Colton's Fugitive Family. Jennifer Morey

       Chapter 5

      Early the next morning, Lucas woke before Wolf and Demi. He rolled onto his side and propped his head on his hand. Snuggled in a blanket on top of the comforter, the baby breathed evenly. Long, fine, dark-red eyelashes rested on his cheeks. Lucas didn’t like how Demi’s question bothered him. He did like kids. They didn’t have a worry in the world and always gravitated toward fun and adventure. His favorite camping trips were the ones with big groups and kids.

      Whenever he thought of having kids of his own, he also thought of how devastating it would be to lose them. He enjoyed other people’s kids. He’d feel a lot stronger about his own. He knew people who’d lost a child. It changed them beyond compare. No parent should have to go through that, but the sad reality was, in life there was death. The only death he needed to suffer was his own.

      After spending time with Demi and Wolf, though, he wondered if he’d made the wrong choice. He understood most people would not relate to his decision not to marry or have kids. He knew it was drastic. He also knew that he never, ever wanted to feel what his father had felt and lose touch with those around him, even his kids.

      Lucas had needed his father after his mother died. He hadn’t had his father. He didn’t really have him to this day. His father was a quiet, solitary man. Successful, no arguing that, but detached from the rest of society. He functioned. He socialized. From the outside, no one would guess a depressed man struggled to survive day-to-day. On the inside a completely different man lived. He felt neither joy nor sorrow anymore. He’d lost too much. Money had meaning and nothing else. Money would not hurt him. Love would.

      Lucas didn’t live in isolation. Money didn’t mean that much to him beyond being a necessity. He wasn’t afraid of love, either. He just never wanted to be hurt the way his father had been hurt. It was a conscious decision.

      He could just hear Demi argue with him. She argued with him a lot. That’s why they butted heads so often.

      “If you avoid love because you don’t want to be hurt, then you’re afraid,” she’d say. Or something similar.

      Once he fell in love, his well-being would depend on the well-being of the woman he loved. Who had control over something like that? Nobody, that’s who. Unless a person chose not to fall in love. He controlled his destiny.

      Demi stirred, taking a deep breath followed by a long stretch. The comforter slid off her breasts, which stood out with the arch of her back. Even her modest pj top didn’t minimize the shape of her perky chest. She had an athletic body, something that had always attracted him.

      Her eyes blinked open. She turned her head and their eyes met, hers sleepy, and he was sure his were heating up.

      “What are you doing?” she asked.

      “Watching Wolf sleep.”

      She smiled softly and rolled to her side to look at her son. The motherly love that swept her expression left him no illusions as to what she felt for her baby. Their bond was powerful.

      Feeling himself slipping ever deeper into this domestic bliss, Lucas pushed the covers off and got up. He busied himself making coffee.

      Demi stayed in bed, waiting for Wolf to wake up. Once he did, she went about giving him a bath and dressing him. They’d go downstairs for breakfast.

      Lucas put a cup of coffee on the side table by the bed where Demi was dressing the baby.

      “Ah. Thanks.”

      He sipped his coffee just as four gunshots rang out from somewhere in the inn. He put down the cup and grabbed his gun. Demi had picked up Wolf.