my best. If you can get her to enjoy the park and other normal stuff, then be my guest.”

Josh cocked a brow. “You up to the challenge, Luke?”

“If it means not having to listen to Harry Potter, I’ll give it my best goddamn shot.”

Josh snickered, and the sound was rare enough to make Gia stare at him in surprise. Of late, laughter hadn’t had a place in their lives. Things were so serious around here. It was no wonder Lexi was stifled. She hadn’t been chuckling and giggling as much either. Whenever she did, Gia had hushed her for fear of disturbing Luke. It wasn’t right to put the brakes on Lexi’s cheerful demeanor, but it wasn’t fair for Luke’s rest to be wrecked either.

Finding the happy medium was proving difficult, and Gia had no shame in admitting that the search was exhausting.

“Rather you than me.”

“It’s a good series,” Gia defended.

“It’s too old for her. She’ll have nightmares.” Josh took a sip of his juice. “But I’ll leave it in your expert hands.”

“Hardly expert,” Gia scoffed. “I’m muddling my way through this. If you don’t think she should read it, then find another book for her today.”

“Uh-oh, someone’s pissed.”

“You’ll bet I am, Luke,” she retorted, saccharine sweet. “I’m tired, a little strung out, and I have so much to do today I’m going to meet myself coming forward. It’s taken me ages to decide to let her read that series, but apparently His Highness over there knows better than I do!”

“I never said that,” Josh immediately denied. “I only meant as the series progresses, it gets a little serious for such a young girl.”