Trying to Score (Assassins)

by Toni Aleo

  “Sure did,” he said with a bold grin. “Gotta keep the baby train going. We’re knocking on 30’s door.”

  “Oh Lord! Not 30!” Fallon said in mock horror, making everyone laugh.

  “It’s the excuse he’s using,” Elli said with a laugh.

  “I think it’s all a ruse, he just likes making babies,” Fallon giggled as Elli’s cheeks warmed with color.

  Shea let out a booming laugh before saying, “You got that right!”

  They shared a laugh before Fallon took a drink of her wine. She loved hanging with Elli and Shea, they were so cute and perfect together. Even if their love made her want to puke, she still loved them.

  “Fallon is going to sophisticate hockey,” Elli said with a grin for Shea. He laughed as he looked back over at Fallon.

  “Are you now?”

  “Yes, I am. I can do it. I’m awesome.”

  Elli giggled as Shea smiled, then Elli said, “You sure are babe! Oh Shea, there’s Ricky Owen. Hey, excuse us Fallon, I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “Sure, great seeing y’all,” Fallon said. She watched as they walked away, hand in hand, with big smiles on their faces. They were so stinkin’ happy, it was sickening. But then she thought of what they had to do to get to where they were, and she couldn’t help but be happy for them.

  What could she say; she was a sucker for love.

  Fallon stood for a little while longer before she starting noticing guys checking her out. Since dating was the last thing on her mind, she took that as her cue to start working the room. She grabbed a bottle of the Rocky Top’s Big Orange Cabernet Sauvignon and started towards the crowd.

  Fallon always walked with confidence ─ she had to or no one would buy from her. She knew what she had with her products and knew that with only one taste anyone would fall in love with Rocky Top’s wine. It was that good.

  It had been in the family for over 80 years; there wasn’t a moment from Fallon’s childhood were she didn’t remember being in the fields, picking grapes to eat. She grew up with dirty feet and grape-stained clothes. She loved it, she lived it, and now that Fallon ran the PR department, it was finally getting to the level it needed to be. Rocky Top needed to be at the top and if Fallon had anything to do with it, it would be.

  After working the room handing out business cards and vouchers for free bottles, Fallon spotted Elli standing with some older guy that had an empty glass. Since he looked like he had money, Fallon made her way towards him. She always liked to schmooze the big money guys ─ they always bought case after case for their companies. If Fallon got lucky, they usually hired them as the wine for their parties.

  Which was always great for business.

  “He has a bad rep. Money, booze, females, I don’t know,” the older guy said when Fallon reached the group. It was only Elli, Shea and the older guy, and Elli didn’t seem very happy.

  “He’s clean, I feel good about him,” Elli said sternly. The older guy shook his head.

  “I don’t know Mrs. Adler, Brooks is a fighter.”

  Fallon blinked a few times, totally stunned. It had been a long time since she had heard that name.

  “Yeah, but he’s second in the league for goals.”

  “And first for penalty minutes. He’s a got a huge chip on his shoulder.”

  “I’ll knock the damn chip off it for him if I need to, or hell maybe we’ll get Fallon to sophisticate him,” Elli said with a grin when she noticed that Fallon was just standing there staring at them. “Ricky Owen, Fallon Parker with Rocky Top Wine. She is one of our biggest sponsors.”

  “Who?” Fallon asked totally ignoring Ricky’s hand, and hoping like hell that there was another Brooks in the NHL that fought a lot.

  Because she only knew one…

  “You probably don’t know him, Lucas Brooks? He was just traded in from the Sharks.”

  Fallon wasn’t sure how the bottle of wine slipped from her hands, but the next thing she knew it was in pieces around her beautiful boots. Cabernet Sauvignon was everywhere, and Fallon’s face was beet red as she tried to catch her breath. Everyone looked down in shock before looking back up at Fallon’s stunned face.

  Shea starting laughing as everyone still looked at Fallon in shock, then he said, “Or maybe she does.”

  Oh, Fallon knew Lucas Brooks alright.

  He was coming to Nashville?

  Great, that was just fucking great.

  **********************************

  “You know back in the day, we would be hung over instead of moving into a new house on New Year’s Day.”

  Lucas Brooks looked over at Levi Moss, his best friend, and laughed as he nodded in agreement. Levi was right – five years ago, they both would still be face down in their own puke or in some female’s breasts on New Year’s Day, not moving into their new house.

  “You’re right, but I would probably be broke and without a job too,” Lucas added.

  “True, very true indeed,” Levi said as he nodded his head.

  Lucas smiled as he piled the boxes by the stairs that needed to go upstairs. The new house he had bought was huge. He had asked for a simple home and got this — nine bedrooms, six baths, two dens, and to top it off there was an ice rink on the lower level. Lucas had to admit that was the best part of the huge house, but still. It was too big for just him and Levi.

  Lucas still couldn’t believe he was in Nashville, Tennessee. After living in San Jose for the past nine years, he couldn’t believe he had moved or even left the Sharks. He loved his team, he missed the guys and he had only been gone a week but moving to Nashville was much needed. Lucas needed a new set of faces and a new team, no matter how much he missed the guys. Lucas was getting into too much trouble in San Jose and if he wanted to stay sober, he had to leave where the temptation was.

  And everything in San Jose was a big temptation.

  Lucas knew the spots, he knew the women, he knew how to get in trouble and the past four years had been hell trying to be good, so he had to leave. He just had to. Thankfully, Levi supported him, uprooted his life, and followed Lucas to Nashville with no question at all. Lucas figured that Levi knew they had to get out of San Jose or he was gonna relapse. Lucas’ mom was happy too ─ he was only eight hours from his home town of Eaton Rapids, Michigan now, and that made Molly Brooks a very happy woman.

  So all around, moving to Nashville was going to be great as long as he got along with his team. Lucas had played the Assassins many times and hated playing their defense. They were intense, hard-hitting assholes, and a game didn’t happen without him fighting someone from that team.

  Now he was going to play with them.

  Yay.

  After taking all 14 boxes up to his room, Lucas looked around the room that was his and nodded his head. The home decorator, Beth, had done a great job with giving him what he wanted. He wasn’t sure about the colors he wanted, but after talking to Beth, she seemed to know what he wanted. She wanted to base his room off his eyes, so the walls were a perfect shade of gray, and the bedding was gray with black and white accent pillows. The headboard to the massive California king bed (something he couldn’t leave in California) was black and reached up to the ceiling. He had always liked big beds, and luckily the room was still massive even with the bed in it.

  Along the walls, there were black and white portraits of him as a kid — him with his mom and dad, some of just his dad — and then a lot of him during his years playing hockey. His favorite picture was the one that was on the wall across from his bed — it was of him when he was four with his dad, James, on the first day he had ever played hockey. James’ face was bright with excitement and Lucas’ matched it — it was one of the best days of his life and he loved waking up to that picture.

  Tearing himself from the picture that held so many memories, he looked over at the closet that held every stick he had ever played with and smiled. When Beth said ‘I’d be damned if there is going to be a room for your old sticks, I will think of someth
ing’ he didn’t even think twice about her statement. What else was she going to do with 46 sticks, but she had surprised him with the closet. After cutting and gluing each stick to the wall around his closet, he decided that Beth King was a pure genius and he couldn’t wait for his mom to see it.

  Now all he had to do was unpack his personal stuff. He was doing just that when Levi came in with a box in his hand. Lucas didn’t pay any attention to him as he hung his clothes up until Levi said, “Please explain to me why you brought Fallon Parker’s stuff with us to Nashville?”

  Lucas turned quickly, seeing the blue box that he could have sworn he had grabbed was in his best friends hands.

  Shit.

  He walked over to Levi, took the box from him, and placed it at the bottom of his closet.

  “I’m waiting,” Levi said. Lucas rolled his eyes.

  “What was I supposed to do with it? Leave it in California?” Lucas asked with a shrug of his shoulders.

  “Yes! Or hell, here’s an idea, throw it away!”

  Lucas ignored him as he went back to hanging his clothes up. “I just don’t understand it. It’s been a billion years since she left. You haven’t seen her or talked to her. Why keep her things when we both know it still bothers you,” Levi asked.

  “Nothing in that box bothers me, it’s just memories.”

  “Memories you need to throw away. There is no reason why you still have all the clothes she left, or her hair supplies, or…”

  Lucas glared over at Levi. “You went through the box?”

  “Yeah, like five years ago. Come on, dude. It’s crazy! Why do you need her hairbrush?”

  “Why does it matter?”

  “Because it’s weird and I think you need help.”

  Lucas rolled his eyes as he went back to hanging up his clothes. “I’m fine, I just like having them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I do, don’t worry about it. Don’t you have something to do?”

  Levi laughed as he shook his head. “Jeez Luc, still sensitive after seven years? Maybe you do need help.”

  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 in the park 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.”

  Audrey laughed. “Nah, but late thirties for sure though.”

  “Still you’re only 27. Go find someone your age.”

  “No, guys are stupid at my age. I want a man with some age to him, someone that knows their way around the bedroom.”

  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.

  He was her everything.

  “Why is Momma’s favorite boy out of bed?”

  “I was waiting for you!” he gushed as he came down the stairs, running at speeds only a six year old could have manage.

  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.

  Chapter 2

  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 s
he 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.”