Alyssa's PoV

I really didn't want to ask the question, but at the same time I really wanted to know. I'd only known Luke for a short time but it seemed to just be him and Kira against the world. He never mentioned much about his wife, Kira never mentioned her mum and all the while it reminded me of how Cody and I never mentioned Harry. Was she another one who couldn't handle the stress of having a child? Or did something worse happen to her?

Ashton sighed. It was then I knew it was the latter of the two. "To be honest I'm glad you're asking me rather than Luke. He's still not over it... She had breast cancer." He began and I sunk back in the chair in shock. How stupid of me to just bring this up like it was no big deal when they were dealing with loss. I, too, was then glad I'd asked Ashton instead of Luke knowing it would most likely still be upsetting for him.

"Oh my... I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have pried." I felt terrible, I ran my fingers through my hair as I breathed out heavily, regret weighing heavily.

"No... it's okay. It's the question that always comes up at some point to be honest. They were so happy, just found out she was pregnant but the hormones increased the growth of the tumour. She didn't even know she had one before that point. They did chemo after Kira was born which meant she held on longer but in the end the disease unfortunately won. To be fair we were all devastated." He crossed one leg over the other as he leant back in the chair, his face twisting in a reminiscent sadness.

"I feel terrible. How awful it must have been for them both, though I imagine Luke more as Kira was so small." I said morbidly, I couldn't believe my first meeting with Luke's friend and we were talking about his wife's cancer whilst he was out of the room. Ashton nodded in agreement.

"But it's nice to see him let someone in, he's had his walls up pretty much forever. He hasn't had an easy time." He was hesitant to say any more but I had a feeling I knew what he meant.

"With the stalker?" I asked and Ashton glanced over at me with a sudden look of horror.

"How did you know-" again he was quick to assume I knew something just like Calum had when I'd spoken to him. I quickly cleared things up.

"Luke told me, like one second before you came in." I held my hands up in innocence.

"H-he did?" It seemed to shock him more that Luke had told me something personal than if I'd said I'd looked it up online or something. "Damn." Ashton said no more than that.

"I did tell her." Suddenly Luke's voice was behind us and I span round to see him sombrely enter the room, his eyes looking glassy as he headed back over to us.

"Oh Luke... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, I was just curious to see if your back story was anything like mine." I said quickly, to which he offered a small half smile as he sat down beside ashton, who quickly put an arm around his shoulders and gave him a comforting squeeze.

"Heh." Luke said, clearly feeling stupid for showing his emotions in front of me. "It wasn't you. It was the kids." He paused for a moment as he took a breath. "Kira asked where Cody's dad was..." I straightened in my chair, letting out a shaky breath as I thought about how he would have felt answering the question we always got asked eventually. Ashton looked over at me with raised eyebrows. "He said his dad was 'busy' but then asked Kira where her mum was..." it was his turn to let out another breath as he shook his head. "It was so innocent but to hear her saying she was in heaven just got to me. We pretty much avoid the subject unless it's happy memories." I nodded as he composed himself, trying to clear the tears that were welling before they fell.

"So you're a single parent too?" Ashton asked carefully. Luke smacked him in the arm as if to say it was inappropriate to ask.

"It's fine." I held my hand out to gesture at Luke not to worry. "Cody's dad left when Cody was around 6 months old, said he couldn't handle the night wake ups and the fact he had no time to himself. He tried to reach out once since then but cancelled last minute because he wanted to watch the rugby at the pub. I've not spoken to him since then." I opened up about the only thing that made me really mad. Harry.

"I assume he isn't paying for anything?" Ashton asked inquisitively, his and Luke's body's tensing at the story.

"Oh no, nothing at all. Luckily my sister stepped up and helped me a lot, we weren't really close before then. She's my babysitter when I need one, but I try to work around the school pick ups." They both shook their head, the usual reaction to my story which made me feel like at least I wasn't in the wrong and did something unreasonable. Opening up to these two somehow made me feel better.

"That's ridiculous. He's an absolute idiot for missing out on Cody's life." Luke said, anger lacing his tone. It was almost as if he was defensive, not wanting me to be upset.

"He is, but equally I don't think I could have handled him much longer anyway. He was very selfish." I let out a flat laugh.

"His loss. You're one of the most genuine people I think I've ever met. And if Kira loves your son, then he must be great too." Ashton added, looking back at Luke with a nod of approval. Luke nodded back very minimally, hoping I wouldn't notice but I did. Was he making his friends meet me to see I wasn't another stalker or a person that was setting out to ruin his life further?

"Thank you, I appreciate your vote of confidence. Is that two out of three now?" I said as a joke, but I don't think it was taken that way as I watched Luke's face drop. Once again, I quickly tried to save myself from the hole I'd dig myself into. "It was a joke. Just because you'd mentioned some friends who live here sometimes and I assumed Calum was one of the others."

"But you knew there was three friends?" Ashton had his guard up now, snapping his question at me.

"Luke said it was a five bed place. There'd be one room for him, one for Kira, that left three rooms. I just guessed." I shrugged, the two of them still looking at me like I now had two heads. I felt hot as their glares put me under pressure.

"Right." Ashton said, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Look, I'm obviously missing something here because you're all very skittish when I mention anything that could link to Luke's life. I don't know who you think I might be, but I promise you I'm just here as a friend. Take what you want of it." I sighed as I stood up. "I'll give you some time. I'll see myself out."