“Ava, it isn’t Luka’s fault. It’s mine,” Skylar told her. “I should have told him about you. If I had he would have been here for you but I thought, I could be both mother and father and you had your uncles,” she added.
“Not the same,” she grumbled.
“I get that now,” she told her daughter. Skylar sighed. She really needed to change and so did Ava if she wanted to make her soccer game. “Kiddo, we need to move it or we’ll be late for your game.”
Ava released Luka and went inside with Skylar. At the front door Skylar turned just as Luka did too. Their eyes met. Both were remembering making love last night. She could see the burn in his eyes. Skylar turned away first and headed inside. She went up the stairs to her room. By the time she got to the top, Ava had already gone to her room and shut the door. Skylar looked at her door. Then she ran her fingers through her messy hair before she went to her own room to change.
**
When he heard the term soccer mom, he thought of mini-vans and women in capris with tee shirts who sat on the sidelines and yelled for the kids to win.
When Skylar came down the stairs, she was wearing blue jean cut-off shorts and flip flips and her hair was loose and wild about her face. Her shirt was a pretty shade of pink and cut low revealing far more cleavage than any soccer mom should ever reveal. “You’re going dressed like that to her game?”
Ava was waiting at the door with Brett and Luka. Skylar looked at her daughter and Brett who both shrugged then she looked at Luka. “What is wrong with what I am wearing?”
“Your Ava’s mom,” he declared.
“And Ava’s mom dresses comfortably for her soccer games. It is going to be hot Luka. I’m not inappropriately dressed.” She tucked her phone into her back pocket. “Who is driving? I would prefer it not be me because of my missing front bumper.”
She started out the front door. “If somebody hadn’t crashed into the fountain the bumper wouldn’t be smashed and laying in the driveway,” Luka snapped.
Skylar tugged her sunglasses down to the end of her nose and peered over them at Luka. Brett shoved him out the front door. “You never learn man. We can take my truck,” he offered.
Skylar and Ava sat in the back together. Her daughter was spinning the soccer ball
gently in her hands and staring out the window. “You okay?” Skylar asked her. Ava nodded but didn’t turn away from the window.
When they arrived at the fields Skylar saw Luna standing with Ramona and Luka’s other brothers, Stellan and Benji. Dalton wasn’t here yet.
Luka climbed out first. He looked in the back seat waiting for Skylar and Ava to get out. “We’ll be right there. I want to talk to Ava for a moment,” Skylar told him.
He shrugged and walked away leaving the door open so his daughter could get out when she was ready. Brett did the same thing for Skylar. He joined Luka with his siblings and mother. He slipped his arm around Ramona and Sky smiled. Her sister was happy to see him. She really liked him.
Skylar turned to Ava then. “Okay, so tell me what’s wrong.”
Ava was troubled, Skylar knew her daughter well. “I know Daddy slept in your room last night.”
“Oh,” she replied. “Ava, our relationship is complicated.”
“Do you love him?” She asked. She didn’t miss the hope in her daughter’s voice.
“I need time Ava. He knows that. When he left he hurt me. There was a time when I thought that he and I would be married and have children. I thought we would do everything together. Then he left me without a word. I need time to build that trust again. I need to know that he won’t hurt me.”
“He won’t leave Momma. He won’t leave me,” Ava insisted.
Sky turned her head to her daughter. “No sweetheart, he won’t leave you,” Skylar reassured her daughter. “So you let Daddy and I worry about what’s going on with us and you just go play soccer and enjoy having him here.”
She nodded. They stepped out of the truck and walked to the front of the vehicle. Sky took Ava’s hand. “I love you Ava.”
“I love you too Momma.”
Ava greeted her family and then took off across the soccer fields for pre-game warmups with her team. Skylar watched her daughter running away from them. Then she caught sight of Tag standing by one of the divorcees. He looked at her first then he turned his head towards Ava and watched her. “What’s wrong?” Luka asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
Luka turned his head and saw where she was looking. “Who is he with?”
“Kay Samson, one of his groupies. Divorced mother of three. Her daughter Amber plays soccer with Ava.”