Authors: Toni Aleo
He watched as Fallon cried silently, not knowing what to do or say. After a few minutes, Fallon looked over at him as the tears dried against her cheeks and said, “I hope you know that what you’re asking for is for forever. ‘Cause I’ll be damned if you gonna come into my baby’s life and twine yourself into his life and then just rip yourself away. I won’t let you do it to him.”
“I know that and I won’t.”
“Yeah, well you did it to me.”
“And I regret it every day,” Lucas answered wholeheartedly. Fallon looked down at her hands, moving her fingers along the inside of her wrist.
“And you still want him?” she asked quietly.
“Fallon I still want you, and when you are ready to let go of what I did to you, I’ll be standing here waiting. And, yes, I want him like I want to breathe. I love him already.”
“I don’t believe you,” she whispered, “I just don’t trust you.”
Lucas took in a deep breath, “Then I’ll have to prove it to you,” he said before letting out a whoosh of breath. “But that’s not the question.”
“What is?” she asked sadly. It pulled at his heart strings, but he had to know.
“When are you going to tell Aiden I’m his dad?”
Fallon’s heart banged against her chest as Lucas looked down at her. She hadn’t even thought about that. When
was
she gonna tell Aiden Lucas was his dad? How does one go about doing that? Is there a book or a movie that she could watch that would help her tell Aiden?
Fallon’s heart hurt. She was so scared, so afraid of the unknown that she was seriously thinking of running. She never ran from a problem, she had learned not to after leaving Lucas. She always stood up to it by being the biggest bitch in the world, but right now Lucas scared the living shit out of her.
“I don’t know,” she answered sadly as she leaned against the back of her kitchen chair.
She felt like she was going to cry. His apology hurt because it wasn’t closure. He couldn’t give her a reason — except for the fact that he was drunk — for why he had cheated on her. Fallon wanted to know what she did wrong, how she could have kept him from cheating on her. Was she not good in bed? Did she not please him? Did she not love him the way he needed to be loved? What? What did she do wrong?
“I haven’t thought that far,” she added after moment when she felt his gaze on hers.
“Well maybe you should, because I have to tell my mom, and you can only imagine how that’s going to go,” he answered with a nervous smile.
Fallon smiled. She had loved Molly Brooks like she was her own mother. The woman was a saint, and the most beautiful person inside and out. She believed in true love, and knew that there was only one man for every woman. Hers was James, and she always said Lucas was Fallon’s.
Fallon nodded. Was she really ready for the wrath of Molly Brooks? Molly was fiercely protective over Lucas, which after losing her husband who could blame her? Fallon was the same way over Aiden and totally understood Molly’s love for her son, but could she really handle how Molly would act towards her? She wasn’t bound to be nice to Fallon, hell, Fallon was surprised Lucas was being as nice as he was. She was sure he would be furious, throwing things, cussing her out, everything short of knocking her out was what she expected from him. Maybe Molly would surprise her, and not try to kill Fallon, but who would blame her if she did. Fallon’s mom would kill anyone that took Aiden from her…
Lucas laughed. “I doubt after seven years he would want to kill me. I mean come on, people do get over things after a couple years. Oh, but wait, he is your father.”
“Oh shut up, I’m serious. He almost killed me for not telling him who got me pregnant. This could be bad. Are you sure about this?”
When Fallon looked up at him, he had a sexy little smirk on his face and she glared as she looked away. “I don’t need your protection.”
“Yeah, so I’ll practice early in the morning and if it’s okay, I’ll come get him from the office and we’ll get to know each other.”
“He’ll be fine.” Lucas pulled his phone out of his pocket, sliding it over to her. “Put your phone number in my phone, and call your phone so you have my number when you need call me.”
Fallon caught the phone before it slid off the table before looking up at him. “So you’re still having problems with the dyslexia?”
Lucas looked away, his cheeks warming as he shrugged his shoulders. “Sometimes…yeah.”
Fallon nodded, hating that he was still suffering with the condition. Couldn’t he get help? Wasn’t there something they could do for him?
Fallon programmed her number into his phone. She then took a quick picture of herself, noticing that there was flour all over her face. Great, she was a mess. Fallon set the phone up so he could find her by her picture. After that, she called her phone and it rang, giving her his number. She handed Lucas back his phone before programming her phone just as he said, “I thought you would be living somewhere bigger.”
She looked up quickly. “What does that mean?”
Lucas looked down at her. “The house is small, there’s no backyard.”
“There’s a park right across the street, and we sacrifice living somewhere bigger so that Aiden can go to the top private school in Nashville. New Life is expensive.”
“Aiden is fine, and I don’t need anything from you for the fifth time. You want time with Aiden? I’ll give it to you even though I don’t feel right about it. But don’t you dare think I’m gonna start taking money from you so that when you’re ready to go, you’ll think your dues are paid,” she snapped.
The door flew open and Aiden came barreling into the house with Audrey and Levi coming in behind him. He grinned up at the two of them and put his hands on his hips. “I had ice cream, lots of it, but there wasn’t a movie I wanted to see so we came home. Did I say the ice cream was good?”
Lucas and Fallon were both breathing hard as they looked down at the cute little bundle of sugar they had made together. Fallon put aside her emotional issues with Lucas and smiled at her precious boy. “Did you have fun?”
“No, I’ll be ready by nine, all my shows will be over by then. Maybe you could come over and watch ‘em with me. Mommy could make us pancakes and we’ll watch my shows then go,” Aiden said excitedly. “Is Levi coming?”
“No bud, just you and Lucas tomorrow. I got work to do,” Levi answered.
“Cool, so are you gonna come over early?” Aiden asked, basically bouncing as he looked up at Lucas. When Fallon saw him put on his sad eyes, she couldn’t help but smile. Lucas was about to be putty in Aiden’s hands.
“Is that okay?” Lucas asked Fallon. She nodded. She liked that he asked, that he didn’t just assume or tried to overstep. “What time bud?”
“I’m gonna go get him settled. Lucas, always nice seeing you. Levi,” Audrey said giving Levi a pointed look as she started for the stairs.
“Audrey,” Levi said as he watched her walk away.
Okay, that’s creepy. Fallon would have to warn Audrey about Levi. He was the epitome of a man whore.
“Goodnight Audrey. Thanks,” Lucas said as she walked by him. They shared a smile before Audrey disappeared up the stairs. Fallon went to the door, opening it as she waited them to leave.
“Fallon,” Levi said as he passed by with nothing more than a nod. Fallon stuck her tongue out at him just as Lucas stopped in front of her. Fallon looked up at him and froze as he reached his hand up, cupping her face in his hand. Fallon lost all sense of time as she basked in the warmth of his hand on her cheek. He moved his thumb along her cheek and down her lip before looking deep down into her eyes.
“Thank you Fallon,” Lucas said, and all Fallon could do was nod.
Oh, how she had dreamed countless nights of his hand on her cheek, and it felt just the way she remember it. Gosh, she missed it.
A cocky grin came across his face before he leaned in, pressing his lips against her nose. Her eyes slowly closed at the whisper touch of his warm, thin lips on her nose. She took a deep breath in and when she opened her eyes, Lucas was moving away from her with only a grin on his face. She watched as he walked confidently to his truck and climbed in before giving her one last look.
With that one look, Fallon knew she was in big trouble because Lucas Brooks was on a mission.
And she was the target.
Lucas sat on the bed, his phone in his hand as he tried to get the balls to call his mom.
The night had been crazy.
Fallon was just like he knew she would be — mean, bitchy, and scared out of her mind. He didn’t understand why she was scared, he would never take Aiden away from her, but he would make sure Aiden was taken care of. He hated to fight with her. He didn’t like to watch her cry either, and that was all they did the whole night. When she wasn’t being a bitch, she was crying, and when she wasn’t crying, she was grinning at him. It was like she was bipolar when he knew she wasn’t. He hated that he drove her to the point of bipolar behavior, but he wasn’t going to stand by and let his kid run around with a father.
Wasn’t going to happen. Lucas had too much pride and too much love in his heart to let a child go without his father.
Lucas leaned his head down in his open hand, begging his fingers to find his mom’s number so he could tell her about her grandson. He knew that she was going to freak and want to jump on the first plane to Nashville, but he would beg her not to. He needed his time with Aiden — he needed to get to know the little person that was walking around looking just like him.
Lucas scrolled through his phone, looking for his mom’s picture. When he found it, he pressed the green button and waited for her to answer.
Lucas had forgotten the time difference and felt bad for calling his mother so late. For worrying her, but what else was he supposed to do? He had already gone three days without telling her about Aiden. He had to tell her.
Lucas closed his eyes as he tried to breathe evenly. Saying that he had a son always knocked the breath out of him. It was such a shock that he had made someone. It just blew his mind, and broke his heart at the same time because Aiden had to live without him for so long.