by Toni Aleo
“Time me?”
“Yeah, let’s see how long it takes you to get around the rink.”
“How fast are you?” Aiden asked moving his helmet up so he could look up at Lucas.
Lucas grinned widely as his cheeks warmed. “I’m a little fast.”
“How fast?”
“Wanna time me?”
Aiden grin grew as he nodded his head. “Yeah! Ready set go!”
Lucas took off and in no time was back to Aiden just as he said, “14.”
“You’re really fast,” Aiden said with awe in his eyes.
“Yup, that’s why I have a big house and a nice car. The NHL likes fast,” Lucas said breathing deeply.
“And you can shoot too?”
“Yup, I’m going to teach you that, too, but first let’s see how fast you are.”
Aiden nodded quickly as he got in position ready to go. “Okay.”
“Ready, set go!”
Aiden took off quick and got around in triple Lucas’ time, which wasn’t half bad! As Lucas smiled widely at him, Aiden tried to catch his breath. “Whoo!” Lucas laughed when Aiden fell back onto the ice, still trying to catch his breath. “I can’t breathe!”
Lucas had skated in that rink a billion times but never once had he felt the way he did when Aiden’s giggles filled the rink.
He felt whole.
************************
After unlacing their skates, Lucas and Aiden headed up the stairs. Lucas hoped the guys that were putting the hardwood floors upstairs were done as they climbed the stairs. Aiden was talking a mile a minute about everything from skating to shooting. He was a good shot, but Lucas already knew that. The kid was meant to hold a hockey stick and skate on ice.
Aiden was Lucas’ boy.
Just like Lucas was James’ boy.
Just thinking of his dad made Lucas smile. James never made it to the NHL but he was meant to. He broke his shoulder in two places at the finals during his sophomore year and couldn’t shoot a puck to save his life after that. Little did he know, Molly was only a few weeks pregnant with Lucas at the time. James always said it was meant to be — he wanted to be a full-time dad, not travel around a lot while leaving his family behind. It felt like the air was knocked out of Lucas when he realized that he was going to be leaving his son behind. That he was going to be everything his dad didn’t want to be. Lucas looked over his shoulder at Aiden and his heart broke. He hadn’t even left yet and it was already hard to think about.
“I love hockey,” Aiden gushed as they climbed the stairs.
“I’m glad you do,” Lucas said calmly, when really he was screaming inside. Even with the horrible thought of leaving Aiden, Lucas was still so happy. Sharing the greatest game ever with his son was a dream come true for him.
“I’m hungry,” Aiden said as they entered the kitchen, not knowing that the statement he just made had made Lucas’ lifetime.
“Good, since we are in the kitchen.”
Aiden’s eyes went wide as he took in the marble kitchen. Lucas liked the elegant feel the kitchen gave off. It made him feel like he was in the Roman Empire or something. Lucas’ eyes roamed over the kitchen like Aiden’s, taking in the marble island, the large fridge, and huge stove. Fallon was right, he did love big things.
Just like her ass.
Just the thought of her ass brought him back to the night before. He could hold her ass in his hands for days and wouldn’t even care about anything else. He loved it that much.
“Do you have peanut butter sandwiches?” Aiden asked.
Lucas smiled. “Yeah, buddy. If you want, you can go look around while I make some.”
Aiden took off.
Lucas chuckled to himself as he pulled out the peanut butter and bread. He felt so normal, so at ease as he made his son a sandwich.
He could do this every day.
All he needed was Fallon to come stumbling into the kitchen in those sexy little shorts and his tee and his life would be complete.
“Hey Lucas,” Aiden called from the other room.
“Yeah?”
“Can you come here?”
Lucas looked behind him and didn’t like the sound of Aiden’s voice. He sounded confused or nervous. Lucas left the kitchen and headed into the hall, where Aiden stood staring up at the wall. Lucas knew what picture he was looking at before he even came to Aiden’s side, looking at the same wall.
“Is that my mom?” Aiden asked with his eyes wide.
Lucas only nodded as he took in the beauty of his past love. She sat on his bed in all her 19-year-old glory. Nothing on, the only thing that covered her breast was her hair, but it was still a little visible on the side. Only Lucas could tell who the beauty was since only her profile showed, but obviously Aiden knew what his mom looked like.
“How old was she?” Aiden asked.
“Nineteen.”
“She has tattoos now,” Aiden stated as he glanced up at the picture. Lucas had no room in his gym shorts at just the thought of ink on Fallon. He had begged her to get tattoos when they were together and she never would. Oh how he wanted to see them. “She has my name and AA’s on the inside of her arms and then something else on her side.”
“Oh,” was all Lucas could get out.
Nothing was said for a minute as man and son gazed up at the picture of the woman they both loved. Lucas felt Aiden’s eyes on him and he looked down at his wide-eyed boy.
“Why do you have a nakie picture of my mom on your wall?”
Lucas’s mouth pulled up at one side. “Because she is beautiful.”
“Oh,” Aiden answered. “Did you like her?”
“Yeah.”
Silence filled the hall as both of them turned back to the picture. “Do you still like her?”
“Yeah,” Lucas answered without even thinking of it and knew that later when Aiden told Fallon, he was going to get an earful. When Aiden didn’t say anything else, Lucas turned and walked away, hoping like hell that Aiden didn’t tell Fallon. Even though he knew Aiden probably would. Lucas went back into the kitchen, thinking that he needed to get lunch on the table and Aiden in there so that maybe he would forget about the naked picture of Fallon.
Man, she was going to kill him.
Lucas was cutting up pieces of watermelon thinking about the day he took that picture of Fallon when Aiden called for him again.
“Um. Lucas?”
Lucas wiped his hands on a towel before leaving the kitchen to find Aiden. When he searched the living room and offices with no luck, Lucas headed upstairs to find Aiden in his room. Aiden stood beside Lucas’ bed looking up at the picture of Lucas and his dad. Lucas went around his bed and prepared himself to answer questions about his dad. It was going to be hard, but Aiden was a questions kind of kid. So he took a deep breath and stood beside Aiden, tucking his hands into his pockets.
“Yeah, bud?”
“Is that your dad?”
“Yeah, and that’s me,” Lucas said, pointing to his seven-year-old self. A smile formed on his face as he glanced at the picture, Aiden looked so much like he did when he was a kid. The only difference was the nose, and maybe the cheeks. Everything else was Lucas. Levi was an idiot for thinking that Aiden wasn’t his.
“We look exactly alike.”
Lucas shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, but we have different noses and cheeks,” Lucas pointed out.
“I have my mom’s nose.”
“Yeah,” Lucas said with a nod before looking down at Aiden. Aiden turned and looked up at him, his eyes wide as he blinked twice at Lucas. Nothing was said as the two stared into each other’s eyes, but then Aiden asked, “You’re my dad, aren’t you?”
Chapter 19
“Aren’t you?”
Lucas couldn’t speak; he couldn’t even form a thought. The way Aiden was looking up at him — with his face full of fear — scared Lucas shitless.
This was about to go really bad, Lucas could tell by the look on Aiden’s scared littl
e face.
“Are you my dad, Lucas?” Aiden asked once more. Lucas closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath. He didn’t want to do this without Fallon, but Aiden was leaving him no choice. He opened his eyes, looking down at his son, before slowly nodding.
“I am.”
Aiden took in a sharp breath as he took a step back, his eyes wide.
“You are?”
Lucas nodded again, bending down so he was at the same level as Aiden. Aiden seemed to like when he did it before, and Lucas liked it too. He liked being on the same level as Aiden, he never wanted to seem like he was talking down to him.
“Yeah,” Lucas answered after a moment.
Aiden didn’t say anything as he stood there blinking at Lucas. Lucas didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything either. When Aiden’s eyes started to fill with tears, Lucas was brought to his knees, moving towards him.
“Aiden, buddy, don’t cry,” he said softly as he tried to grab Aiden’s hand. Aiden shook his head, moving away from Lucas again.
“Why didn’t you want me?”
A heavy feeling filled Lucas’ stomach as Aiden ran past him into the bedroom bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Lucas felt he had just been hit in the chest with a puck shot by Shea Adler as he slowly fell back onto to his hunches and then to his ass. When Aiden’s quiet sobs reached him from the bathroom, Lucas felt as if his were soon to follow.
What the hell was he going to do?
**********************************
Fallon’s mind was still going 900 miles an hour even with her being dead on her feet. The night before was a sleepless night because really? Who could actually sleep after rolling around in bed with Lucas Brooks? She was a complete mess. She had meetings out the ass that day and not getting sleep the night before was not good. She basically had to drag herself out of bed the next morning, just to make sure she didn’t see Lucas.
It wasn’t that Fallon didn’t want to see Lucas, it was more that she was scared. Scared that she might feel regret for what she did, or worse, that she wouldn’t. Fallon was a walking question mark. One minute she knew what she wanted, and that was to keep Lucas at arms length away. The next minute, she wanted to be on her back with him on top of her, ravishing her with his naughty mouth. Her body sang for his, and she really didn’t know how to handle it. Fallon knew for a fact it was a bad idea to get involved with Lucas, but why didn’t her body know that? Why couldn’t her brain and her body get on the same wavelength so that she could actually function when it came to Lucas?
It had only been a week of seeing him on a daily basis, and Fallon was a basket case!
Lord, what was she gonna do?
Fallon stood at the end of the long black, glossy executive table. Her father sat at the other end, his eyes on her, along with the eyes of the 18 other board members. Fallon was going over the mark ups for the campaign between the Assassins and Rocky Top since it was to start in a couple of weeks. She was also explaining the dates and when things would start running. Fallon was so tired, but she didn’t let anyone know that as she worked the room. It made Fallon feel good when one of the board members would nod or smile at her. It made her feel as if she was succeeding and after the week she had, she could use the good vibes.
“So Mrs. Adler is on board?” William asked.
Fallon nodded. “Yes sir, we start April second.”
“Lucas Brooks is the spokesman?” William asked with a hairy eyebrow raised.
Fallon didn’t look him in the eyes as she nodded again. “He is. He is the only one that volunteered.”
“I see.” Fallon heard him say, then she heard a knock on the glass wall. She looked over and Kristi, the front desk girl, held up her phone, shaking it at Fallon. Fallon shook her head and looked out at the table.
“He is a good-looking man,” one of the female board members said. Fallon couldn’t remember her name to save her life though.
“He is,” Fallon agreed as she looked down at his player shot that Elli had sent over for the meeting.
“Let’s hope he does a good job,” William said loudly.
Fallon looked up and nodded. “He will.”
Fallon turned, walking towards the computer that held her power point to explain the turnaround time for the ad to start running, when Kristi came to the wall again. This time, everyone looked to see her holding a piece of paper against the wall that said, ‘The guy says it’s an emergency.’
Emergency?
Aiden!
Fallon looked over at Rob and he shrugged his shoulder before opening her bag and looking down at her phone. When he looked up at Fallon, she knew something was wrong. Rob’s eyes were wide as he handed Fallon her phone. She focused to see that she had 38 missed calls from Lucas. Her pulse started to race.
“Take over,” was all she said before walking out of the meeting and dialing Lucas’ number. As she door shut behind her, she heard her father call her name, but she ignored him and went to her office. When she reached her office to grab her things, Lucas picked up.
“Fallon, I need you to come to my house. Right now,” Lucas said. He was breathing hard, and Fallon’s pulse picked up in triple time.
“Is everything okay?” Fallon asked, even though she knew it wasn’t.
“No, Aiden has locked himself in my bathroom and I can’t get him out.”
Fallon stopped, confused, as she leaning against her desk. She took a deep breath, trying to catch her breath. “Why?”
“Because he asked if I was his dad, Fallon, and I told him the truth.”
Oh, God.
Fallon couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe. She thought she had prepared herself for this moment but it was supposed to be done together. She and Lucas putting on a front that everything was going to be fine and that Lucas did love Aiden, but it hadn’t happen that way. Her poor baby boy was locked up in some bathroom, probably crying, and Fallon knew that Lucas was just as bad. She could hear the hitch in his voice, and he was gasping for air. He was freaking out.
“I’m leaving now,” she said before hanging up. Fallon almost ran out the building, even with people calling her name, she didn’t stop. She had a little boy to get to.
A grown man, too.
**********************************
When Fallon pulled into Lucas’ driveway, she stopped to look up at the massive house. Even with her being worried beyond all belief, she still didn’t expect his house to be anything less. Lucas loved his things fancy and big. She used to tease him when they were together about his expensive taste. How did a regular blue-collar boy from Eaton Rapids, Michigan, get such expensive taste?
Fallon’s face broke out in a smile as she remembered the bashful grin that would come over his face as he would say, “Look at the girl I’m with. That should let you know right there that I like things beautiful.” She shook her head, stopping at the walkway and shutting off the car. She got out and ran up the walkway to the door. Lucas opened the door before she was even able to reach it. When her eyes settled on his, Fallon swore all the air she had in her body came out in a rush.
Lucas’ eyes were bloodshot, his face red, and his eyes frantic as he looked down at her. They stood staring at each other for a moment before he moved out of the way, letting her in.
“He’s in my room,” he said as she passed by. Fallon nodded as she stopped in the foyer, waiting for him to lead the way. When he walked past her, she couldn’t stop herself, she reached out taking his hand in hers. She had to comfort him, he looked so scared, so hurt.
And it was all because of her.
Lucas looked down at her, and Fallon squeezed his hand. “I’m gonna fix this, Lucas.”
“He said I didn’t want him.”
Tears rushed to Fallon’s eyes. God, what had she done? “I’m gonna fix it,” she reassured. He squeezed her hand and started off towards the stairs.
Her hand still in his.
Fallon took in the clean look of the dark brown walls wit
h the white trim. It looked so classic, so beautiful. Along the wall by the stairs were pictures of Lucas growing up and pictures of him and Levi. Fallon scrunched her nose up at the sight of Levi. He used to be a nice guy, but now she was convinced he was a Grade A douche. How anyone could say Aiden wasn’t Lucas’ was an asshole. Levi was basically calling Fallon a liar, and she was no damn liar.
A keeper of information, yes, but not a liar.
When Lucas lead Fallon into his bedroom, Fallon only looked around for a moment at the beautiful shade of gray on the walls before she heard Aiden crying.
Fallon made it to the bathroom door in no time at all. She pressed her hand against it as she softly said, “Aiden, honey?”
Aiden took in a deep breath before Fallon her him say, “Mommy?”
“Yes, baby. Let me in.”
“I wanna go home,” Aiden cried. She then heard the squeak of his shoes on the floor before the door opened and Aiden attached himself to her waist. Fallon held him close to her as he rubbed his nose into her middle, his tears soaking her shirt. “I want to go home,” he said once more against her stomach. She looked back to see Lucas, leaning against the door frame. The saddest look was on his face, and Fallon’s heart broke for him.
“Okay, honey,” Fallon said quietly. Aiden looked up at her and she ran her fingers through his hair, moving it out of his eyes. “Let’s go.”
Fallon lifted Aiden into her arms, and he wrapped his limbs around her tightly. Aiden’s face was hidden in her neck as she walked past Lucas. She couldn’t look Lucas in the eyes. She was too embarrassed and too guilty to even try. She heard him walk behind them, and he even opened the door for her without a word. Fallon carried Aiden to the car, and after buckling him in she turned to see Lucas standing on the porch watching her. She looked back at Aiden, but he was looking at his hands. Fallon took in a deep breath, walked back down the walkway and looked up at Lucas when she reached the steps.
“I’m sorry, Lucas,” she whispered. He ran his hands through his hair before looking down at her.