by Toni Aleo
After handing out business cards and vouchers for free bottles, Fallon spotted Elli and Shea standing with an older guy holding an empty glass. He looked like he had money, so Fallon made her way toward him. She liked to schmooze the big-money guys, knowing that if she got lucky, they would hire Rocky Top to supply the wine for their company parties.
“He has a bad rep. Money, booze, females, I don’t know,” the older guy was saying when Fallon had reached them.
Elli didn’t seem very happy. “He’s clean, I feel good about him,” she said sternly.
But the gentleman shook his head. “I don’t know, Mrs. Adler. Brooks is a fighter.”
Fallon blinked a few times, totally stunned. It had been a long time since she had heard that name.
“Yeah, but he’s second in the league for goals,” Elli insisted.
“And first for penalty minutes. He’s got a huge chip on his shoulder,” the man added.
“I’ll knock the damn chip off it for him, if I need to. Or, hell, maybe we’ll get Fallon to sophisticate him,” Elli said and grinned, noticing Fallon just standing there and staring at them. “Ricky Owen, Fallon Parker with Rocky Top Wine. She is one of our biggest sponsors.”
“Who?” Fallon asked, ignoring Ricky’s hand, and hoping like hell that there was another Brooks in the NHL who fought a lot.
Because she knew only one.…
“You probably don’t know him. Lucas Brooks? He was just traded in from the Sharks.”
Fallon wasn’t sure how the bottle of wine slipped from her hands, but the next thing she knew it was in pieces around her beautiful boots. Cabernet Sauvignon was everywhere, and Fallon’s face was beet red as she tried to catch her breath. Everyone stared down in shock, then back up at Fallon’s stunned face.
Shea started laughing and said, “Or maybe she does.”
Oh, Fallon knew Lucas Brooks, all right.
He was coming to Nashville? she wondered. Great, that was just fucking great.
* * *
“You know, back in the day, we would be hung over, not moving into a new house, on New Year’s Day,” Levi Moss said.
Lucas Brooks looked over at Levi, his best friend since childhood and personal assistant, and laughed as he nodded in agreement. Levi was right—five years ago they both would still be facedown in their own puke, or on some female’s breasts, on New Year’s Day.
“You’re right, but I would probably be broke and without a job, too,” Lucas added.
“True, very true indeed,” Levi said, nodding his head.
Lucas smiled as he piled the boxes that needed to go upstairs by the steps. The new house he had bought was huge. He had asked for a simple home and had gotten this—nine bedrooms, six baths, two dens, and, to top it off, an ice rink on the lower level. Lucas had to admit that was the best part of the huge house, but still.… It was too big for just him and Levi.
After living in San Jose for the past nine years, Lucas still couldn’t believe he had actually left the Sharks and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. He had loved his team, but he needed a new set of faces and a new team, no matter how much he knew he would miss the guys. Lucas was getting into too much trouble in San Jose, and if he wanted to stay sober he had to leave the temptation. And everything in San Jose was a big temptation.
Lucas knew the trouble spots, he knew the women, and the past four years had been hell trying to be good, so he had to leave. He just had to. Thankfully, Levi supported him, uprooted his own life, and followed Lucas to Nashville with no questions asked. Lucas figured that Levi knew they had to get out of San Jose or Lucas was gonna relapse. Lucas’s mom was happy, too—he was now only eight hours from his hometown of Eaton Rapids, Michigan, and that made Molly Brooks a very happy woman.
So all around, moving to Nashville was going to be great as long as he got along with his team. Lucas had played the Assassins many times and hated playing defense against them. They were intense, hard-hitting assholes, and a game didn’t happen without him fighting someone. Now he was going to play for them.
After taking all fourteen boxes up to his room, Lucas looked around and nodded his head. The home decorator, Beth King, had done a great job giving him what he wanted. He wasn’t sure about which colors to choose, but after talking to her, she seemed to know what he liked. She based them on the color of his eyes: the walls were a perfect shade of gray, and the bedding was gray with black and white accent pillows. The headboard to the massive California king bed (something he couldn’t leave in California) was black and reached all the way to the ceiling. He had always liked big beds, and luckily the room was still enormous even with the bed in it.
Along the walls were black-and-white portraits of him as a kid—him with his mom and dad, some of just his dad—and then a lot of him during his younger years, playing hockey. His favorite picture, on the wall across from his bed, was of him when he was four with his dad, James, on the first day he had ever played hockey. James’s face was bright with excitement, and Lucas’s matched it—it was one of the best days of his life, and he loved waking up to that memory.
Tearing himself away, he looked over at the closet, holding every stick he had ever played with, and smiled. When Beth had said, “I’d be damned if there is going to be a room just for your old sticks. I will think of something,” he didn’t think twice about it. What was she going to do with forty-six sticks? She had surprised him with the closet, having cut and glued each stick around the walls. He decided that Beth King was pure genius, and he couldn’t wait for his mom to see it.
Now all he had to do was unpack his personal stuff. He was hanging up his clothes when Levi came in with a box in his hand. Lucas didn’t pay attention to him until Levi said, “Please explain to me why you brought Fallon Parker’s stuff with us to Nashville.”
Lucas turned quickly, seeing the blue box in his best friend’s hands. He could have sworn that he had hidden that box away. Shit.
He walked over, took the box from Levi, and placed it on the floor of his closet.
“I’m waiting,” Levi said.
Lucas rolled his eyes. “What was I supposed to do with it? Leave it in California?” he asked with a shrug.
“Yes! Or hell, here’s an idea, throw it away!”
Lucas ignored him as he went back to hanging up his clothes.
“I just don’t understand it. It’s been a billion years since she left. You haven’t seen her or talked to her. Why keep her things when we both know it still bothers you?” Levi asked.
“Nothing in that box bothers me, it’s just memories.”
“Memories you need to throw away. There is no reason why you still have all the clothes she left, or her hair supplies, or …”
Lucas turned and glared at Levi. “You went through the box?”
“Yeah, like five years ago. Come on, dude. It’s crazy! Why do you need her hairbrush?”
“Why does it matter?”
“Because it’s weird and I think you need help.”
Lucas rolled his eyes again and turned back toward the closet. “I’m fine, I just like having them.”
“Why?”
“Because I do, don’t worry about it. Don’t you have something to do?”
Levi laughed as he shook his head. “Jeez, Luc, still sensitive after seven years? Maybe you do need help.”
Lucas shot Levi a maddening look just as Levi walked out the door, leaving Lucas with thoughts of Fallon and her box of things. He had thought about her from time to time, but finding the box when he was packing had opened—again—a can of worms that he had tried to seal a long time ago. Losing Fallon was his epic failure, more so than even his alcoholism. How he could have fucked up something so beautiful and perfect would disturb him for the rest of his life.
Lucas looked back at the door, making sure Levi wasn’t around, then pulled the blue box out of the closet and opened it. The first thing he saw was a picture of him and the caramel-eyed beauty on the beach outside his house. Fallon was so beautif
ul, with her wide eyes and sweet smile. She was everything a man wanted, and he had ruined it. He moved the picture aside and found a T-shirt with a Rocky Top Wines logo on it. Fallon had worn the shirt almost every night to bed. It was her favorite shirt, and he loved the way the orange brought out her tan skin.
Lucas had asked Levi to do some research about Rocky Top Wines awhile back, and he found out that it was still in business and doing very well. Levi had also mentioned that Rocky Top Wine was a proud sponsor of the Assassins, which gave Lucas the hope that he might see Fallon again. His heart skipped a beat at the thought.
He couldn’t fathom seeing her, or touching her again. It had been so long ago, so much had happened, so much had changed. They were two different people now. Who was to say that she would even want to see him or talk to him? Lucas shook his head as he held her bright orange shirt in his hand, knowing one thing for sure. If he’d ever get the chance to be with Fallon Parker again, he wouldn’t fuck it up.
* * *
Fallon didn’t remember anything after dropping the wine bottle. All she could think as she drove home from the arena was, Oh, fuck, Lucas is coming to Nashville. She hadn’t seen him in seven years, and she kind of wanted to keep it that way. Lucas Brooks was a disease, and she refused to be infected by him again. The thought of possibly running into him again made Fallon nervous. She lived in the heart of Nashville and worked right alongside the Nashville Assassins, the team he was gonna play for. There was a great chance that she would bump into him, even if she’d try to avoid it.
She had to move.
That was the only thing she could think of when she pulled into her driveway. She put the car in park and sat there for a moment. What the hell was she going to do? She wouldn’t even know what to do or how to act if she saw him. He still affected her that much, after all these years.
Thoughts of Lucas ran through her head as she gathered up her things. It was well past 11:00 p.m. and she was glad to be home. It had been a long, rough day, and the ending didn’t make it any better. As she walked up the sidewalk, she noticed her sister, Audrey, sitting on the porch steps. Audrey waved as she looked across the yard at the complex across the street. Fallon turned and looked in that direction, seeing a moving van and a man unpacking things.
“Audrey, what the hell are you doing here?” Fallon asked.
Audrey sat wearing a bright yellow Juicy Couture jumpsuit, her long brown hair in a messy bun, and no makeup. Audrey and Fallon could have been twins, although Audrey was a little heavier and had big boobs.
Audrey smiled up at Fallon, then looked back toward the man. “Watching the show,” she said, pointing across the lawn. “Not only am I intrigued by the fact that he is movin’ in at eleven o’clock at night, but the dude is sexy, Fal! Like, super sexy, Antonio Banderas sexy.”
“Oh, Lord,” Fallon groaned, as she rolled her eyes and laid her briefcase down beside her sister. She slowly slid off her boots, standing on the cold sidewalk in her stockings. It felt great, after the night she had.
Fallon glanced over at the guy and saw that he was older, way older.
“Jeez, Audrey, he’s like forty-five.… Eww.”
Audrey laughed. “Nah, but late thirties for sure though.”
“Still, you’re only twenty-seven. Go find someone your age.”
“No, guys are stupid at my age. I want a man with some age to him, someone who knows his way around the bedroom.”
Fallon scoffed at that. “Good luck with that! Older men can’t keep it up without help, which would involve you giving a lot of head or him going on medication, or both.”
“Oh yeah,” Audrey said, as a look of disgust came over her face. “Back to men my age.”
Fallon starting laughing just as the door flung open and out came Fallon’s favorite rambunctious six-year-old. Aiden grinned a toothless grin and she gave him a big smile. Seeing him always brought such joy and love into her heart, she couldn’t imagine life without him. He was her everything.
“Why is Momma’s favorite boy out of bed?” Fallon asked.
“I was waiting for you!” he gushed, running down the stairs at a speed only a six-year-old could manage.
Aiden’s arms came around her middle and she smiled again, hugging him back. Fallon loved her baby’s hugs—they made her days worth living—but sometimes her smile fell when he looked up at her with his happy, innocent gray eyes.
The same gray eyes his dad has. The same gray eyes as Lucas Brooks’s.
Read on for an excerpt from Toni Aleo’s
Empty Net
Chapter 1
It figured that Audrey Parker would get dumped the day of her sister’s bachelorette party.
It was just her luck.
As Audrey stood outside of Wanna B’s bar with her cell phone to her ear, she couldn’t help but think how the day had started off so perfectly. She had spent the morning in bed with her boyfriend. Then she went for a day of pampering with her beautiful sister, Fallon, and all of Fallon’s friends. It was a wonderful afternoon and Audrey knew that tonight was going to be even better.
That was until the fireworks began.
Levi Moss was positively the most hardheaded, stubborn, gorgeous man Audrey had ever dated. He wasn’t much taller than her five-five frame, but that didn’t matter. He stood as if he were six feet tall, with large arms and an even larger neck. Levi wore his brown hair in a horrible buzz cut, which she didn’t care for, but his face more than made up for it. His eyes were bright green with flecks of gold. His face was sharply angled, with full lips, and she couldn’t help but smile when he did. She loved his smile, and since he only smiled at her every once in a while, it always took her breath away.
But even with his gorgeousness, he was a pain in her ass. She loved him. She did. But man, he bitched like a chick. If it wasn’t her cooking, it was her obsessive need to have everything clean. Just because he was a slob didn’t mean that she had to be. When he left stuff lying all over the place, it drove her crazy, but she loved him so much that she looked past it. She never complained and would clean up after him. Pathetic, she knew, but she loved him. Her sister and her sister’s soon-to-be husband, Lucas, had told her countless times to leave Levi, but she couldn’t lose the only man who ever really wanted her.
Looking around the outside of the bar, Audrey begged her tears to stay at bay as Levi screamed at her through the phone.
“You are probably out whoring yourself all over Broadway! It’s disgusting, but don’t worry, I won’t be here when you get home!”
Audrey rolled her eyes. “For one, I am not whoring myself all over the place, and second, weren’t you just out for Lucas’s bachelor party last night?”
“We didn’t do anything! We played hockey and drank beers while Lucas talked on the phone with Fallon all night!”
“And that’s my fault?”
“You didn’t cook dinner for me before you left and now you are out at some club, probably picking up guys,” he snapped.
Audrey pinched the bridge of her nose. “I am not picking up anyone. I am trying to enjoy my sister’s last weekend as a single woman. Everyone does this, and it doesn’t mean I’m gonna cheat.”
“I don’t care. We’re through. I’m done with you.”
Audrey shook her head as she looked up at the sky. How was he dumping her when, according to Levi, they weren’t really together, as he’d told her so many times before? The tears threatened to fall because she knew the real reason he was breaking up with her. He was messing around with someone else. Someone who apparently was better than her.
“If you leave, you aren’t coming back, Levi, so make sure she is worth it,” she said as strongly as she could.
Levi’s laughter made Audrey want to puke. “She is worth it,” he said. “She is way better than you’ll ever be, you fat whore.”
Then the line went dead.
Audrey’s hand fell to her side, her phone held loosely in it. She could have done without his exiting line, b
ut she knew she’d brought it on herself. She should never have brought up the other girl. She had known about her for months. So why was she letting it bother her now? Levi was a wanderer, she’d known that when she started things with him. She also knew that in a couple weeks he would call her, apologizing, and she would be right back with him.
It was a vicious cycle.
Audrey knew it was wrong, and knew that if Fallon found out, her sister would probably kill her, but it didn’t stop her from taking the crap Levi handed out. He might be an ass and say the most awful things, but there were good times between them. Like when he would hold her in his arms and run his lips down her temple. Or the way he loved watching chick flicks with her. Or when he would trace hearts along her palm, or when she would come home and he would rub her feet.
She loved him. It was sad, but true.
Audrey shook her head sadly. She didn’t understand why she hadn’t met her Prince Charming. The man who would sweep her off her feet. The man who would love only her for the rest of their lives. The man who would think she was all that he needed. Audrey shook her head again and wiped away the stray tears that escaped as thoughts of never being able to find a man who would love only her ran through her head. She couldn’t think like that right now. There was no sense thinking about things she couldn’t change. She would be a ball of tears in no time if she did.
So she did what she did best.
Audrey stood tall in her Christian Louboutin black studded pumps and slid her hands down the tight black sparkly pencil skirt she had paired with a low-cut gray blouse. She couldn’t go inside looking as if Levi had just crushed her heart, not tonight. Tonight was Fallon’s night, and she generally had no difficulty hiding her distress.
She was the queen of hiding emotions. She had lots of practice.
She knew she looked hot tonight, and if Levi Moss didn’t want her, well, damn it, someone freaking did. She made her way back inside to the VIP area Lucas had rented for Fallon’s party. Audrey couldn’t help but be a little dreamy at the thought of her future brother-in-law. He was the perfect man and everything her sister could ever want. She only hoped that she would find a man even half as good as Lucas. He treated Fallon like a queen, was the best father imaginable to her son, Aiden, and he loved her like a sister.