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CHAPTER TWELVE

DAYNA

Walking out my front door, I see Cara parking her car in my driveway.

She gets out her enormous gift bag for Sadie.

She is going to love the fluffy throw blanket and the Amelia Bedelia book set Cara got her.

I got her an art set that came with a table top easel.

It’s small enough to pack if she wanted to leave it in Luke’s classroom.

“How early did you wake up today? Five? Four?” Cara says as she approaches the trunk of the car. I open it from my key fob and we place our gifts inside. “Not too early. Four.” I say quietly.

“4 AM?”

“Dayna, it’s just a birthday party. It’ll be fine.”

“No. It’s not just a birthday, it’s his daughter’s birthday.”

“She wants you— us to be there. I promise things will be okay.” She gives me a reassuring look and we head over to Luke’s house.

Luke Beckett’s gorgeous two-story house has a wrap-around porch and a giant Dogwood tree with light pink flowers in the middle of the front yard. Cara and I look at each other and we begin our walk to his front door.

I ring the doorbell and I can hear Sadie laughing through the wooden door.

It slowly opens and Luke is standing there looking so casually good wearing his old faded blue Boston Red Sox shirt and his dark blue jeans.

The black-framed glasses sit perfectly on his face and he pushes them back up with his long index finger, possibly out of habit.

He gives me a slow once over and clears his throat and smiles slightly.

“Hi there, she’s been waiting all day for you two.

Sadie— Ms. Cara and Ms. Dayna are here!” He calls back as he steps to the side and Cara walks in first. I give him a small smile and he says “Thank you for coming, this means a lot to her.” As he reaches for Sadie’s wrapped present in my hands, our fingers brush and it ignites a fire in my body.

I can feel my face burn with red and he raises an eyebrow knowing he can get my body to react with one innocent touch.

Sadie greets us in the kitchen wearing a yellow cotton dress similar to the one she had on the first day of school.

She eyes the presents in Luke’s hands. “You made me another flower?” After I wrapped her gift this morning, I felt like it was missing something so I made her a more intricate paper flower. “I hope you like it.”

“It’s so pretty! Thank you, Miss Dayna!”

“You’re welcome, wait until you see what Cara got you!” Sadie gives Cara a gentle hug and tells her thank you. “I think you’ll really enjoy this cozy present.”

The party is out in the backyard and I spot Mrs. Emily who is already in full motion with whom I assume is Luke’s mother-in-law.

At the end of the table Caleb and his wife are talking to Dean and he waves in our direction with his soda in his hand.

Cara and I walk down the porch steps with Luke behind us.

Sadie runs ahead calling out for her grandma.

“Look who is here, Grandma!”

Her grandmother’s smile that she had a minute ago falls in the slightest bit. She closes the distance between us and holds out a hand. “Hi there, it’s nice to meet you both, I’m Sadie’s grandmother, Nina.” I shake Nina’s hand.

“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Nina. I’m Dayna Carter.”

“I’m Cara Davis. We just adore your granddaughter.” Cara adds as Nina’s eyes bounce between Cara and I. I can sense that makes Luke nervous by the way he’s fidgeting with the gifts in his hands as he puts them on the patio bench.

“Sadie tells me we could all be best friends forever in her words of course. You two are just darling! Luke didn’t tell me you two were so young. I was expecting…”

“Expecting an old lady like myself?” Mrs. Emily chimes in and lets out a chuckle.

That alleviates some of the unwarranted tension.

In the corner of my eye, I can feel Luke staring my way as he now stands next to Cara.

I turn my backside to him and take a couple strides with Nina and Cara to find our seats at the patio table.

“Sadie has so many kind words about her grandparents. It makes me miss my grandma so much, I need to plan a visit back home.”

“Oh, where are you from?” Nina asks.

“I’m originally from—” Luke cuts in and says, “Dayna and Cara are from Oakheart. We grew up together.” Wait— has he not told them the three of us know each other? I suddenly feel sick. Cara brings out her phone and starts typing out a message. A few seconds later, my phone buzzes in my hand.

Cara: Your face just turned green.

Cara: Breathe.

Easy for her to say, she’s not the ex-girlfriend here.

Dean makes his way to our end of the table and says, “Nina, I’m sure Luke would have told you but with school being so busy and taking care of Sadie, details like that slip away from us.

Right, Dayna?” His dark eyes are so convincing.

Looking at Dean, I can’t help but feel relieved.

“O-of course, it’s been a busy first couple weeks at school.

” Cara eyes Dean as he sits next to her.

He takes a sip of his soda and raises the can to me. Ugh.

Sadie is running around with Caleb’s girls and everyone is talking as three tall men walk down the porch steps and Cara’s eyes boggle out. Luke stands to help the older man and grabs the pizza boxes from his grip.

“William, Matt, Nick, these are my friends from work.” We all wave to them as they hold up a hand and smile.

“Which one of you is Mrs. Emily? I want to meet my wife’s new best friend.

” Mrs. Emily rises from her chair and gives William a big wrap around hug.

“Sadie is an absolute princess at Stonebrook Elementary.”

“She gets that from her mother. Lord knows Jules had us all wrapped around her finger. Slugger here, only spoiled my little girl more.” William lets out a bubbly laugh as he puts his hand on Luke’s shoulder.

I slowly brought my eyes up to Luke and his eyes were already on me.

His eyes seemed to dim with the mention of his late wife.

Cara must have seen the same look because she tenderly squeezes my upper arm.

Luke grabs a plate for Sadie and serves her two slices of Alfredo’s Pizza.

Everyone else follows and we begin to eat.

“When can we cut the cake and eat ice cream, Daddy?” Sadie says with a full mouth of pepperoni.

“As soon as we all finish eating, then we will open some presents.” When I’m refilling my lemonade, Nina asks if Cara and I ever saw Luke play in college.

I immediately turn to look at Cara. Not wanting to admit we watched his last collegiate baseball game.

Dean instead asks Luke, “What position did you play?” I’m thankful for the change of direction, even if it was Dean who steered it away.

“Pitcher.” Luke says as he doesn’t look up from his plate.

“Wow, so you must have a great arm.”

“You guys don’t know about his arm? Poor Luke tore his UCL.

He had to get the Tommy John surgery right before the MLB Draft.

We were devastated for him.” Nina said in the most concerned voice.

I see how Luke’s body language alters as everyone suddenly becomes quiet.

I haven’t asked him about what happened to his baseball career yet.

I had hoped he would eventually tell me when he was ready.

Luke flexes his left arm and I can see he is uncomfortable.

“Yeah, well that was probably for the best because we wouldn’t be here celebrating my daughter today.

” Luke proudly hugs Sadie and stands up.

“Before we sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and watch Sadie open her gifts, I want to tell you all how I appreciate you being here today. I was given the greatest gift of all when Juliette told me I was going to be a father and…”

Luke’s voice trembles and he takes a minute to compose himself. He looks around the table at us one by one. When he gets to me he shuts his eyes and continues.

“…on this day six years ago at 9:28 AM, my wife gave birth to our beautiful baby girl. But as everyone here knows, today is Sadie’s first birthday without her mom and we miss her tremendously.

But with each of you here right now, it shows how truly special my daughter is to have such an incredible support team behind her.

She is loved beyond measure and she is the very best part of Juliette.

Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to spend it with my daughter.

Happy 6th Birthday, Sadie Grace, Mommy and Daddy love you forever.

” He bends down to kiss the top of her head and there isn’t a dry eye in sight.

“Luke— that was beautiful. Jules would have loved that. You have been so amazing and so strong this entire year. I love you, Slugger.” Nina stands with her arms wide open and embraces him.

We all raise a toast to Sadie. Just then Luke excuses himself and heads towards the house.

I excuse myself as well. I can see Dean’s eyes follow my every move as I head inside.

Walking through the French doors I noticed Luke standing over the kitchen sink with his head down and his hands bracing his weight on the countertop. The sight of him standing there a broken man crushes my heart. I round the corner of the kitchen island and he takes a deep breath.

“Luke?” I let out as he tilted his head in my direction.

“I’m okay, I just needed a minute.”

“You don’t have to hide it from me, I can see it in your eyes.”

I extend my hand to cover his and his thumb interlocks with my pinky. Rubbing his thumb against the back of my hand is such a small gesture, it shouldn’t have made a vast reaction throughout my body as I feel flutters settling in my lower belly.

“Dayna…” He whispers my name ever so lightly.