Temptation Ridge (Virgin River #6)(122)

“Why is that?”

“Well, did he ever happen to mention he was married when he was much younger?” Aiden asked.

It took her a moment to absorb that. “Well, that would explain a few things,” she finally said.

“The explanation gets more complicated. You’ve probably heard a hundred nasty divorce tales, but this one combined a lot of events that worked out badly for Luke, and I think it’s safe to say he’s got some residual effect from it.”

She looked down. “I guess he didn’t trust me that much,” she said. “Or he might’ve told me.”

“It has nothing to do with trust, Shelby. He was trying damn hard to keep from getting too close to you. It didn’t quite work for him—you should see him. He looks like a dead man, he’s so miserable.”

She scooted forward. “When did you see him?”

“A couple of days ago. And no, I didn’t tell him I was going to try to find you. He wouldn’t have endorsed this idea.”

“Is he okay?” she asked, concerned.

“Nope. He’s a mess. I guess he could recover,” Aiden said. “But we have to talk, you and me, and then what will be, will be.

“Luke got married when he was about twenty-four. He was a brand-new Black Hawk pilot and he married a girl he met in Alabama—a real pretty Southern belle who turned his world upside down. Prettiest girl in the South, maybe. They dated, started making plans right away, had a wedding a few months later and he was the happiest man alive. Since he was the oldest, the rest of us were watching every move he made. We all wanted to be like Luke—he was so sure of himself, so well equipped. All the boys wanted to go into the military, excel, get a million ribbons and promotions, marry the prettiest, sexiest girl on the map, grab on to that perfect life filled with challenge, adventure and passion.”

“Something went wrong, I gather,” she said.

“Oh, boy. Let’s see, Colin was in the army, stationed on the other side of the country, I was in my last year of undergrad at the time, Sean was only nineteen and at the air force academy. Patrick was in high school. And Luke had a baby coming. First baby in the family, a son. First marriage for anyone. Luke was on top of the world, so happy, so in love, so excited about the baby, and then he was sent to Somalia, to Mogadishu. You ever see that movie, Black Hawk Down?”

“I did,” she said. “I don’t think I want to see it again….”

“Luke got shot down over there, had some injuries, but he’s the bravest man I’ve ever known. That was a horrible experience for the army—everything bad that could happen, happened. But he somehow got through it, performing heroically. He saved lives and was decorated for bravery. He got home as fast as he could because his son was about to be born. He was undoubtedly still battle scarred when he faced another battle. He wasn’t home five minutes when his wife told him the baby—which was conceived months before he left for Somalia—wasn’t his. She was doing some captain. One of Luke’s superior officers, in fact. A man Luke went into war with, took orders from on occasion. And she was leaving Luke to go with the baby’s father.”

“God” was all she could say.

“It humiliated him, this tough young soldier. He was your age at the time, Shelby—twenty-five. There was a stir on the army post—an officer messing with one of his men’s wives. It wasn’t only a divorce, it was just about front-page news, there were rumblings about pressing charges against the captain and Luke looked like a fool. He wasn’t close to being done dealing with war. He had some issues from that at the same time. Broken heart, scandal, humiliation, disappointment, PTSD from battle, grief from watching comrades die.” Aiden took a breath. “He was suicidal.”

“Luke?” she asked. “That’s so difficult to imagine. Anger, I can see that. But—”

“It didn’t present itself in a typical way. He went down like a torpedo—drank too much and drove, almost flew drunk, but someone pulled him off the flight line. He got in fights—he seemed to go places where he could count on getting the hell beat out of him by at least several men. He picked the fights. He landed in the hospital a couple of times, injuries from fights, from a one-car accident. He probably wouldn’t tell you this, but he told me. He just wanted to die.”

She took a moment to absorb that, then said, “No wonder he won’t have a close relationship…”

“There are a lot of things that can screw a guy up, but Luke had a full menu. It wasn’t just a bad marriage, Shelby, but everything, with a no-good cheating wife in the middle of it. It took a couple of years for him to get straightened out. He changed everything—he stopped being calculating and just took too many chances, and he moved real fast. It turned out he couldn’t give up women, but he seemed to give up attachments.”

She tilted her head. “That explains so much,” she said. “He told me he didn’t fall in love, went through women like a shark goes through scuba divers….”

Aiden smiled. “That sounds like Luke.”

“I absolutely believed him,” she said. “I thought I could handle that. And then I stupidly thought something was different for him with me. That’s where I screwed up.” She took a breath. “I must have blown his mind with that talk about children….”