Things Happen For A Reason Ch. 05

Luke finished hammering the swing set and stood back to admire the finished project. He'd gone out yesterday, a case of last minute nerves, and bought this crazy concoction to give him something to do and as a welcome home gift to his son.

His son.

A part of him held back from the idea, just as he'd been holding back from Sarah since she'd told him the truth. He'd still been sleeping in the guest bedroom alone, and any attempt she made to discuss the past had been met with a steely resistance on his part.

It wasn't that he hated her. He hated this whole situation. He hated that he couldn't remember why he had left so long ago when Sarah had been certain they were on the right path to reconciliation. He hated that he didn't know where he'd been, or who he'd been with. He hated that Riley, a man he didn't know, was stalking Sarah. Yeah, he hated a lot of things, but he didn't hate her.

He'd tried though. Try as hard as he might, he just couldn't. He kept thinking about her situation and the choices she'd made since he'd left. Hell, he even admired her for some of them. People made mistakes everyday, and they learned from them. Luke also wanted to believe Jack was without a doubt his son, and he wanted to believe they would turn into one big, happy family when the boy finally came home.

But what if Jack didn't like him? What if Sarah only wanted Luke around so her kid would have a dad?

Shaking his head of the thoughts, he collected his tools and hurried inside to clean up. Sarah had gone to the airport alone to pick up the boy and to see her parents off on the return flight. She'd asked Luke to go with her, but he had refused, more out of nerves than anything. He didn't think he could face meeting her parents, strangers to him, on the same day he first met his son. Their therapist had advised him not to do anything he didn't feel comfortable doing, so Sarah hadn't pushed the issue.

He was sitting watching TV when he heard them drive up. The next thing he knew, the door was being flung open and a little tornado was barreling straight for him!

The boy was talking a mile a minute, saying something Luke could hardly understand, something about someone named Dorie and how glad he was to meet his daddy. He threw himself at Luke, hugging Luke's leg with a fierceness that apparently surprised even Sarah. She had followed and was watching the scene unfold from the doorway.

"Dorie?" Luke repeated helplessly, looking at Sarah. She actually covered her mouth and laughed!

"Mommy said you're just like Dorie and can't remember anything," the boy explained in an energetic rush, pulling back to hold out a stuffed animal of some sort. "See my elephant? Grandma got it at the airport for me. I also got a giraffe and a lion. They're in my bags."

"Cool," was all Luke could say.

"Yeah. Hey, did you fix up our house? It looks different," Jack observed, then grabbed hold of Luke's hand and tugged him toward his room without giving Luke a chance to reply. "C'mon, Daddy. Wanna see my room? I got lots a stuff. Do you like the Power Rangers?"

"Power Rangers?" What on earth?

"Jack," Sarah called from behind them. "Give your father time to respond."

"Gotta show Daddy my room!" he called back, refusing to pause from his mission. Luke just sent Sarah a look that asked her not to interfere.

Luke was seated on the floor and shown at least a hundred toys, which all had names he would never be able to remember, while Jack chatted a-mile-a-minute in his barely understandable three-year-old voice. Sarah stood in the doorway the whole time, alternately crying and laughing at the picture they made.

Finally, Jack stopped long enough for Luke to say with a smile, "You haven't even given me a chance to show you your surprise!"

The boy, of course, loved the swing set and excitedly went straight for it when he saw it, forgetting all about his new "Daddy" for the moment. Standing back to watch, Luke felt Sarah slip her hand in his. "He's something, isn't he?"

"He's wonderful," Luke said, feeling his chest swell with pride. "He just accepted me, just like that. I thought..."

"You thought it would be awkward," she finished for him, squeezing his hand. "I've told him about you. His whole life, he's known about you. You weren't as big a surprise to him as he was to you."

"Daddy! Look!" Jack yelled as he kicked his feet and set himself flying through the air on a swing seat.

Squeezing her hand back, Luke whispered emotionally, "Thank you for that. He's a great little boy."

Still, he wondered... "Who's Dorie?" and Sarah laughed. "Don't worry," she replied with a smile. "I'm sure Jack will make you watch 'Finding Nemo' a thousand times before the week is over. I just explained your condition to him on his level, in a way I knew he'd understand. You have problems with your memory, just like a character in his favorite movie."

He nodded and realized that she must make a great teacher.

Luke was amazed at how well-adjusted the boy was to the whole situation as the three of them spent the rest of the day catching up. A couple of times Jack asked why had Luke been gone so long? Why did he never write or call? Before Luke could answer, Sarah would say, "Remember what I've always told you? Sometimes mommies and daddies don't always live together, sweetheart."

"Do we live together now?"

Swallowing hard, Sarah just nodded, "For now, yes."

Mrs. Nash came over for a special dinner and cried buckets at having Jack home again. She explained to Luke that she looked after the little boy when Sarah worked. "He keeps me from being so lonely," she confided. "Whenever she sends him to visit his grandparents, it almost kills me. It makes me jealous that I'm not his grandmother."

"I bet Jack thinks of you as a grandmother," Luke tried to reassure her.

She waved it away. "Oh, posh. It's not the same."

Luke thought for a second. "Well, I don't have a mother or father living. What do you say? Would you like to be Jack's honorary grandma on my side?"

Edna's eyes welled up with happy tears as she looked at Luke long and hard for a minute. Reaching up, she framed his face with her hands and said, "Bless you, Luke Johnston. I understand now why Sarah loves you so much. You're a good, decent human being. It shows in your eyes."

"My eyes?" he laughed, feeling a little embarrassed by the assessment.

"Oh yes," she said, lowering her hands. "And that handsome face. If I were only a few years younger, I'd give Sarah a run for her money!" He laughed at that too.

After taking Jack outside to toss around a ball, Luke told the boy that he could call Mrs. Nash "Grandma" if he wanted. He was a little surprised when Jack said no, and as best as Luke could decipher: "That's what I call Grandma. Scotty has two grandmas, and he calls one Nanna. Can I call Mrs. Nash that?"

"Why don't you ask her and see?"

Edna's eyes twinkled with merriment as Jack asked the simple question, and she shot Luke a look of thanks as she scooped the boy up and declared that she would love to be called Nanna! Sarah was carrying some food to the table and saw the look that passed between her neighbor and her husband. She sent Luke a watery smile of her own, looking at him as if he were some kind of knight in shining armor.

Feeling quite uncomfortable by that look, Luke decided to call it a night. He had a lot to think about. He needed time alone. When Jack asked Luke to read him a bedtime story first, Luke held firm and said, "Not tonight, sport. Tomorrow night, OK?"

Jack wasn't too happy with that plan, but Luke left Sarah to deal with the fallout. Instead of heading to his room, however, he found himself outside, soothed by the calmness of the moonlight, the chirping crickets and the privacy the night provided. With a sigh, he sat in one of the porch chairs and just stared out into the backyard where the outline of Jack's new swing set stood. He could hear Sarah and Jack moving around inside, talking as she tried to get their son settled for the night.

Luke knew he should probably stop questioning Jack's paternity and accept the kid as his own regardless. He'd only known him one day and he was already in love with the brat. And Sarah, despite her faults, would make him a good wife. If he had any sense, he would just bury the past here and now and start trying to concentrate on the future. Concentrate on making a family.

Still...he just couldn't escape the feeling that there was something he needed to know. Many times he'd felt optimistic his memories were returning because he could sense some stray thought teasing the edge of his mind. It was a feeling that was only stronger now that he'd met Jack.

Maybe it was intuition. Instinct. Memory? Whatever. He knew there was something in his past, something maybe even Sarah wasn't aware of, that he needed to remember, for all their sakes.

The problem was, he didn't know what the hell to do about it.

*** Sarah realized Luke wasn't resting when, after much inner debate, she opened the door to the guest room to peek inside. She'd finally gotten Jack settled for the night, but nearly an hour later, she couldn't seem to get herself settled. She missed Luke. She wanted him back in her bed, back in her life where he belonged. How much longer would she have to pay for her past mistakes? Well, she would only take so much, even from Luke.

She took a deep breath and decided to confront him before Jack got any more involved with a man who might not be around very long. If it was just her, maybe she could put up with the constant not knowing. But Jack was her main priority. She might have half-forgotten that fact these past few months, but she wouldn't do it again. The sooner she pointed that out to Luke, and made herself remember it, the better.

Luke wasn't to be found in the rest of the house, and she felt a moment's panic that he'd left her again. Frantic, she decided to check outside.

She almost missed him, sitting quietly there in his jeans and dark shirt. As crazy as it sounded, she sensed him there before she saw him. With a sigh of relief, she smiled wryly at her reaction. It had always been sort of eerie the way she and Luke sometimes just "felt" each other.

"Everything OK?" he asked softly, and she nodded without realizing he probably couldn't see her response.

He was such a good man, even now. He always had been. Letting her eyes adjust to the darkness, she wondered what she could do to make him realize how much she loved him for that.

Without saying a word, she walked over to where he sat. She knew at least one way she could show him. Talking could wait, if just for another hour or two. If she were going to lay down the law, she knew she might lose him again. First, she needed to make one last memory, just in case. Gently, she lowered herself to her knees and sidled up between his thighs, letting her hands slide across his firm thighs suggestively. Leaning forward, she pressed an openmouthed kiss to his chest, feeling the fabric of his shirt against her tongue as she pushed it forward. His sharp gasp of surprise was sweet music to her ears. When she felt his hand lift up and his fingers slide into her hair, she worried that he was going to pull her away. Instead, his thumb gently stroked against the fullness of her bottom lip and tilted her head up toward his.

His mouth took hers, firmly staking its claim. Oh god, he was a great kisser. Maybe better now than she remembered. Her arms slid around his waist and explored the muscles that were new too. The feel of his hard chest against her aroused nipples, even though they were both dressed, made her moan and grow wet where it really counted. She reminded herself she hadn't meant to focus on her own pleasure here. She wanted to drive him crazy with lust, not the other way around.

Pulling back, she slid her hands along the top of his thighs, feeling how tense his muscles had become beneath her caress. Sliding upward, her fingers met at his zipper. Carefully she tugged it down.

"Sarah don't," he protested, and grabbed her hands before they could find what they were searching for.

She almost ignored him and kept on. He was obviously hard as a rock beneath his jeans. She could feel him. Then again, she supposed any man would respond that way to any woman who felt him up. It didn't necessarily mean Luke wanted her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and made to move away from him.

"Wait," he bit out and stopped her. "Just wait a second."

"Why?"

"We need to talk." He let go of her. "Before you came out here, I made a decision you need to know about."

"Oh?" Oh god, he was going to leave. She could feel it.

Instead, he surprised her by asking, "When do you start work again?"

"A week and a half. Why?"

She thought she saw him nod, and then he said, "Edna told me that if we ever need it, we can borrow her husband's old truck. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to ask her if I can borrow it until the end of the week so I can head to Atlanta."

"Atlanta! Luke, what...?"

"There are questions I have now that you can't answer," he explained. "Plus, I'd like to pay a visit to my old friend Riley. If we're going to start our marriage over again, I want him to damn well be aware of it."

She didn't know what to say. Until his comment about them starting their marriage over again, she'd been prepared to beg him not to go. But that...that had thrown her for a loop.

"I'll need you to tell me where to find him," Luke continued. "And I'd like the name of the private investigator you hired to find me. He might be able to provide more information than what he told you. You never know. I'll try not to be gone more than a couple of days. Will you and Jack be OK with that idea?"

"As long as you come back, we will."

"I will. This is just something I have to do," he told her, and sighed loudly.

"I'm just afraid," she admitted. "What if you find out something that makes you want to leave me again? I'm still not even sure why you changed your mind the first time."

"Nothing I find out will change the person I am now," he promised. "And the man I am now wants to be your husband and Jack's father. OK?"

"What about the paternity test?"

"I've changed my mind," he said, and she felt a tear escape her control, especially when he added, "I love you, Sarah. And I already love that kid, so I guess that makes him mine, doesn't it?"

She figured he probably believed that, but she didn't. If he regained his memories, he might remember another woman he had grown to love. He might remember so many things that could make him easily change his mind. She threw her arms around him and squeezed the life out of him. She still had her doubts. Especially if Luke began to regain his memories and suddenly remembered why he had given up on their marriage. She'd searched her mind a million times, trying to remember what she'd said or done to make him finally give up, to no avail.

"What about tonight?" she heard herself ask.

"What about it?"

"Are you going to sleep in the spare room?" She rubbed his arousal through the denim. "Or can I have one more memory, in case—"

She buried her face in his shoulder, embarrassed that she'd actually spoken her thoughts out loud. Might as well go for broke, she decided. She finished the job she'd started earlier. She lowered his zipper and slipped her hand inside his jeans.

"Sarah," he groaned. Her thumb ran over the tip of him, and when he shivered in reaction, she did it again. "We shouldn't do this out here. What about Jack?" he asked.

"I want you inside me," she said. "Here, our room, it doesn't matter. Jack is down for the night. He's a heavy sleeper. I wouldn't risk him walking in on us if I wasn't sure of that."

His lips found hers, hungrily, then desperately, as she continued to touch him and bring him to the edge with just the skillful caress of her fingertips. She wanted to undress him, but he was too impatient. Pushing her away, he began to undress her instead – at least partially. He only tugged her t-shirt over her head and then pushed her shorts and panties down her legs, leaving her standing there in front of God and anyone else who cared to look in only her bra. She reached for him too, but he stilled her hands, imprisoning them behind her back. His mouth caressed her lips, her neck, her breasts while all she could do was enjoy the pleasure he was giving her.

"Oh, Luke," she breathed and moaned more than once.

She felt him lift her, and gently, he laid her on the small patio table by the door. Sarah was floating now. Her arms went up and around Luke's neck. She began to run her fingers through his hair as Luke, in return, kissed his way down her front, stopping to pay special attention to her belly button. She responded by arching her back and moaning. She was very hot now.

When his right hand slid up her left leg from her knee, ending on her hip, her knees quivered, and she spread her legs, wider and wider. She knew he would be between them in a matter of seconds, and that's exactly what she wanted. She was now nearly horizontal, with her legs spread wide, both feet on the ground, and Luke easily slid into place. She hadn't even realized he'd pushed his jeans out of the way until she felt him prodding at her entrance.

"Oh Luke, please, please, please." She whispered to her lover. She shivered and groaned, and put both hands on his head. She pulled his face to hers and they kissed for a long time as his hand slid up toward her pussy to make sure she was ready for him. She was so wet that his hand was instantly between her lips. He dragged his fingers across her entrance, and then he reached for his cock and guided it into place.

She let out a gasp and groaned, "God, yes, Luke, push inside me. Just like that."

She heard herself make little sobbing noises as he began to move inside her, steady and slow. She knew Jack would sleep through a hurricane, but she still tried to be quiet. She used her muscles to pull on Luke's cock and he pushed back. Finally, grunting in her ear, he pushed hard, and she put both hands on the back of his ass, and pushed up with her pussy. He rested all the way in her now, and then froze in place.

He didn't move for a full minute. "What's wrong?" she said. Luke didn't say anything. He seemed to be struggling for control, so she didn't move. Finally, he started pulling back slowly, causing her to whisper, "Oooohhh, I love you. I'm so full. Please Luke, please make love to me." After several minutes of rocking back and forth, Sarah began panting. On the next stroke, Luke stopped again and then he began to rotate his hips. "Oh, Unh...Oooh."

After a few more minutes of this, Sarah began to come. Luke finally went back to stroking his cock inside her, but with fast hard strokes. He was grunting, trying to make it last, but she was ready for him to take his pleasure. Wrapping her leg around him, she leaned up and whispered in his ear, "Come inside me, baby. Please. I love you so much."

That was all Luke could take, and she felt him tense, then hold tight against her as he groaned and let himself go. It was a wonderful feeling, and she prayed it was one she'd feel again and again.

"Just come back to us," she whispered in his ear, and prayed that he would.