Empty Net

by Toni Aleo

  Everyone chuckled and Audrey was glad to break the tension that was in the room. “So what happened?” she asked, “I blacked out in the middle of it. Did they find Levi?”

  “Are you sure you want to hear this?” Fallon asked, “You just woke up, sis.”

  “I want to know, I hate not knowing stuff.”

  “True,” Fallon agreed with a nod.

  William moved to the foot of the bed and gave her a small grin before saying, “He’s in jail, and no one has posted his bail. They think he stopped because he heard Lucas’ truck in the yard, thank God.”

  “Tate found you,” Lucas said from beside Fallon, “he started CPR, and then the ambulance came.”

  Audrey smiled weakly at Tate, “My hero.”

  Tate chuckled as he rolled his eyes, “Not hardly, I was crying and screaming through the whole thing.”

  “He was awesome,” Lucas said proudly, “And he even got in some great shots on Levi’s face.”

  “My hero,” Audrey whispered again causing Tate’s face to redden.

  “It’s so great to hear you joke around Audrey. We’ve been beside ourselves with worry when they put you in that coma, and then you didn’t wake up for so long. I’m just so glad you’re back and are going to get better,” Fallon said. Audrey nodded as she squeezed Tate’s hand.

  “Me too, but I gotta joke babe, life is too short to be serious all the time.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Tate agreed as everyone in the room nodded.

  Unexpectedly, Audrey’s eyes drifted shut but she fought them back open, not wanting to lose sight of the people she loved. “Where’s Aiden?”

  Fallon smiled, “With Susie. I haven’t told him what’s going on yet.”

  “Don’t, it will scare him,” Audrey said quickly, “Wait till we go home, I’ll make something up. I got attacked by hippogriffs or something.”

  “You’re silly,” Fallon giggled as Audrey coughed from trying to laugh.

  “So, Audrey Jane,” William said as her coughing subsided. Tate handed her a glass of water and she sipped it slowly as William went on, “You’re pregnant?”

  The room went quiet as Audrey looked over at Tate and smiled, “Yup, and I know he’s not gonna leave me, Daddy. He’s a sure bet,” she said with a wink.

  “Damn right,” Tate agreed, kissing the back of her knuckles.

  “Are you going to get married?” William asked sternly.

  “Dad, why does that matter? Let her be, she’s been awake an hour,” Fallon snapped, receiving a dirty look from their father, “What she and Tate do is their business. We are just blessed she is safe and on her way to getting healthy.”

  Leaning over Fallon pressed her lips to Audrey’s head, “You’re tired, I’m dead on my feet. I am going to go home, shower and sleep for the night. Call me if you need me or if anything changes,” she said towards Tate. He nodded and then Fallon said, “I love you, sissy.”

  Audrey nodded, kissing her cheek before saying, “I love you more.”

  Lucas shot her a grin and then without warning, Audrey passed out.

  Audrey woke up to the sound of a guitar being played. She slowly woke, blinking her eyes as she focused on Tate sitting in the corner with his guitar across his lap. He was softly singing, and she wanted to run to him and cuddle close while listening to him play. He looked so carefree, so peaceful, singing about being alright. She didn’t recognize the song but his voice was velvet smooth and perfect. He, of course, looked gorgeous too. Most of his hair falling in his eyes, while the other part was back in a beanie cap and she noticed that he hadn’t shaved either. He wore a thin green tee, and fitted jeans as he held his guitar close to him. As he played, he pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth, his eyes closed as he played the note he wanted.

  He must have felt her looking at him, because he glanced over his gaze meeting hers. He smiled as he sang:

  You know that I care for you

  I'll always be there for you

  Promise I will stay right here, yeah

  I know that you want me too

  Baby we can make it through, anything

  ‘Cause everything's gonna Be Alright, ai-ai-ai-aight

  Be Alright, ai-ai-ai-aight

  Through the sorrow, through the fights

  Don’t you worry

  Everything's gonna Be Alright, ai-ai-ai-aight

  Be Alright, ai-ai-ai-aight

  Ending the song with an Elvis kind of flair, he shot her a grin.

  “I was wondering how long I was going to have to wait for you wake up, I’ve been lonely without you.”

  She giggled softly as she rolled her eyes, “Sorry, it wasn’t like I’ve been in a coma for a couple days. My bad.”

  Tate laughed as he came over to the bed, kissing her softly, “I will let it slide this time.”

  She smiled as he leaned back, sitting on the edge of the bed. She then asked, “Original song?”

  “No, I’m not a song writer, you know that.”

  “Shoot, I was hoping you wrote it just for me.”

  Tate laughed, “Nope, but you see what happened was…” Audrey started giggling as he said, “I paid Justin Bieber to write it for you.”

  “Oh, that’s so much better! I have total Bieber fever, you know.”

  “Dork,” he laughed, leaning in to kiss her again, “I’m probably going to do that a lot.”

  “Good,” she said intertwining her fingers with his, “I’ve missed you.”

  “Not as much as I’ve missed you.”

  They shared a long loving look before Audrey looked down to where their hands lay on her growing belly. “Are you excited about Chicken?”

  “Ecstatic. I bet you were shocked, huh?”

  “Oh my God, I couldn’t stop crying! It was nuts.”

  “Yeah, the doctor came out and was telling us what was wrong and then he said, but the baby is fine, I almost passed out,” he said but then the grin he was wearing fell as his eyes met hers, “I was so scared I was going to lose you both.”

  She reached up cupping his face, “I’m never leaving you again.”

  “You are damn right on that one, love. Damn right,” he said with a nod, “we have a lot of planning to do, I’m going to have to find another house, and built another closet.”

  “Shirtless, right?” He laughed as she smiled as much as she could. When she went to push her tongue to her teeth and felt her gums, she freaked, “Eek, do I look horrible with no teeth?”

  “You look beautiful,” he said confidently as she blushed.

  “I’ll match our baby.”

  “No, we’ll get it fixed before then,” he said with a smile, “but I promise you are beautiful,” he added when she sent him a look.

  “Sure,” she joked as he leaned over and kissed the side of her mouth, when they parted she asked, “Was everyone freaking out?”

  Tate nodded, “Yup, I think me and Fallon were the worst. We wouldn’t leave your side.”

  She smiled, “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be, we love you and like Fallon said, we are blessed to have you back.”

  Nothing was said as they held each other’s gaze. Anger filled Audrey all of a sudden and she wished she could rip Levi Moss’ throat out. “I hate him,” she whispered before looking up at him, “I never thought I could hate someone the way I hate him.”

  Tate laughed, “I want to kill him.”

  Audrey nodded, “I glad you saved my life.”

  He reached over cupping her face, “I’m glad you saved mine, love.”

  “How did I save your life?” she laughed, “you didn’t get beat up.”

  “No,” he said with a shake of his head, “but I’ve been walking through darkness since my family died and, baby, you brought light to my darkness. I was empty, Audrey, completely and utterly empty, but now I am so full of love and happiness. All because of you. I owe you my life, so do you really think I’d let you die on me?”

  Audrey’s eyes fill
ed with tears as her mouth quirked in a painful grin, “I love you more than life itself, Tate, you know that, right?”

  He smiled, “I don’t want to sound cocky, but yeah, I kind of knew that.” They laughed before he leaned over kissing her as softly as he could. She wished that her mouth wasn’t messed up so she could ravish his mouth but it would heal, she would heal.

  “Are you hurting?” he asked softly, moving his fingers along hers.

  “Not really, a little.”

  He nodded, “Good, let me know, I’ll get the nurse.”

  “Okay, I will.”

  Tate shot her another grin before reaching over to the table beside her. “Now I know it’s killing you to know what everyone on Facebook is doing, that’s why I’ve been charging your phone.”

  Audrey’s eyes went wide with excitement, “I love you,” she giggled as she pushed her icon while he watched. They sat discussing all the ins and outs of her friends. He told her about all their friends coming to see her, and how they all brought flowers for when she woke up. As Tate spoke, Audrey was was busy thanking everyone for the Get Well wishes she had on her Timeline when her phone started to vibrate and Tate’s picture came up on the screen. Her face twisted in confusion but before looking up to ask him why he was calling her, she noticed that where it would say Tate’s name, it said something else:

  Will you marry me?

  “What the hell?” Audrey said confused. She looked over at Tate, but all she saw was half of him. Tate looked up at her from his bended knee with tears in his eyes and the biggest grin imaginable on his face while still holding her hand in his. “Oh my God.”

  “I got you this ring while I was in Canada,” he whispered as he slid a beautiful silver band that had his name engraved along the top of it onto her ring finger. He looked back up at her and continued, “But it isn’t your engagement ring. I planned to ask you to marry me when I took you home, but I can’t wait that long. I need you to know that you mean the world to me and I want you to be my wife. I want to raise our child together and Audrey, I want to make more. I want to make a life with you, I need you, love. All of you. For the rest of my life.”

  Tears rushed over her cheeks as she nodded, “So you want to make me Mrs. Oooooooodder?”

  Tate smiled his own tears welling up in his eyes, “I do. And I want to make more baby Ooooooders with you.”

  Her brows came in as she asked, “This isn’t like a Shea Adler type of thing is it?”

  Tate laughed moving his hand over her cheek, “No, I’ll let you decide how many we have.”

  Audrey pulled him into her arms, kissing him hard against his lips, passed the pain, passed the dizziness, everything. She was going to marry this man; she was going to love him for the rest of her life. She didn’t care how old he was, and that he might be a little damaged, she loved him. All of him.

  Parting, he kissed her again softly, and then three more times before he smiled down at her. “So what do you say?”

  She shot him a toothless grin as the tears rolled down her cheeks onto their hands and onto their future child. “I say, ‘I’m in’, where do I sign up?”

  Epilogue

  Four months later…..

  Tate held Audrey’s hand as they made their way up a dirt trail that lead to Tate’s family’s burial site. Audrey was completely healed; she even had a new set of pretty white teeth. The only thing different was that Audrey walked with a little bit of a limp but she blamed that on the pressure from her stomach. At only five and half months pregnant, she didn’t expect to be as big as she was, and she blamed it all on Tate. He was a giant and now she was having a giant. Audrey just couldn’t understand how she went from not being able to have a child to growing a massive size one.

  She could also blame him for stuffing cupcakes down her throat. She had been working out all her recipes for the opening of Audrey Jane’s and instead of enjoying the cupcakes by himself, like she planned, Tate convinced her to eat them with him. She didn’t mind though, the cupcakes were fantastic. The only thing that wasn’t fantastic was her growing waistline.

  Glancing up at her beautiful husband to be, she smiled. He looked tired, but it was to be expected. They had left right after the Assassins lost game six in the third round of the Stanley Cup finals. Those LA Kings were going all the way; Audrey had no doubt about that. She thought Tate would be a little more upset about it, but he wasn’t. He said he was ready to start their life together. That they couldn’t win every year and that there was always next year.

  He was right, and she was beyond ready to start their life together.

  But first, they would enjoy a mini vacation in his beautiful home country.

  Gävle, Sweden was amazing. Audrey had never seen such beautiful green, lush scenery in her life. Tate’s family home was shaped like a large dome barn, and it sat along the river. Every time she glanced out onto the river she could see big wooden sail boats off in the distance. They were massive and beautiful. The day before, she and Tate sat on the long wooden dock that Tate and his father had built when he was a kid and watched the boats pass by out on the open water. Tate had told her he used to spend his whole summer on that dock. He also informed her he had lost his virginity on it too. It didn’t take long before she was naked and being loved in the same exact place.

  Thank God, his closest neighbors were five miles away.

  Tate also had acres of land, with hills and beautiful flowers in patches, making it look like the hills were wearing band-aids of bright beautiful flowers. Big trees with bright green leaves served as a canopy to most of the land, but Audrey had to admit her favorite place was the dock. It was such a romantic place, or maybe it felt romantic because she was so in love?

  Either way she was happy as all get out.

  “I’m surprised Fallon hasn’t called a thousand times,” Tate joked as they climbed the hill to where his family was.

  Audrey grinned, “She’s busy today,” she said. Fallon had been on her like white on rice since she left the hospital. The whole experience had scared her to the core and she said she just wanted to make sure Audrey was okay. It didn’t bother her, but it didn’t keep Tate from teasing Fallon about it. It seemed like so long ago that everything had happened when really it had only been four short months. Audrey was completely recovered and she knew it was because she had so much love and support from all of her family. Things were still a little tense with Tate and her father, but she didn’t care. It would all work out and she had bigger things to worry about.

  Like their wedding and the birth of their child.

  “Have they decided on a name yet?” he asked, swinging her arm back and forth as they walked.

  “Yes, Aiden didn’t tell you?” she asked, when he shook his head, she said, “Hmm, I found out from him before Fallon told me.”

  “Nope, that little booger hasn’t told me anything.”

  Audrey giggled, “Well, our second nephew’s name will be, Asher William Brooks.”

  “Good strong name,” Tate said with a nod, “now if only we could decide on something for our little chicken.”

  Audrey laughed, “I knew you were going to bring that up.”

  “Well if we could decide on something, I wouldn’t have to bring it up.”

  “She isn’t going to be here for another four months, why do we need to rush it?”

  “Because I want to call her something other than chicken.”

  Audrey pouted, “I love my chicken name.”

  Tate chuckled as he brought her in close, kissing her temple, “I do too, but I think Alice is a nice name.”

  “Ew, hell no,” Audrey said as they finally reached a black iron gate. Tate took in a deep frustrated breath before pulling the gate open and bringing her inside. He didn’t say anything else as they made their way through the graveyard to three large tombstones that were covered in fresh flowers. Tate smiled, crouching down and running his fingers over each of their names. He looked up at Audrey, and brought her down bes
ide him. She laid flowers they had brought with them on each grave and leaned over to kiss Tate’s cheek just so he knew she was there for him.

  He had done so well the last couple months. His anxiety was getting better. He really didn’t freak out as much and he seemed to be recovering. She knew it wasn’t going to be quick and easy but she was proud of what he had accomplished so far. He even didn’t freak out when she would sing in the car, so that was a big plus in her book.

  Not looking at her, he said, “Mom, Dad, Matilda, this is my love, Audrey Parker.”

  He looked back at her and she smiled as he said, “She is my world, my everything and she is pregnant with our first child, we call her Chicken right now because we cannot decide on a name.”

  Audrey giggled as she rolled her eyes, “It will come to us,” she said before looking at the tombs and reading each name. “It’s nice to meet y’all.” She looked up at the sky and smiled before looking back at the tombs and re-reading their names. When she came to Matilda’s, she paused.

  Matilda Penelope Odder.

  What a beautiful name, she thought as she read it again.

  “Penelope Rayne Odder.”

  She hadn’t realized she had said it out loud until Tate looked over at her and said, “What?”

  “Penelope Rayne Odder. Both our sisters’ middle names! They go together fantastically! I love it. We could call her Penny!”

  “Penelope Rayne,” he said testing the words. When he flashed her a bright happy grin, she about screamed as she wrapped her arms around him, falling on top of him and kissing him senseless.

  “Told you it would come to us!” she exclaimed against his lips.

  Tate smiled, holding her close to him as he dusted her jaw with kisses, “You were right, I should have known.”

  “You should have,” she teased, kissing him again before laying back in the fresh grass. She looked up into the clouds, as a wide grin sat on her lips. She was deliriously happy and it was all because of the man who held her close. He would do anything for her, and she would do the same for him. Not only had he found them the perfect house, right across the street from her sister, but he was building her the biggest closet imaginable.