Authors: Toni Aleo
Lucas shot Levi a maddening look before Levi left the room, leaving Lucas with thoughts of Fallon and her box of things. He had thought about her from time to time, but finding her box when he was packing had opened the can of worms he had tried sealing a long time ago wide open. Even with his alcoholism, losing Fallon was his epic failure. How he could have fucked up something so beautiful and so perfect would disturb him for the rest of his life.
Lucas looked back at the door, making sure that Levi was really gone before pulling the blue box back out and opening 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 beautiful with her wide eyes and sweet smile. She was everything a man wanted, and he had ruined it. He moved the picture aside to see a t-shirt that had the 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 a while back and he found out that Rocky Top Wines was still in business and doing very well from what the article said. Levi also said that Rocky Top Wine was a proud sponsor of the Assassins, and that brought hope to the fact that Lucas might see Fallon again.
His heart skipped a beat at just the thought of seeing her again. He couldn’t even fathom seeing her, or touching her. It had been so long ago, so much had happened, so much had changed. They were two different people now. Who was to say she would even want to see or talk to him. Lucas shook his head as he held her bright orange shirt in his hand and knew that there was one thing for sure.
If Lucas ever got 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 fungus, 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 she worked right alongside the Nashville Assassins, the team he was gonna play for. Even if she tried, there was still a big chance that she would run into him.
She had to move.
That was the only thing she could think of when she pulled into her driveway. She put the car inthepark and just 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 so much, and she hadn’t even seen him in seven years.
Thoughts of Lucas ran through her head as she gathered her things from the day. It was well past 11 p.m. and she was glad to be home. It had been a long, rough day and the ending of it didn’t make it any better. As she walked up the sidewalk she noticed that her sister, Audrey, was sitting on the steps. Audrey waved as she looked across the yard at the complex across the street. Fallon turned and looked over there, seeing a moving van and a man unpacking things from it.
“Audrey, what the hell are you doing?” Fallon asked, looking back at her sister. Audrey sat with her long brown hair in a messy bun, no makeup, and a bright yellow Juicy Couture jumpsuit on. Audrey and Fallon could be twins — not only were they 10 months apart, but they looked just alike. The only difference was that Audrey was a little heavier with big boobs while Fallon’s breasts were nonexistent.
Audrey smiled up at Fallon before looking back towards the man. “Watching the show,” she said pointing to across the lawn. “Not only am I intrigued by the fact that he is movin’ in at 11 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 her boots off, standing on the cold sidewalk in her socks.
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 45…
eww
.”
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. She smiled widely as he grinned a toothless grin back at her. Seeing Aiden always brought so much joy and love into her heart and she couldn’t imagine her life without him.
When Aiden’s arms came around her middle, she smiled as she hugged him back. She loved her baby’s hugs — they made her days worth living — but Fallon’s 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.
How was Fallon going to tell Lucas about Aiden, or even better, how was she going to tell Aiden about Lucas? She had never lied. When Aiden would ask where his daddy was, Fallon would say that they weren’t together anymore and that his daddy was a very busy man but he did love him. Aiden didn’t seem to mind, probably because Fallon and Audrey loved him enough for a whole army of daddies. Of course, she knew Aiden needed a father and planned on looking for one — one day — but right now she was more concerned with her career and raising Aiden to the best of her ability.
When Fallon found out she was pregnant, she picked up the phone millions of times to tell Lucas, but she would chicken out and hang up. With no other opinions she finally called Audrey.
“
Hey sissy,” Audrey said in her happy-go-lucky tone, but Fallon was far from happy.
More like devastated.
Fallon sat in her bathroom with 19 boxes of pregnancy tests around her, all of them saying the same thing — that she was pregnant. What was she gonna do? How was she gonna make it? It was her senior year, how was she supposed to raise a baby and go to college with no help from no one? Her dad would flip, oh God, Lucas was gonna flip.
“
Audrey,” Fallon tried to say without crying but a sob tore through her and she started crying so hard.
“
Fallon, what’s wrong?”
“
I’m pregnant.”
Nothing was said for what seemed like hours when the statement left Fallon’s lips as she sobbed into the phone. She prayed no one heard her, especially her new roommate.
“
Pregnant?”
“
Yeah.”
“
Oh God.”
“
My thoughts exactly,” Fallon agreed as she started to gather all the sticks that confirmed her pregnancy.
“
What are you going to do?”
“
I don’t know, but I can’t stay here.”
“
I know that, but dad is gonna freak, like seriously flip the fuck out,” Audrey said, and Fallon realized she had started crying.
“
Oh Audrey don’t cry, I didn’t call to upset you.”
“
I know that, I’m scared for you.”
“
Me too,” Fallon said as she started crying again. They sat on the phone crying as they both racked their brains, trying to figure out what to do. Finally, Audrey came up with something.
“
Clean out your bank account, take it all.”
“
Audrey, that’s over 10 THOUSAND dollars! Where am I supposed to put that kind of cash?”
“
In your suitcase. After you do that, call mom and dad. Tell them. They are gonna freak and demand you come home.”
“
I know but why am I cleaning out my bank account?” Fallon asked confused.
“
Because you and I both know that dad is gonna cut you off, and you’re gonna need that money to survive on.”
Oh yeah, Fallon thought. Thank God Audrey thought of that because if she hadn’t, Fallon would have been screwed.
“
You need to apply Vanderbilt, like today. Make sure you get in before you call dad.”
“
Audrey, I can’t go to school and raise a baby!” Fallon said in distress. She was already freaking out about having to come back home a failure, and now Audrey wanted her to go back to school too?
“
You have to Fallon, or he will disown you, or worse. Please, just believe me. I’ll help you,” Audrey pleaded. Fallon sat for a moment, tears gushing down her cheeks as she tried to figure out how she could have let this happen.
How was she going to ask her sister to help her raise her baby? Audrey needed to have a life too. This was her and Lucas’ problem, there was no reason to bring Audrey into it. She needed Lucas’ help, but how was she gonna tell him?
“
Whose baby is it?” Audrey asked.
“
You don’t know him,” Fallon answered.
“
Okay, have you told him?”
“
No, we aren’t together.”
“
Why?” Audrey asked.
“
Cause he’s a cheating bastard.”
“
Okay then, are you going to tell him?”
Fallon sat for a moment. Was she gonna tell Lucas? She couldn’t even look him in the eyes, never less talk to him. How was she gonna tell him they were having a baby?
She wasn’t.
“
No, I’m not.”
Fallon didn’t even realize she had started crying until tears fell on Aiden’s head. He looked up and made a face just as Audrey said, “Why are you crying?”
“I’m not, something got in my eye,” Fallon said playing it off as she wiped her eyes. “Now come on Aiden, let’s get to bed.”
“Alright mommy,” Aiden said as he skipped up the stairs, giving Audrey a kiss before heading into the house. Fallon grabbed her things and started up the stairs but was stopped by Audrey when she grabbed her free hand.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” Fallon said again as she put on a fake smile for her sister and started back into the house.
Fallon laid her things on her brown suede couch and headed up the stairs to Aiden’s room. With every step she took, a picture of Audrey, Aiden and Fallon smiled back at her. She had made sure to take a picture with Audrey when she was nine months pregnant, the three of them when Aiden was born, and then of the three of them ever since, for the last six years.
It had always been just her and Audrey with Aiden against the world. She couldn’t thank her sister enough for the sacrifices she made for them, and Fallon could honestly say she couldn’t have done it without Audrey. When everything happened, and Fallon made the call home to tell her parents about the little baby that was growing in her belly, her father, William, freaked. He told her to get an abortion and of course, Fallon said no. He then threatened to take everything, but Fallon had already taken all the money so she was good.
After packing up everything in California and getting on a long plane ride home, Fallon came home to the apartment Audrey had already gotten for them. Fallon started at Vanderbilt and it was actually easier than she thought it was gonna be, but that was all thanks to Audrey. She did everything to make sure Fallon was taken care of. Sometimes Fallon wondered which one of them was the oldest, because Audrey sure did act like she was. Not so much anymore, but back then she was running things while Fallon was a basket case. Not only was she pregnant but she was also trying to mend a broken heart.
Hard feat for a pregnant woman.
It was three months before William found out about Fallon living with Audrey, and he again flipped out, saying Fallon was dead to the family and that if Audrey didn’t kick Fallon out she would be dead to him too. Audrey argued that Fallon was still in school, working hard to support herself — which was true — but William wouldn’t even talk to Fallon to find that out, Audrey had to tell him. He left that afternoon in a huff and didn’t talk to either one of them until the day Aiden was born.
Fallon shook her head as she reached her baby boy’s bright blue door. It seemed like a lifetime ago when everything happened, but in reality only seven short years. William still didn’t talk to Fallon much, but he did trust her enough to be the senior chief public relations manager, and he did love Aiden something crazy, so really how much more could Fallon ask for?
Her trust fund would be great.
Fallon pushed the door open and Aiden stood in the middle of his bright blue room with his army men in hand. “Mommy, Captain Timber is gonna kill everyone!”
“Yay!” Fallon gushed as she walked around the room, picking up as Captain Timber killed everyone. Aiden was so full of life, so busy. Sometimes he reminded Fallon of Lucas so much that it just blew her mind. How could he be just like his father when he had never met Lucas? It made no sense, but his face was Lucas all over. It probably had everything to do with the fact that Aiden looked nothing like Fallon and everything like Lucas.