Diplomacy

morning.”
    “Daddy!”
    Lucas smiled apologetically. “She never wakes up again, usually.” Jack threw Lucas an understanding look. “You better go see to her.”
    Lucas cursed internally as he made his way to his daughter’s bedside.

    D i p l o m a c y | 165

    A few minutes later, Lucas returned to the kitchen to find Jack standing over the sink, washing dishes.
    He walked over to him and couldn’t resist putting his hand on Jack’s back. “You really didn’t have to, Jack.”
    “I don’t mind. I can’t let you do all of this alone, Luke.” As Jack turned his head to face him, Lucas could see the sadness in his eyes, so he moved behind him, wrapped his arms around Jack and put his chin on the American’s shoulder.
    “I missed you.”
    He could feel Jack swallow hard. “Me, too. God, Luke, me, too.” Lucas tried not to be disappointed as Jack continued washing the last pot. He grabbed the dishtowel off Jack’s shoulder and quickly dried the dishes.
    As he put the last pot in the cupboard, he saw Jack wiping the counters and stopped him.
    “Enough, Jack.” Lucas grabbed the older man’s hand and pulled him out of the kitchen. “We need to talk, clear the air, seriously.” He cocked his head when Jack wouldn’t smile and quickly placed a kiss on his lips. “Come.”
    “Hey, I remember this couch,” Jack remarked, trying to lighten the mood.
    “Shipped over from Brussels courtesy of the British Foreign Service. Now sit!” Lucas commanded. He returned a few minutes later with two cups of tea and sat down next to Jack.
    “I owe you an explanation for AnnElise.”
    “No, you don’t.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Not that I don’t want to know. I just don’t want you to feel you ‘owe me’ anything. She’s lovely and no one would ever mistake her for anything else but your daughter.” Jack took Lucas’s hand in his and squeezed it.
    “She’s Lucy’s,” Lucas stated, looking at their hands.
    “And where is Lucy now?” Jack asked carefully.
    “I actually haven’t seen her since she left me in Brussels. I didn’t even know she was pregnant then.”
    Jack looked confused. “So how?”

    166 | Z a h r a O w e n s

    Lucas sighed. “I left Brussels after our… you know. You know when I left.” He smiled at Jack. “I needed to get away, get my priorities straight. So I went back to Stanford, figured if I buried myself in books it would clear my head and I might end up with the Master’s degree I needed so much.”
    Jack shifted in his seat and turned a bit more towards Lucas, never letting go of his hand.
    “I knew it was futile to try and get in touch with her. It wasn’t like I wanted her back and I knew she didn’t want me, so… One morning, I got a phone call from her sister. I mean the woman could never stand me when I was still seeing Lucy and now she’s calling me?” Lucas looked up at the ceiling and inhaled deeply. “She told me to come to the University Hospital if I wanted to see my daughter before she was handed over for adoption.”
    Jack raised his eyebrows. “Wow, what a way to tell a guy.” Lucas snorted. “Well, I told you she didn’t like me.”
    “If she didn’t like you, she would have stayed quiet about the whole thing.” Jack looked as if he was trying to understand the situation.
    “Sounds more like she wanted to hurt you.”
    “I suppose. Anyway, you can imagine it was a bit of a shock, but I went over there; what else could I do? The nurse showed her to me and I knew right then that I had to fight for her. She was going to give my daughter away! I talked to a doctor and an adoption counselor there and they told me she had put ‘father unknown’ on the birth certificate.” It didn’t escape Jack that Lucas had called Lucy by her name only once this evening.
    “So it took two paternity tests and a judge, but two weeks later I was shopping for baby stuff like a mad man.”
    “And you never looked back after that, hey?” Jack asked, compassion in his eyes.
    “Man, it was tough!” Lucas chuckled at the memory. “I can tell you. The sleepless nights pacing the bedroom, trying to get her to settle down? I often wondered where I had left my brain when I signed her papers.”
    “And now?” Jack tried to look into Lucas’s face, but the young man was staring at the floor.

    D i p l o m a c y | 167

    As Lucas looked up, Jack saw that his eyes glistened with tears.
    “She’s so much a part of me, Jack, a part of my life. All the