A Bond Never Broken

Chapter 31

September 30th, 2015

Luke's House

I fiddled with Luke's suitcase as he put his carry-on bag in the back seat of his truck. I had helped him pack the night before, excited that he was going on tour again. Not a full blown tour, but a smaller one. A few months ago, he had insisted that it be a shorter tour if he to go on the road again during his child's infancy. (That was before we became the legal parents of Ava.) Much to Kerri's dismay, she agreed.

Even if I say I'm excited and happy for Luke, don't get me wrong, I am, but I'm still sad to see him go. Yes, I've raised two boys without their father already, but that was before all three of us became accustomed to Luke being with us and at our sides 24/7. It is going to be weird not to wake up next to Luke every morning and watch the sunrise with him, coffee in hand. It is going to be weird not to get nightly foot rubs or be sung to every night. It is going to be weird not catching him staring at Ava with a smile across his face as she sleeps. It is going to be weird not seeing him playing baseball with Bo and Tate in the yard. It is going to be weird not to have fan encounters in public. It is going to be weird not to attend Til's baseball game with him. It is going to be weird not to have to follow Luke around the house and pick up his trail of mess. It is going to be weird not to have date nights every Friday night. It's just not going to be the same without Luke. It just simply will not.

One thing that is going to be a challenge is dealing with Ava. She had become a huge daddy's girl. He seemed to be the only one who could get her to stop crying. It's as if his arms had some kind of magic sense to Ava. I'd hand her to Luke and almost instantly she could be hushed. I couldn't seem to do that.

Luke wrapped me in his arms and kissed my forehead. I took in the smell of him, the warmth of him, the way he made me feel secure in his arms. I was getting emotional and I needed to keep my composure. Luke would be able to pick up on my emotional state in seconds and decide not to go on tour. That couldn't happen. I've never held him back from his dreams and I certainly wasn't going to now.

I looked up at Luke. "Do you have everything?"

He smiled. "I'm 99.9% sure I do. You helped me pack so I should be asking you that question."

I laughed. "Well, in that case, I think you do."

Luke took a deep breath. "Well, are we ready to go?"

"Yup. Your mom is watching the kids." I said.

Luke smiled and opened the passenger side door. "Well, my lady, hop in."

Luke held out his hand and I took it. "Will do."

Luke helped me into the truck and shut my door before running to his side. Oh, did I say I was going to miss his gentleman acts? Good gosh, I needed to stay calm. I bit my lip, trying to withhold the waterworks.

The drive to the airport felt longer than it actually was. Every passing minute was one less I got to spend with him. Caroline, it's not like he's going to die, I thought to myself. Well, that didn't help either. That got me thinking about how he almost did die. I just shook my head and reach for Luke's hand.

Luke parked the truck and looked at, shooting me his pearly white smile. But his smile slowly faded as he furrowed his brow.

"Caroline, what's wrong." He said hesitantly.

I gave him a fake smile. "Nothing, why would you think there was something wrong?"

Crap. I knew this was going to happen. He always managed to figure things out. He knew me so well that it left me in bad situations like this at times. Gosh, I was going to miss him.