Rushing the Goal (Assassins #8)

by Toni Aleo

  “Go cook.”

  “Benji!”

  “Mommy, please. Bacon and eggs.”

  “Really, guys?” she asked, but she was ignored as they fell back to sleep. “Brats.”

  Getting out of bed, she reached for her robe, turning to put it on as she looked back at her bed where they lay. Angie’s head was against Benji’s face, her hair caught in his beard as they both slept soundly. As a contented sigh left her lips, she grabbed her phone and took a picture. It was too cute not to. When she navigated off her camera, the picture of her and Benji grinning at the camera with Angie behind them, holding the sign asking her to marry Benji appeared as her wallpaper. She almost couldn’t believe that had been only two days ago.

  She still had that fluttery feeling. That unbelievable feeling of love.

  Smiling, she headed down the hall, picking up hockey sticks from their nightly knee ball game and putting them back in Angie’s room. Walking downstairs, she started breakfast with a grin on her face. While she hated cooking, she loved Benji and Angie, so bacon and eggs it was. As she fried the bacon, it didn’t fail that Rick reared his ugly head into her mind, but she shook her head. She wouldn’t be nervous about their lunch.

  It would go great.

  When her phone rang, she looked over to see it was her dad. Unlike how she usually did, she didn’t groan as she answered. “Hello?”

  “Hey, did I wake you? I just realized it was only eight.”

  “No, I’m cooking breakfast.”

  “Oh, good. I wanted to make sure you called me after the lunch. Let me know what is said.”

  “Yeah, no problem. We are dropping Angie off with Baylor and Jayden before heading to meet him.”

  “Okay,” he said as she put the biscuits in the oven. “So everything is good with you and Benji?”

  Lucy smiled. “Yeah, they’re great. He asked me to marry him.”

  Her dad let out a whoop. “You said yes, then?”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “Good, he’s a great guy.”

  “I think so too,” she said, and she was surprised how unawkward it was to say that to her dad. Maybe she was still on her little, happy, glittery, pink cloud of engagement or something.

  “Hey, you remember when you were like fifteen, I think, and we watched that movie, The Wedding Date, together.”

  Lucy paused, leaning against the counter as a smile crept over her face. She was surprised he remembered that movie. But why was he bringing it up? “Yeah, I do.”

  “You remember how it was such a big deal for your husband to ask me to marry you?”

  Her breath caught as she stood up. “Yeah.”

  “He asked, Lucy, and I said yes, even though it wasn’t really my place to anymore, but I did,” he said, his voice rough as Lucy’s eyes started to cloud with tears. “I’m really sorry, honey, for betraying you like I did. I know you looked up to me, and I really failed you. Hell, I failed you all, and I’m sorry. For as much as it’s worth, I really am.”

  When a tear spilled over and rolled down her face, Lucy closed her eyes. Ever since she’d found out about her father’s whore on the side, all she’d wanted was an apology, for him to own up to what he did, and she finally had it. “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Of course.”

  “And thanks for telling Benji he could marry me.”

  He scoffed. “Now, I don’t think anyone is good enough for you, honey, but that man…he could prove me wrong.”

  When Benji and Angie entered the kitchen acting like zombies, she couldn’t help but think they looked like zombies too, with their hair all over the place and drool on their faces. And still, she grinned at them.

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  Her dad laughed. She stood up when Benji came over, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck. “Well, I’ll let you go. Call me later.”

  “Will do. Thanks, Dad.”

  “Anytime, honey.”

  And then he hung up.

  They weren’t fixed. Lucy wasn’t sure if they ever would be, but at least he was trying, and that was enough for her.

  Leaning her cheek into Benji’s, she exhaled loudly. “You asked my dad to marry me?”

  He chuckled as he nodded. “I thought that would mean a lot to you.”

  “You thought right.”

  “Yeah. I’m kinda smart.”

  “Eh, kinda,” she teased and he smiled, nibbling at her jaw.

  “So, you ready for today?” he asked, holding her as she moved the eggs around in the pan. Her eyes cut to the file her father had given Benji, the one with all they needed to shut Rick up, and she nodded.

  “More than ready.”

  But when she saw Rick enter the Mexican restaurant, her gung ho attitude was nowhere to be seen.

  Nope, nothing but nerves.

  That is, until Benji’s hand slid into hers.

  When she looked over at him, he smiled and she let out a long breath. “We’ve got this.”

  She nodded as she looked back. Rick’s eyes widened as he came to the table. “I thought I was meeting you.”

  Lucy nodded. “Well, seeing as how he’s my fiancé, Benji wanted to be here.”

  It was obnoxious of her, but she wanted Rick to know that she had not only found love, but also a love she was going to have for the rest of her life.

  Rick scoffed. “That didn’t take long.”

  Benji smiled. “When you know, you know.”

  Rick just shook his head as he sat down, leaning back in his chair and watching them. “Okay, so what is this about?”

  “Well,” Benji said, leaning on the table, his gaze on Rick’s. “I wanted to say I don’t appreciate you manipulating Angie into making that video—”

  “I’m not talking about that,” he said, cutting Benji off, his eyes narrowing. “We can discuss it in court.”

  Lucy’s nails bit into her palms at his callous attitude as Benji slowly nodded. “Fine, since you were so gracious to show us what evidence you are bringing to court, we wanted to show you ours. You aren’t the only one who can hire a PI.”

  When Benji slid the file across the table, Lucy loved the look of pure fear that settled in Rick’s eyes. “What’s that?”

  “A file on Amy Masters, who lives in Franklin with your twin boys. You’ll find it to be very thorough. It also has information on how you’ve been taking money out of your mom’s account and your personal account with Heidi and depositing it into Amy’s account for your children. Pictures of you going to see said children, who are only maybe three? Children who would have been conceived while you actually were still married to me…” Lucy said slowly, Rick’s eyes meeting hers. “There is a statement from Amy where she tells the PI that you work in Nashville a lot and can’t always come home to her and the boys. That you two haven’t gotten married yet because you are in the middle of a nasty divorce with your ex. Funny thing, it was as true when she got pregnant as it may be now.”

  Rick opened the file to see a picture of him sitting on a bench with Amy, their boys playing in the sandbox nearby. He shut the file and looked back at them. “So, you’re blackmailing me? I don’t show the video and this goes away?”

  “Oh, no,” Lucy said, feigning surprise. “Never. We are just reminding you that if you show, we show. While, yeah, it’s gonna suck getting out of the fucking custody mess you caused, everyone will know that you are not only married to Heidi with a daughter the same age as the one you’re fighting over, but you also have a girlfriend with twin boys that your wife knows nothing about.”

  “I mean, the video is bogus anyway. All it will cause is an investigation and I’ll be exonerated in the end. But the fact you are putting money into another account without the knowledge of your wife or your mother is stealing, fraud even. I’m sure that won’t go over well, especially if they press charges,” Benji added and Rick’s eyes narrowed.

  Looking away, Rick sucked in a deep breath and shook his head. Lucy watched as he thought over his word
s, and she wanted to laugh how the cocky asshole was shaking in his boots. She was disgusted by him. She always knew he was a bad guy, but she had thought there might be a good guy underneath. She was wrong. So wrong, and as she watched the man she had loved at one point in her life struggle, all she could do was feel sorry for him.

  He was pathetic.

  When she looked over at Benji, he smiled, leaning over to kiss her temple before whispering, “We’re okay.”

  She nodded. “We are.”

  When she looked back, Rick was watching them, venom in the depths of his blue eyes. “I hate you,” he said, looking at Lucy, his eyes dark and full of malice. “I hate who you are, that you trapped me.” He paused and Benji went to say something, but she held her hand to his leg, stopping him. “I don’t like dealing with you. I want you to disappear more than I can even tell you. Your family has been a problem since the beginning, and now you have this guy you want to marry… Yeah, I’m done.”

  Her brows pulled together. The feelings were mutual, but what was he saying? “Done?”

  “Yeah, listen, I don’t care anymore,” he said, sitting up and holding their gaze. She wasn’t sure what he meant, but her heart dropped to her stomach as she watched him. “I hate doing this with you. Always fighting and having to see your smug face ’cause you think you’re better than me. So, you know what? Do you want her?” he asked Benji, and Benji looked confused at the abrupt change in topic.

  “Want who? Lucy? I’ve got her.”

  “No, Angie. You want her?”

  Lucy looked bewildered as Benji nodded. “I mean…yeah. Yes, I do.”

  “Then take her,” he said simply, like he was giving away a dog and not his firstborn. “I don’t have the money for child support, obviously. And I was hoping if I got custody of her, boom, you’d be paying me. But now this is getting insane. My mom is saying she doesn’t want me to fight anymore, and I just don’t have the cash flow for it. The kid doesn’t even like me. So if you want her, and you’re cool with taking her, I’m honestly done.”

  Lucy’s heart stopped as her eyes narrowed. “You put me through this, put Angie through this, so you could get child support money? For a child you don’t even want?”

  He shrugged as he held her gaze. “I don’t like you. Anything to ruin your life is fine with me.”

  “But hurting a child, your child, in the process… That didn’t matter?” she asked, tears spilling over her cheeks as she held his gaze. But Rick just shook his head. How could he do this? Who was this man she had made a child with?

  This filth.

  “It’s over. I don’t care,” he said simply and then he stood up. Clearing his throat, he took their file, almost like he thought they didn’t notice, before saying, “I’ll see you Thursday, and we’ll get the ball rolling.”

  “On what? What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Come on, Lucy, keep up. I’m giving up my rights. I don’t want her. I don’t want to pay for her. I don’t even want to deal with her. I’ll always love her—I guess I’m supposed to—but she doesn’t like me. She likes that guy. So you guys go ahead, be a happy little family.”

  She gasped as she looked up at him, unsure what the hell was really going on.

  “Wait, are you serious? Just like that?” Lucy asked, her heart almost cracking her ribs it was beating so hard.

  “What, you don’t believe me?” he asked. He grabbed a pen from a passing waitress before taking a sheet of paper from the file. They watched as he wrote something and then signed it, laying it on the table. Tapping the file to the edge of the table, he nodded at them. “That’s that. See you guys Thursday.”

  And then he walked away.

  Like it was nothing.

  Like he hadn’t just agreed to give up his flesh and blood.

  Reaching for the piece of paper, she read it through tear-filled eyes.

  On Thursday, I, Rick Hart, will give up my rights so that Benji Paxton can adopt Angela Lynn Hart.

  And then there was his signature and the date. That was it. Wide-eyed, she looked over at Benji. “What?”

  He looked at the sheet, shaking his head. “Really?”

  “Did that just happen?” she asked and Benji gulped beside her.

  “I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think he just gave me Angie. Like, actually, gave her to me,” he said, his voice breaking as her body went numb. Looking over at her, he smiled. “She’ll be mine. Like, I’ll be her dad. Her real dad—she’ll have my name.”

  Her jaw was slack as she held his gaze, unable to process this. Who just gives their kid up like that? But then…who the hell cared? She wanted Rick gone, and he’d be gone. But above all that, Benji would be Angie’s dad. Well, if he wanted her.

  “You want her, right?”

  “Fuck yeah,” he laughed and then his face lit up, tears flooding his sweet, gray eyes. “Lucy, we’ll be a real family. All of us. One.”

  As her tears rolled off her jaw and onto her lap, she cupped his beautiful face. Her heart was in her throat. She couldn’t believe it. While she hated Rick with everything inside of her, she could honestly kiss him for making Benji this happy. For giving him everything he ever wanted.

  What Lucy wanted.

  A good man to love her daughter.

  Their daughter.

  Around the lump in her throat, she whispered, “We’ve always been a family, but now it will be official.”

  Covering her hands with his, he looked deep into her eyes. “Officially complete.”

  As their mouths met and Benji pulled Lucy into his lap, she couldn’t believe that, at one point in her life, she didn’t think she could ever love someone, that a man could complete her. As her mouth moved with Benji’s, her heart slamming in her chest as his slammed back, she believed it. She believed that two lost souls had become a full one, no longer lost but together. And she believed with everything inside her that nothing could ever break them apart.

  Her life was finally beginning.

  And what a life it was about to be.

  Four months later

  Everyone had come.

  At least, the people who mattered to him.

  As Benji looked around the room, Lucy’s family—well, his too, now—stood front row, while his core Assassins teammates and their wives sat in the rows behind them. The room was full, a packed house. Even Lucy’s dad was there. It wasn’t just because he was their lawyer, but because they wanted him there. They wouldn’t have gotten here if it weren’t for him.

  As Angie wiggled between them, her fingers laced with theirs, Judge Walker looked them over and smiled. It had been Angie’s idea for all three of them to wear his hockey jersey, with his name on the back but her number. She was very insistent about having her number, not that Benji minded. He just wanted this day to come.

  The day he became a father.

  Again.

  But this time, he wasn’t some drunk the way he had been for Leary. No, he was going to be a good, solid father who would love Angie soberly until his dying day. It wouldn’t be easy—he knew that because he was in love with her mother, the most headstrong pain in the ass he had ever met—but he wouldn’t change a thing about her. He loved them both, and he was ready to start their lives together.

  “Now, I have a petition here for the adoption of Angela Lynn Hart by Benjamin Walter Paxton, is that correct?”

  Mark stood beside Benji and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Funny turn of events. Not that I’m complaining,” the judge said, his face lighting up, and he wasn’t kidding. Rick hadn’t lied when he said he’d sign over his rights. Before the judge could even ask him if he wanted to consent to the new parenting plan, he’d volunteered that he wanted to give up custody, his rights, and everything to Lucy, as long as he didn’t ever have to pay child support. The judge agreed for good reason, and Benji still couldn’t believe it.

  But he was fucking thankful.

  Because that’s where their story began.

&n
bsp; As easy as it was to get here after Rick was out of the picture, the waiting game was what almost killed Benji. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t scared, freaked out that, at any moment, Rick could change his mind, come back, and ruin everything. But they hadn’t heard a peep out of him. Hadn’t seen him or anything. It was like he fell off the face of the earth. It was ridiculous, but in a way, he didn’t care. He’d wanted Rick gone, and he was gone. Now he just wanted to adopt his Angie.

  And he was.

  “Now, Angela, who is this man that is standing beside you?”

  Angela beamed up at him as she swung their hands back and forth. “He’s my dad.”

  Everyone aww’d behind them as Benji’s eyes started to cloud with tears.

  “Good, so you know that this man is your father. That it will be as if you are his flesh and blood?”

  She nodded. “Yup. He’s my dad.”

  Benji swallowed hard as the judge nodded, “That’s right. Now, Mrs. Paxton, do you agree to this adoption?”

  Before Lucy could answer, though, Benji heard Autumn in the back. “Did he say Mrs. Paxton to Lucy? Are they married?”

  But Lucy just grinned, nodding her head as she swallowed. “Yes, sir, I do.”

  “And, Mr. Paxton, it is your wish to adopt Angela Hart?”

  He almost couldn’t speak his throat was so tight, but then she glanced up at him and grinned. A tear rolled down his face as he nodded, his voice hoarse as he said, “I want nothing more than to do that, your honor.”

  Angie giggled as she bounced on her heels, and when Benji met Lucy’s love-filled gaze, his heart ached. They had all been so excited for this day. It was the big event of the year, especially since the Assassins had lost in first round of the play-offs to the Blackhawks. This was something to look forward to. While he was disappointed that he didn’t have a run at the Cup, he was happy to have time with his girls.

  The whole summer off while Lucy worked.

  She was designing like crazy, and they had already decided she would need a bigger place before the New Year. As much as he hated to see her go from the backyard, he understood and was excited for her. Angie had done great in school, excelling in her classes, and she was awesome on the ice. She was the next Baylor, he decided, and just thinking of Baylor made him smile. She had announced her retirement the month before, and while he was bummed to see her go, he couldn’t wait to meet the little bundle of joy she was carrying. Autumn was convinced it was a miracle baby, and everyone else agreed. They were all excited.