.jpg)
by Toni Aleo
Audrey looked up at her and Fallon could see the pain in her eyes. “I don’t know.”
“Yes you do, you know I’m right.”
A quiet moment passed as they stood staring into each other’s eyes. Fallon reached over, wiping the flour off Audrey’s beautiful cheeks. How anyone could be mean to someone so beautiful was beyond Fallon. Yes, Audrey was a little plump but it worked on her. She didn’t need to be bone skinny to pick up men. Men loved her; she was funny, sweet, caring, loving and genuinely infectious. She was perfect!
Audrey nodded her head, tears still coursing down her cheeks. “I know, and I think that you are the most amazing person in the world. I look up to everything you do and I promise that I will work at letting him go.”
“Good, you need to Audrey. Look at you, you’re a mess,” Fallon said, moving her fingers up to Audrey’s cheeks to catch her tears.
“I know, and while I’m sitting here, bawling over a man that doesn’t love me, you have a man that loves you more than anything and you’re fightin’ it. Stop fightin’ it. Please Fallon, please, show me what I need to do. Show me what it’s like to love a good man, so I’ll leave this bad one.”
The tears came hot and fast down Fallon’s cheeks as she wrapped Audrey up in her arms. She kissed Audrey’s temple before nuzzling her nose into her hair. She wanted nothing but to fix all Audrey’s problems. She didn’t know if Audrey’s request would help her leave the asshole that had a death wish, but she was going to try. Fallon had no problem loving Lucas with everything inside her and she would, as long as she didn’t think of the past. If he stayed true to his word, and he didn’t hurt her again, they could be together forever. Fallon had no doubt about that.
She also had no doubt that when she informed Lucas about the asshole with a death wish, he would be just as enraged as she was.
Fallon was sitting in the chair by the island watching a calmer Audrey frost her cupcakes when she saw Lucas and Aiden coming down the stairs. Her eyes met Lucas’ first and he smiled confidently, causing her girlie parts to scream. She returned it before looking down at her little guy. The first thing she noticed was that he had been crying. Fallon looked up at Lucas quickly but he shook his head, putting his hand on Aiden’s shoulder when they stopped in front of her. Aiden looked up at Lucas with a nervous look on his face before Lucas squeezed his shoulder and Aiden looked back up at Fallon.
“I’m sorry Momma. I love you and I’ll never hate you. I promise.”
A bright smile went across Fallon’s face before she pulled Aiden by his shirt to her, hugging him tightly against her. “I love you too, Punkin’.”
When Fallon opened her eyes, she saw that Lucas had a large smile on his face as he watched them. Fallon gave him a thankful smile before nuzzling her face into Aiden’s neck. It was so nice having a partner when it came to Aiden. She didn’t realize how much she needed Lucas until he was there giving her all the support in the world.
When she parted from Aiden, she gave him a big kiss on the cheek before pulling him into her lap and saying, “AA made some fantastic cupcakes, why don’t we all sit and eat some?”
“Daddy too?”
“Of course,” she said with a small smile for Lucas.
“Like a family! We’re a big family, huh AA?” Aiden gushed.
Audrey came over to Aiden, handing him a cupcake before nodding. “We sure are bud, we sure are.”
Fallon felt Lucas’ hand creep up her back and she glanced up at him, a small smile still on her face. He gave her a smile of his own before he kissed her temple. He then looked over at Audrey and said, “Hey, where’s my cupcake?”
Lucas walked towards his truck with his hand resting on Fallon’s lower back. After tucking in their little guy, Fallon informed him, she needed to go to bed too. Lucas tried to get an invitation into her bed but that didn’t work, so he was settling for a walk to his truck. The sky was clear with a small breeze, and Lucas still couldn’t believe how the day had played out. He started off with only having an amazing kid.
Now he had an amazing girlfriend and kid.
Fallon wrapped her arms around him, leaning against his chest as she let out a long breath. When she looked up at him, he saw the tears in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
Fallon swallowed loudly. “I’m worried about Audrey.”
“What about?”
Fallon shook her head, “She’s datin’ this guy that isn’t right to her. He calls her fat and he hurts her during sex.”
Lucas was surprised by the anger that took over his body. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know, she won’t tell me.”
“Okay, well she needs to.”
Fallon nodded. “I know.”
Nothing was said as the two of them held each other, both worried about Audrey. Lucas didn’t know why she wouldn’t tell Fallon, but she might tell him. He planned on asking her the next time they were alone. Audrey was like a sister to him, and he would murder the guy when he found out who it was. Not only for Fallon’s piece of mind, but because Audrey deserved a good man. She was a saint, the sweetest person he had the pleasure of knowing. “I’ll figure it out, baby girl. Don’t worry.”
Fallon smiled up at him before getting on her tippy toes, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him lightly on his lips. Lucas’ eyes fell shut as his arms came around her waist, pulling her closer. They kissed long and hot — like two 16-year-olds who couldn’t get enough of each other — against his truck. His hands roamed her body as hers messaged the back of his neck. She pulled back first but he caught her bottom lip between his teeth, bringing her back for more. Fallon ran her hands down his cheeks, along his jaw, moving her fingers back and forth along the coarse hair of his face. She pulled back again and kissed his lips softly before moving out of his arms.
“I’ll be out here all night if we keep on.”
He smiled before pulling her back to him, cupping her fine bottom. “What’s wrong with that?”
“I’m tired, and I gotta go to work tomorrow.”
“Skip.”
She laughed. “No way, I got a lot to do with the campaign and all.”
He bit at her chin. “Can you leave early?”
She raised an eyebrow. “How early?”
“Early enough to go shopping with me. I need some stuff for the house and you are the best person to shop with.”
She smiled as he rocked them both back and forth. “I don’t know.”
“Please,” he pleaded, kissing up her jaw. “Please?”
Fallon let out a long breath before moving away from him and flashing him a pretty smile. “I’ll be done at 11.”
A cocky grin came over his face as he watched her sashay up the walkway and into the house, sending him one last grin before shutting the door. He waited for the front light to shut off before getting into the truck and starting it up. As he pulled out the driveway, he looked at the condo one last time. When he saw Fallon standing in the window, waving, he smiled as he waved back.
Man, he loved her.
Chapter 31
Oh, Green Hills, how I’ve missed you so.
Fallon stood in the middle of Green Hills Mall in complete awe. It had been a very long time since she had been there. The only time she came was when Audrey would drag her there, but it would always break her heart that she didn’t have the kind of money that Green Hills required. It honestly killed her that she wasn’t able to shop there anymore. She had grown up shopping in Green Hills, but coming home broke and pregnant changed all that. Fallon learned quickly that the mall wasn’t her friend any longer, but now it could be. Fallon wasn’t sure if the excitement that filled her was from being inside the beautiful mall or from being beside Lucas.
Either way, Fallon was in a rich girl’s paradise and she was with the man of her dreams. Thoughts of Lucas had kept her tossing and turning all night. She should have let him stay the night, but she didn’t want to rush it. She wanted to enjoy the dating part of
them. That’s was why she agreed to go today. Fallon had crazy amounts of work to do, but playing hooky with Lucas seemed like a better idea. Every girl could use a day of retail therapy, and doing it with a fine specimen of man was just a bonus. As Fallon walked beside Lucas, she couldn’t help the grin that sat on her face. Fallon had budgeted a little bit of money to spend and she was ready to shop. She knew that her bank account was busting at the seams but she couldn’t spend that money. It was for other things, and she refused to let herself touch it.
Lucas walked closely beside Fallon, his arm brushing hers with every step they took. When his hand slid into hers, she glanced up at him to see that he was looking down at her as if he was waiting for her to say something.
“What? I can’t hold your hand?” he asked.
“Did I say that?’
“No, but you are giving me a look.”
“I am not!”
“Yes you are. We are dating Fallon, and if you think I’m going to let you hide it like you did before, you have another thing coming.”
Okay, so obviously he was a little sensitive about their past.
Fallon shook her head. “Lucas, I never said anything.”
“Maybe so, but I can tell when you are nervous about stuff. I doubt your dad will say anything now. I mean, we did make a baby!”
Fallon rolled her eyes. “Lucas, I’ve already disappointed my dad to the extreme. I’m not worried about him knowing I’m with you, like you said, I did get pregnant by you.”
Lucas eyed her for a minute before saying, “I always wanted to ask you about that. What’s up between you two?”
“He says I am a disappointment ‘cause I got pregnant and didn’t get rid of Aiden the way he wanted me to.”
“Really? That’s crazy! You were an adult.”
Fallon nodded. “Didn’t matter. He said that Aiden would ruin my life. He was wrong, of course, it was actually my dad that ruined my life, not Aiden. My dad took everything from me. My money, a place for me to stay, my mom, and he even tried to take Audrey from me, but she wouldn’t leave.”
“Wow, that’s insane,” Lucas said. He then glanced down at her. “So that’s where your money went. I was wondering that, too,” Lucas said, nodding his head.
“Yup, all of it gone. Depressing huh?”
Lucas smiled. “Don’t worry; I got more than enough for me, you, and Aiden.”
Fallon laughed. “I will not be taking your money!” He rolled his eyes at her before she tightly squeezed his hand. “But I do want to hold your hand, so hush.”
Lucas sent her a loving grin before bending his arm behind his back and taking her hand with him so that she would be closer to him. It was such a simple little movement that had Fallon’s heart palpitating. She loved when he would contort her in ways just to be closer to her. It made her feel special and only Lucas could make her feel like that.
As they continued to walk through the mall, Lucas would pull her tighter to him, or graze her temple with his lips. It was intoxicating and she was having a hard time enjoying the mall but in a way she didn’t care. That was until Louis Vuitton came into view.
“Oooh...” Fallon gushed, pointing to the store. Lucas smiled as he changed direction, entering the store. Fallon pulled away from him, in complete awe as she walked through the immaculate store. When she saw a Coeur coin purse and belt that matched, she bought it without question and she didn’t even regret it.
That is, for a whole five minutes.
As Fallon walked out of the store, she kicked herself for spending all the money she had budgeted in the first 10 minutes of being in the mall. What if she saw an amazing dress she had to have, or a pair of shoes! Fallon loved shoes! No shoes now, she wasted all her money on a damn coin purse and belt! Yes, the belt was fantastic and the coin purse was to die for, but darn it! She was broke now!
“I need to run by the Z Gallery and get some things, then we can go wherever you like,” Lucas said, directing her towards the amazing home accents store. Fallon pouted the whole way there, and when she entered, she wanted to leave immediately because she saw the bedding she had to have. If she wasn’t so in love with the things she had bought from Louis Vuitton, she would have run back and returned it all, but she was. So the beautiful bright pink and black paisley bedding wouldn’t be gracing Fallon’s bed until she got her bonus and that wasn’t for another month or so.
Such a depressing thought.
Fallon stood in front of the bed, admiring the bedding she would never have as Lucas walked around her, looking at different odds and ends. When she ran her finger down the fluffy, soft bedding in complete longing, Lucas laughed.
“Baby girl, get it,” he said. “You have been staring at it since we got here.”
“I know. It’s so beautiful!”
“So get it,” he insisted.
“I can’t, not until after the campaign and I get my bonus.”
When he didn’t say anything, she looked over at him to see that he was looking at her, confused. “Did you not cash that check?”
“No, I did, but that money is set aside for something else.”
“What in the world could you spend all that on?”
Fallon laughed. “Well, I paid Audrey’s condo off, and then I put two million of it away for Aiden’s college and the rest is going to something else.”
Fallon’s heart kicked up in speed as she gazed into Lucas’ eyes. She was scared to tell Lucas about the cellar. What if he thought it was silly and laughed at her? It would break her heart since it was her dream. She stood by her dream to sophisticate the sport of hockey. She didn’t care how many bottles of wine she had to stuff down people’s throat, or if she had to talk until she was blue in the face about how amazing wine was, she was going to have her cellar and it was going to be a success. But that didn’t keep Fallon from still being nervous about what Lucas would think. It made her heart hurt at the thought of him not supporting her. Fallon smiled nervously and sat down on the edge of the bed, loving the feel of the blanket against the back of her legs.
“What?” he asked, like she knew he would.
Fallon shrugged her shoulders. “It’s nothing,” she said with a flutter of her hand.
“Obviously it is, and we are trying this communication thing remember? So you kind of have to tell me,” Lucas said with a grin as he sat beside her.
He had her there.
“Well…it’s kinda silly.”
“I doubt that, tell me.”
Fallon bit her lip as she played with the bottom of her gray skirt. She looked up at him and smiled. “I wanna sophisticate hockey by opening a wine cellar for all the fans to buy wine for the after-party at their houses.”
Lucas’ eyebrows drew together as he looked down at her. “Sophisticate hockey?”
Fallon nodded since she knew he wouldn’t understand. No one did, but that didn’t keep her from trying to explain herself. “Yes,” she said turning to look at him. “I want people to go home and relax with a nice bottle of our Big Country or our Big Rock Syrah. I want them to discuss the awesomeness of the game with our wine in their glass. Hockey is so intense and people drink beer with it ‘cause that’s what you do, but what if I can change the norm and start a wine-drinking movement. I know I’ll never take the place of beer during the game, but if I can replace the after game drink with wine, I have succeeded, and that’s where my cellar comes in at.”
“Really?”
“Yes! Wine is so relaxing. Not only do you feel good but you feel sexy. Wine is sexy, beer is…not.”
A grin grew on Lucas’ face as he looked over at her. “You are the most amazing person I know. You know that?”
Fallon’s cheeks warmed as she looked away. She couldn’t believe how passionate she could get sometimes, but it only happened when she loved something so much. She looked over at Lucas and smiled at his grin. “Whatever, you think I’m silly.”
“Never. I think you are breathtaking and if this is what you want baby,
you let me know what I can do to help. If I have to make everyone on the team drink wine so that our fans do, then you better believe I will.”
A lump formed in Fallon’s throat as she gazed into Lucas’ eyes. “You’d do that?” she choked out.
He scoffed. “Baby, I would do just about anything for you. I think Adler already drinks wine, and Jakob too, so I only have about 30 more guys to get to. The new kid is impressionable so I’m pretty sure I can get him to, oh no wait, he’s not old enough yet, but once he is, I will buy him a case of Rocky Top Wine and make him drink it all.”
Fallon was speechless as she looked deep into Lucas’ bright eyes. She swallowed loudly before wrapping her arms around Lucas’ neck and kissing him loudly on the lips. The words were on the tip of her tongue but she wasn’t ready to tell him that she loved him just yet. If she got onto him about moving so fast, how could she blurt out she loved him more than anything and not be a hypocrite? They needed to take things slow, but for the love of God, how could she when he was probably the sweetest man imaginable.
“Thank you,” she said against his lips when they parted.
Lucas’ eyes were full of love as he ran his nose against hers. “No problem.”
Lucas pulled back just as a worker passed by them. “Ma’am can you package this bedding up for me? Queen size please.”
“Lucas!” Fallon complained, smacking his arm.
“What? You want me to get one for my bed too?”
Fallon rolled her eyes. “No! You know I hate when you spend money on me.”
Lucas grinned big. “I don’t care.” He then turned to the associate, “Please, and thank you.”
“Yes sir,” the young girl said before walking away with a grin on her face.
“I won’t use it.”
“Oh, yes you will,” Lucas said with a naughty grin on his face, their serious moment gone. “And hopefully, you will let me break it in.”
Heat filled Fallon as Lucas walked away, chuckling that low sexy chuckle of his. Fallon stood up and shook her head. She knew there was no way of talking him out of buying the bedding or anything else for that matter, so she decided that she wouldn’t long for anything else while they were at the mall.