Authors: Toni Aleo
He loved her!
Lucas spun quick, snapping his stick back and letting go, hitting the puck as hard as he could. Lucas looked up to watch the puck hit the back of the net, but it didn’t.
She sat with her face down on her desk, taking in deep breaths as her phone continually rang, and rang, and rang. Where was Rob? She had no clue, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to lay there. Fallon was convinced that she was the stupidest person ever. How could she walk away? How could she hurt Lucas like that? She never regretted anything.
But she regretted this.
Leaving Lucas for the second time would forever be her biggest failure. She knew that Lucas’ pride would be in full swing now and he would never put himself out there like that again. She basically used him like he said. What did she think was going to happen after continually sleeping with him for a whole weekend? Did she think they would be able to part ways and not be affected?
Stupid, Fallon, stupid!
Fallon was heartbroken. She missed him something fierce, and she just wanted him back. She had this ache in her chest, one that felt like it was taking over her whole body. She felt empty. When she was with Lucas she had never felt so amazing, but now she felt nothing. Just emptiness. The whole weekend, Lucas kept her laughing, smiling, and Lord, he kept her screaming. It was perfect and she needed him back.
She couldn’t believe that she had been such a selfish bitch. Lucas didn’t deserve that, not after everything he shared with her. Fallon didn’t fully trust him yet, but she was willing to try. Yeah, they had a past, but it wasn’t all bad. There were moments that still to this day she held very near and dear to her heart. There wasn’t a moment when she didn’t feel loved. Even when he was gone, he would constantly call just to say he loved her. The bad parts of their relationship she didn’t even think of anymore, well except for the night she found him with Allison. Thinking about those meaningless fights now, she decided that they weren’t that bad. They seemed bad at the time, but it was because she hated having him mad at her.
Since coming into Aiden’s life, Lucas had been there. He had been loving, funny, and honestly the best dad ever. He was everything Aiden had wanted in a father. That was why it was so easy for Aiden to fall in love with Lucas. Lucas was lovable. He was cocky as all hell, but lovable and Fallon loved him.
With all her heart.
Fallon was done with the bitterness, the anger, everything. She was ready to forgive him for all that happened. She understood that he never actually cheated on her, but he still wanted to. Regardless though, she was ready to let that go. She was ready to give him his chance. She couldn’t let their past dictate their future. Lucas was here, he was healthy, and he hopefully still wanted her.
She was ready to jump into the unknown with him, she was ready to take that chance — she had to. She missed him so much. She missed his cocky little grins, his playful love taps, his touches, and his laugh, his everything. She wanted their weekend back. Fallon wanted to go back to when she was getting out of Lucas’ bed to pack, to instead cuddle close to his gorgeous rock hard body and just love him.
Tears rushed to Fallon eyes and ran down her nose onto the desk as she took in small unsteady breaths of air. How could she be so stupid? How was she going to tell Lucas that she had been stupid? He probably wouldn’t even talk to her again. He had called but it had only been to talk to Aiden. Not that she answered the phone to find that out, but she was pretty darn sure that was why. He wouldn’t even come to the door to get Aiden that morning, which had to tell her something. He was mad, and he had every right to be.
Fallon sat up, moving her hand along her cheeks as she used her other hand to reach for a tissue. As she blew her nose, the door opened and Rob came in. He had on a bright pink shirt that said “Real men wear pink sometimes. Gay men wear it all the time” with a pair of sparkly blue jeans. He paired it with a cute black blazer and his hair was bone straight.
“Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” Fallon asked. Did she miss something? She hadn’t worked the last couple days, but surely she hadn’t missed something important.
He gave her one last smile and shut the door behind him. Fallon took in another deep breath before opening the drawer on her desk. She pulled out the little handwritten notes from Lucas and read each one. Tears filled her eyes with every word she read. What if he didn’t feel this way anymore? What if she broke him when she left for the second time?
Fallon’s phone rang, startling her and causing her to throw the little post it notes up in the air. She pressed her hand to her chest as she reached for her cell phone, seeing it was Audrey.
Audrey said something but Fallon had already hung up on her, throwing her phone in her purse before running out the office. “Gotta go,” she said to Rob as she ran down the orange-filled hall. Fallon was in such a state of worry; she hadn’t even realized she had run out the office without her heels until she was tip toeing through the parking lot. She shook her head as she jumped into her car and drove quickly out the parking lot. She turned onto West End and pressed the gas to get home.
Fallon was shaking by the time she reached her house. She parked behind Lucas’ car and jumped out. She ran up the stairs before throwing the front door open. The first thing she saw was Lucas standing beside the stairs, looking worried. Her heart ached at the sight of him but she couldn’t deal with that right now. She glanced toward the couch to see her little guy laid up with a bright purple cast on his arm, propped up on a pillow.
“Oh my baby!” she exclaimed before running over to him and dropping to her knees in front of him. “Aiden, honey, are you okay? Can you talk baby?”
“Fallon, it’s a broken arm, weirdo” Audrey said from the kitchen. Fallon shot her a dirty look before cupping Aiden’s giggling face.
“Mommy, I’m fine. It doesn’t even hurt,” Aiden insisted. Fallon knew that he was trying to show off in front of Lucas, and for once it didn’t bother her. It hurt her heart that he was growing up but he was becoming a strong little boy, and she couldn’t have been more proud.
She slowly stood and when she turned, pinning Lucas with a look that could kill, he took a step back. “Now Fallon, it was a complete accident.”
“Get outside!” she yelled as she stomped by him. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she couldn’t see anything but red. When the door shut behind him she whirled around and let him have it. “Are you fucking kidding me?! You broke my kid’s arm with a puck!?”
“Whoa! It was an accident. I turned and shot and I didn’t even know he was in front of the goal,” Lucas stuttered. “I wouldn’t do this on purpose and I hope you know that.”
“I know that I trusted you with my child, and for the past seven years he hasn’t broken anything, and then you come along and he’s got a fucking broken arm! Explain that to me, Lucas!”
“I told you, Fallon,” he said, his voice getting as loud as hers, “that it was a fucking accident. He came out of nowhere. I’ve told him many times not to be in front of the net unless he is cleaning out pucks. He skated across and I beamed him right in the arm.”
“I wish I had a stick and puck so I could beam you in the arm! He is my baby and he is broken now!”
“It’s an arm and its going to heal, psycho, calm down, shit!” Lucas said. Fallon took in a sharp breath as her hands started to shake.
“Psycho? I’ll show you psycho when I fucking kill you!” Fallon screamed, taking a step towards him.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Lucas said, irritation filling his voice. “I don’t know if you realize but I’ve had a horrible afternoon. I’ve been sick with worry and dealing with you right now isn’t how I want my day to end.”
Fallon let out an empty laugh. “Well excuse me! I didn’t expect to come home to my child and his broken arm, so I guess we’ll both have to deal with shit we don’t want to deal with!”
Lucas rolled his eyes. “He’s a boy, Fallon. He’s going to break things. I’ve broken almost every bone in my body, it isn’t a big deal.”
Fallon saw only red as her face burned and her jaw clenched. How dare he act like this wasn’t a big deal? Aiden was a perfectly healthy little boy until he came along! Fallon couldn’t see straight as she screamed, “Because you’re stupid! Who thinks it’s okay to break bones?!”
Lucas froze.
Fallon’s heart dropped into her stomach when she realized what she said. She started to shake her head as his eyes held hers. Fallon’s lip quivered as she moved towards him to apologize but he stopped her, pushing her lightly away.
“Stupid, huh?” Lucas nodded as he moved past her, jogging down the steps. She followed behind him, trying to form a word but nothing was coming out. When he reached the truck, he turned and she saw the hurt in his eyes as he looked down at her. “I never thought I would ever hear you say that to me. You of all people, I never expected that.”
Fallon went to stop him, but he slammed the door and burned rubber trying to get out of her driveway. He didn’t even look at her twice, he just left. Fallon covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes filled with tears.
What in the hell had she done?
Fallon stood in the driveway, taking in deep breaths as she tried to figure out what she was going to do. It was one thing to scream at Lucas for hurting her son, but it was another to call him something that he seriously loathed. She knew how much it hurt him when someone called him stupid. There wasn’t a day when he was younger that he didn’t get called that word. Lucas could be called anything else in the book and it wouldn’t faze him, but if anyone said he was stupid, he would shut down.
She knew this.
What was she thinking?
She was just so mad, and scared. Seven years had gone by and Aiden hadn’t even had more than a cough! Lucas comes along and Aiden has a broken arm! She understood that Lucas was rough and maybe Aiden was too, but still it scared her shitless to see her precious little baby lying on the couch with a purple cast on his arm. Her heart was still in her throat and she didn’t think it would go back down until she made sure Aiden was completely okay. She knew she had to apologize to Lucas also, that alone made her heart race because she wasn’t sure if he would forgive her. Did she really deserve his forgiveness? She was a selfish, heartless, bitch. She wouldn’t even forgive herself.
Fallon shook her head as the tears ran down her cheeks. Man, she had messed up.
Royally.
Hadn’t she just been in her office ready to give him another chance? Asking him to give her a chance was more like it now. She was going to have to beg for forgiveness, and she should have to. Fallon had no right to say that, but she wasn’t thinking — she was just acting.
Something she really needed to learn not to do.
Fallon turned to go back inside, and when she reached the stairs she saw Aiden looking out the window. His face was pressed against the glass and his eyebrows were drawn in at the middle. Fallon looked away as she pushed the door open and shut it behind her.
Fallon let out a long breath, “Aiden Punkin’, sit down, he’ll call later,” Fallon said as she came towards him. Aiden’s face turned red as he moved away from her.
“Did you send him away!? It was my fault he hit me! I skated in front of the net!” Aiden yelled.
Fallon was appalled he was yelling at her. She looked down at him. “Aiden James, watch your mouth right now!”
“No! You sent my dad away! You keep keeping him away from me! He’s my dad! I want him!” Aiden yelled irrationally as his other hand moved with each word that left his mouth.
“Aiden, buddy, calm down,” Audrey said from the kitchen.
“No! I want my dad back! I want to go live with him!” Aiden screamed pushing past Fallon and running towards the stairs. He turned to pin Fallon with the scariest look ever. Her sweet boy never looked at her like that. He was looking at her as if she was the worst person ever. “I hate you!” he screamed before running up the stairs and slamming his door.