by Toni Aleo
“Oh, is that right?”
“Sure is.”
They stood for a moment just staring into each other’s eyes as the rain came down on them. It didn’t matter that they were soaked to the core or so cold their lips were blue. They were in love and always would be. Their love had been tested and even though they had stumbled at first, they had overcome it all and were blissfully in love. Lucas was ready for the future, ready to fail and pass tests with Fallon. They wouldn’t always agree on things, but it didn’t matter. They would work it out and they would love each other for the rest of their lives.
They would be a team.
As Lucas held Fallon in his arms, he couldn’t help but get turned on. She was probably the sexiest woman alive, and she was extra sexy all wet from the rain that still poured around them. Lucas gave her a cheeky grin and asked, “Wanna do it in the rain?”
Fallon laughed as she smacked his bicep. “Really? In the rain? I’m freezing!”
“So? We’ve done it before.”
“True and this time probably won’t be the last time either, huh?” she asked with a small smile tugging at the side of her mouth.
Lucas smiled as he leaned in close, dusting her lips with his. “Probably not, because I’m going to kiss you every chance I get. I’m going to argue when we need to. I’m going to love you with everything inside me, but most of all, I am going to fully and completely make love to you whenever Aiden is out of ear shot.”
Fallon giggled before pulling him close and looking into his eyes. “I can’t wait.”
Epilogue
“Mom, when we get home can you get in the net for me?”
Fallon rolled her eyes as shook her head at her little Marshmallow Man. “No way, you always hit me.”
Aiden rolled his eyes before looking up at Lucas. Fallon looked over and couldn’t help the grin that came across her face. He looked positively crazy in his Ghostbusters costume, and she doubted she looked any better, but they had done it for Aiden. Audrey and (unfortunately) Levi had dressed up along with them, just to make Aiden happy.
They sure were a sight to see.
“Dad, make her get in the goal, please.”
Lucas chuckled, moving his hand into Fallon’s before looking over at her with a lusty look. “Please, I’ll make it worth your while.”
Fallon shook her head. “No way.”
“Ugh!” Aiden yelled before running off towards a house. Lucas squeezed Fallon’s hand and she looked over at him with a small smile on her face.
“Come on, please.”
“No,” Fallon said with a shake of her head. “I am sick of hockey.”
Lucas laughed. “Baby, you are marring a Stanley Cup-winning forward, you can’t be sick of hockey.”
Fallon rolled her eyes. The playoffs had been long and drawn out. It seemed that every team Lucas played against would go to game five or six. When they finally made it to the Cup finals against the Bruins, it went to game seven. The game was intense but the best moment was when Lucas scored the game-winning goal with 22 seconds on the clock. Fallon had never seen him cry so much in his life, and when Lucas skated around the rink with the Cup high above his head, Fallon was the one crying like a baby. It was a proud moment and Fallon couldn’t believe she was a part of it.
“Yeah, yeah,” she complained. Lucas laughed and kissed her cheek as Aiden came running towards them with his bag.
“I just got lots of candy, Dad!”
They high-fived as Lucas said, “Awesome, go to that house. It looks loaded.”
Aiden nodded his head before running off. Lucas moved his arms around Fallon, kissing her neck as they watched Aiden run to the house. When his hands slid into hers and he ran his thumb along her new engagement ring, she smiled. Of course Lucas, being the ‘Go big or go home’ kind of guy he was, bought the biggest ring in the store. It was a seven carat, round-cut diamond in a platinum setting with two little diamonds on the side that Lucas said was him and Aiden. Fallon had thought the ring was too big, but when she put it on, she fell in love with it and didn’t want anything else.
Fallon leaned her head against Lucas’ chest as she watched Aiden run from house to house with Audrey and Levi. She hated seeing Levi with Audrey, but she was standing by her word and leaving Audrey alone about it. It wasn’t her business, but that didn’t stop her from praying every night that Levi would get hit by a bus or something.
As Lucas held her, she found herself wondering where Shea and Elli were. They were supposed to meet them — and so were a lot of other people — but it was only the four of them and Aiden. Not really the big Halloween party she was expecting.
“I wonder where Elli and Shea are. I thought they were meeting us,” she asked.
Lucas shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Odder and Anderson were supposed to come too.”
“Oh yeah, did Anderson ever say if Audrey called him?”
Lucas shook his head. “No, that’s why I invited him. I’m hoping his girlish good looks will woo her away from Levi.”
Fallon giggled. “Me and you both.”
Lucas kissed her neck again before pointing off to the side. “There are the Adlers.”
Fallon followed the direction he was pointing at to see Shea and Elli walking towards them with their double stroller. As they got closer and Fallon saw what they were dressed up as, she couldn’t have stopped her laughter if she wanted to. Shea was dressed as a Stanley Cup and Elli was dressed as her favorite number 6 hockey player. Fallon had to admit they were too cute for words but it didn’t keep her from giggling.
“Oh you ain’t seen nothing yet, look at the girls,” Elli giggled, pointing down to her sweet baby girls. When Fallon saw that baby Shelli was a hockey stick and Posey was a puck, she almost fell over laughing. Even Lucas couldn’t stop laughing as Shelli gave them a happy grin.
“Oh my goodness, they are priceless,” she gushed before looking up at Elli. “They are perfect.”
Elli nodded but then stopped suddenly, bracing her hands on the stroller. Shea placed his hand on her back, moving it soothingly along her back but it must have not helped because Elli took off towards the nearest trash can and promptly puked her brains out.
“Good God, what is wrong with her?” Fallon asked in a panic.
Shea smiled big before shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
Fallon could tell Shea was lying but before she could ask him about it, Elli yelled, “He knocked me up again!”
Fallon’s eyes went wide as Lucas started laughing. Lucas then held up his hand for a high five and Shea didn’t leave him hanging as he laughed. Elli looked miserable while Shea stood there like the biggest cock in the hen house. Fallon could have sworn Elli had said she wasn’t having any more babies, but obviously Shea had his mind set on it.
“Man, that’s messed up,” Fallon said, shaking her head. “She just had Posey two months ago!”
Shea nodded. “I know, we are keeping the kids close.”
Fallon couldn’t believe what she was hearing as Elli made her way back to them. She got out a baby wipe and wiped her mouth then hands. She took out a bottle of water and swished around her mouth before spitting it out in the grass. Elli did it like the pro she was, and with two kids, she should be a pro. “This one is a boy, I’m telling you. I was never this sick with the girls.”
“Oh Elli, I’m so sorry,” Fallon said.
Elli shrugged her shoulders in a ‘What can you do?’ kind of way before Shea wrapped her up in his arms, kissing her loudly on the neck. He whispered something in her ear and a bright happy smile replaced her queasy-looking face. Elli looked up at him and whispered something. Shea smiled before kissing her hard against the lips. It was still hard to believe that they had been married nearly two years and already had two babies with a third one on the way. Elli had found her happily ever after and while Fallon may have been jealous before, as Lucas held her in his arm, she felt that everyone should be jealous of her.
She was the lucky one.
“Do you think we’ll be that happy?” Fallon asked as she watched Shea and Elli kiss like they were the only ones in the street and not surrounded by hundreds of little trick-or-treaters.
Lucas nodded. “I know we will.”
“Really?” she asked.
Lucas smiled. “Well according to our wrists,” he said holding up both their hands so that he could read their wrists, “I love you and you love me.”
Fallon smiled as she re-read the words he had said. It had hurt like hell getting the ink on her wrist but it was by far her favorite tattoo aside from Aiden’s. Lucas had the idea to write ‘I love him’ in his handwriting for her wrist and then she wrote ‘I love her’ in her handwriting for his. It looked amazing and Fallon still couldn’t believe that they had made it to where they were.
If someone would have told her 10 months ago that she would be marrying Lucas Brooks in two weeks at one of the biggest wedding venues in Nashville, she would have laughed in their face. Fallon never thought they would make it but they had. They had been through hell and high water, but they made it through it all.
Standing tall and strong.
Together.
Fallon had never loved anyone more than she loved Lucas, and the days couldn’t go fast enough until they were married. She couldn’t wait for the big fairy tale wedding. Yeah, she hadn’t decided on the dress but it didn’t matter. She could walk down the aisle in a raincoat and she knew for a fact that Lucas wouldn’t care. She couldn’t wait for their honeymoon in the Fiji Islands, but most of all she couldn’t wait to be Mrs. Fallon Ryane Brooks. She used to dream of this day when they were younger — of course things were different — but their love was still the same. It always had been and always would be.
As Aiden made his way towards them with Audrey and Levi behind him, Fallon wished that there was a way she could get rid of Levi. After Fallon and Aiden had moved out to move in with Lucas, Levi moved in with Audrey. Fallon hated it, but she knew she couldn’t say anything. It was Audrey’s life and she was going to have to learn that Levi was the scum of the earth. She wanted Audrey to be happy, as happy as she was. She wanted Audrey to find a man like Lucas and love him the way she did.
Lucas placed a kiss at the base of her throat before laying his head on her shoulder. She smiled as she leaned her head against his. “You still love me?” she asked.
He chuckled, “Of course I do.”
Love filled Fallon completely as she smiled. “And you still wanna marry me, right?”
Lucas nodded. “More than anything.”
Fallon loved his reassurance and hated that she needed it, but it all just seemed so unreal. How did she get so lucky to have a man that was totally devoted to her and loved every little imperfection of hers? Lucas was the perfect man in her eyes — even with his temper and quick mouth — and she couldn’t help but love only him and she always would.
As Fallon watched Levi hold Audrey in his arms, her only worry was for her baby sister. Everything in Fallon’s life was coming together like a dream come true but Audrey’s was still a mess, and all Fallon could do was pray that Audrey got her happily ever after. Fallon’s wanted her sister to find true love — her one and only — like she had with Lucas. Audrey deserved nothing less.
Lucas turned Fallon into his arms before bringing her close and kissing her nose. His eyes were bright with excitement and Fallon knew her eyes matched his. She had never been so happy in her life, and it started and ended with Lucas Brooks.
“I love you, baby.”
Fallon smiled as she leaned against him, her lips almost touching his. “I love you, more.”
Lucas gave her a cheeky smile and then said, “So when do we get to start making another baby?”
Okay, well maybe she had two things to worry about.
Crap.
Acknowledgments.
To the love of my life, Michael: I couldn’t have asked for a better husband when I married you. We have been through hell and high water but we seem to always make it through as a team. I have the confidence I have because you love me. I write these books of love because I am loved the right way. I love hockey because you are so passionate about it. I love you, and I always will.
To my little bits, Mikey and Alyssa: I love you two more than anything in this world. You guys are my biggest fans and I hope that one day I make you as proud of me as I am of you two. I love you two.
To Nick: Oh goodness, how I love you. I couldn’t ask for a better teenager and I love you from the bottom of my heart.
To my mom: I love you, Mom. Thank you for always telling me I can do anything I want and for supporting me when I thought no one would.
To Noey: I love you, Bubba! Can you believe it!? Two porn books! I’m on a roll!
To Nortis, my sister: I love you and I don’t think I tell you that enough. I know that no matter what, you have my back and always will until the day we die. I will never love anyone the way I love you. Thank you for being there when I needed you most.
To Tera: I can’t believe after seven years of friendship you’re leaving me. I will miss you something crazy but don’t worry, I will always send you advance copies of my books and I will always love you.
To Althea: God, how I adore you. I am so happy that we have become so close and I couldn’t love you more! Thank you for the continued support and always being there for me.
To Claudia and Maxine: Who would have thought 10 months ago that I would meet two amazing women who have done nothing but encourage me and love me. I couldn’t have done a lot of this book without you two, and I am so glad to have y’all in my life. Thank you.
To: Jodi, Kristi, and Debbie: MY GIRLS! I love you guys more than anything. Thank you for reading Trying to Score before anyone else and being my soundboards. I love you all so much and I couldn’t have done without you!
To Susie: I love you first off, and I couldn’t have made it through this without you. Thank you so much for helping me with this book and for being there when I needed you. I love you!
To Janet: Thank you for what you did do.
To Tom Tom: I am so blessed to have met you! Thank you so much for being there through the edit of this book. I love that not only are you my editor but you have become my friend! Thank you sooooooooooooooooooo much!
To Jackie: I love you, and I’m so happy I have you back in my life for good!
To my family that I didn’t mention: I do love you, and thank you!
To the readers and my fans: It brings tears to my eyes at all the love and support y’all provide me with. Thank you so much for reading Trying to Score, and I hope to see you all again for Audrey’s story, Empty Net!
Thank you!
Love,
Toni
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