Trying to Score (16 page)

Finally she couldn’t take it. It was not like him to just stand there when something big happened, he was extremely emotional. He screamed, he yelled, he threw things, Lucas Brooks was never speechless. Fallon took a step towards him, clearing her throat. That was when he looked over at her and when his eyes met hers, she couldn’t breathe. There were tears in his eyes, tears that were threatening to fall at any moment.

“Lucas, I’m sorry,” she found herself saying, “I never meant for you to find out like this.”

Before the last word left her mouth, he turned and started for his truck. Fallon watched as he walked quickly to his truck, slamming the door and starting it up. She expected him to roll the window down and start screaming at her, but when he just pulled off, she felt like she was about to pass out.

What the hell was he doing?

**************************************

Lucas wasn’t sure when the tears started falling, but it was somewhere between Fallon’s house and his. He felt like his heart had been ripped from his chest at the sight of the little boy that he
knew
was his. It only took one look in the little boy’s eyes to know. Not only did the little boy, Aiden, have his eyes, but his hair, his cheeks, his lips, his chin, everything. The only thing he had from Fallon were her dimples and maybe her nose. It was so surreal, looking at Aiden and knowing that he was his son. How could Fallon do that to him? How could she be so heartless? How could she keep a child from him for seven years?

Especially after Lucas losing his father.

Lucas believed that no child should grow up without a father, and now his son had. How was that fair, why would she do that? Put aside what he did to her, yeah, he was a douche, but didn’t he deserve to still know his child? Did he really fuck her up that bad that she couldn’t even tell him about his own son? That she decided raising him by herself was better than giving Lucas the chance to be a father. Did she really think that lowly of him? Was he that big of a piece of shit?

Lucas sat in his truck for what seemed like hours before he finally got out. He didn’t know anyone was there until he stepped in and saw a curvaceous blonde going into the kitchen. She wore only a small tee that didn’t even cover her bare ass as she walked slowly to the kitchen. When she turned to looked at Lucas, he saw that it was Eleanor Adler’s assistant, Janet. Since he was in a state of shock, he only shook his head as he headed towards the stairs that would take him to his room while poor Janet let out a girlie scream. Before he reached his room, he saw Levi heading down the stairs in only a pair of boxer. It didn’t take much to figure out what was going on and Lucas would have been a little upset with Levi if he wasn’t having a mental break down.

When his door closed behind him, he went to his bed, falling face first into it. Lucas buried his face into his fluffy bedding, letting his tears fall. He never cried, but he couldn’t help himself. Sobs ribbed through him as the guilt and hurt tore through his body.

Seven years. Seven years that poor innocent boy went without a father when one was available. Fallon couldn’t be a father and a mother. Lucas had no doubt that she was the best mom imaginable, but she couldn’t do both. Other than not telling Aiden about Lucas, Lucas knew that Fallon was caring, sweet, and more than capable of taking care of a child. He just wished that she had more faith in him to know that he could have been a father too.

Or could he?

He was pretty fucked up back then — of course she didn’t know that — but still, he was. Would he have gotten his shit together and taken responsibility for Aiden, or would he have turned back to the bottle like he did for everything else? There was no way to tell, but Lucas still would have liked to have known about Aiden.

The apology Fallon gave him wasn’t good enough, and he would expect another one when he was able to confront her. She had to know that she was wrong for what she did. After everything they talked about as a couple, about how he would never want his children growing up without a father because he knew how it hurt, how it could fuck a kid up. He was a prime example and what killed him the most was that there was a child running around with Lucas’ father’s name and he didn’t even know who he was.

How was that fair to either one of them?

Lucas must have fallen asleep because he woke up to Levi standing over him by his bed. Lucas rolled over, wiping his nose as he looked up at his best friend.

“What the hell is your problem? Fallon blow you off?” Levi asked with a smirk. “That chick is going to be hard to catch.”

“I have a kid,” Lucas whispered, causing Levi’s eyes to go wide. He never kept things from Levi, and this was something huge that he needed to know about.

“Excuse me?”

“I have a kid, Aiden.”

Levi face twisted in shock as he tried to focus of Lucas. “I’m sorry I must have not heard you, did you say you have a kid named Aiden?”

“I did, because I do.”

Levi fell onto the bed, breathing in through his mouth and then out through his mouth. “How do you know? Whose is it? Fallon’s?”

“Yeah, and if you would have seen him, you wouldn’t disagree with me. The kid looks just like me,” Lucas said breathlessly as he thought back to the moment when his and Aiden’s eyes met.

The exact same color, shade and shape. His father’s eyes, now his son’s.

“So you don’t actually know if he is yours?”

“No, I know. I’m telling you Levi, one look is all you need to know,” Lucas said sadly. He just couldn’t get over the fact that there has been a little person running around with his DNA and he had never met him. Even tonight, he wasn’t introduced to Aiden, he just saw him.

“We’ll we need to get a hold of Richard Price, get some paperwork going. Probably going to need a paternity test, and find out the legal shit. I mean, is there going to be back child support?” Levi asked as he stood up and started pacing the bedroom.

Lucas shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t care about that stuff, I just want to get to know my son.”

“Not until we get some answers,” Levi said, giving him a pointed look.

Lucas sat up quickly, pinning Levi with a look that told him not to fuck with him. “I didn’t even know I had a son an hour ago, and now you’re telling me I have to wait to get to know him?”

“Lucas I am doing this for you. Have I ever steered you wrong?”

Lucas shook his head. “No.”

“Okay then, give me a couple days. We’re going out of town anyways for that game in New York, by the time we get back there shouldn’t be an issue with you seeing Aiden.”

Fallon looked over at Aiden from the book that she was reading. It had been hours since Lucas had left and Aiden hadn’t said anything. While her emotions were going crazy, she was thankful he hadn’t asked but she knew in her heart that it was bound to happen. Fallon slowly shut the book, taking a deep breath in.

Aiden looked back down at his hands, and Fallon prayed Aiden didn’t ask if Lucas was his dad. She just couldn’t handle it, not until she talked to Lucas and found out what he was thinking.

Fallon didn’t know why the words stung but they did. Fallon knew that Lucas knew Aiden was his son just with one look. Could Aiden tell? Maybe he was just being his six-year-old self and wanting a man around. Aiden loved Rob. Audrey had once said that Aiden starves for male attention, was that all this was?

Fallon bit her lip, she didn’t want to promise something that she didn’t know could be true. So she smiled, snuggling close to her favorite guy before saying, “We’ll see.”

Lucas shot him a look before getting ready for the face off. He wasn’t going anywhere, he started this game, and he was going to fucking finish it. Lucas won the faceoff, skating forward as Adler passed him the puck. Lucas skated hard, keeping the puck from his opponent before sending it across ice to Welch. He skated towards the goal just as Welch passed it back to him for him to shoot. He pulled back for the shot and when he released, he totally missed the puck, causing one of the Rangers to steal it before heading down ice towards their goal.

Lucas never missed a shot.

God, he was fucked in the head.

When he heard the buzz off, his head fell. Not only was he sucking, but their defense was off too. Jakob and Shea weren’t doing what they usually did, they were lagging. And because of it all, the Assassins lost their third game in a row. Lucas followed his teammates into the locker room. Once inside, he walked straight to his bench, falling onto it as he leaned his head down, taking in deep breaths.

Man, he hated losing.

When he heard the door slam, he looked up to see Adler with his face red with anger.

“That game was bullshit! What the hell guys? We are better than this!” he yelled as he threw his helmet and gloves into his locker area. “Brooks, what the fuck? You missed all your shots tonight. Nothing went in and you had open shots!”

Lucas looked up at Adler before standing slowly just as Mrs. Adler walked in with the coaches. “I know you are not talking to me about my game? They got past you and scored three fucking times.”

“That might be the case, but I played my ass off, what the hell did you do? You looked like a fucking zombie out there!” Adler yelled taking a step towards him.

“I played my ass off, too!” Lucas yelled right back, taking a step towards him. Jakob came over, standing beside the guys. Probably in case someone did something they shouldn’t.

Lucas faced turned red with anger and he got right into Shea’s face. “And I just found out I have a fucking kid, so back the fuck up.”

The locker room went quiet except for the intake of breath that Mrs. Adler took in. Lucas glanced over at her and finally knew what his boss knew that he didn’t. Shea took a step back, and Lucas did the same before going to his locker to take a seat. Everyone was staring at him as he took deep breaths in and out.

It had been two days since he found out about Aiden and he was a mess. He hadn’t called Fallon or even gone to see her because he was having such a hard time dealing with it all. Aiden had been on his mind from sun up to sun down, and he was driving himself crazy with questions about the little guy. He was so scared that Aiden wasn’t going to like him. He didn’t know how to be a dad and it scared him to think of all the things he could fuck up. He worried about what Fallon was going to say to him when he asked for the paternity test, but most of all he was scared she was going to keep Aiden from him.

Lucas hadn’t moved from the locker room. He sat with a towel on his head, listening to everyone leave. No one had said anything to him, they just walked by. Some of his teammates placed their hands on his shoulder or they tapped his head, but no one said anything. Lucas was glad they didn’t too, because he didn’t know what to say back. He hated when he let his anger get the best of him and he spoke before thinking, because now the whole team knew that he had a kid. A kid that he never knew about or taken care of.

What a man he was.

When Lucas heard the click of a pair of heels, he tore the towel off his head and looked up to see Mrs. Adler coming towards him, with Shea behind her. She had a small, sad smile on her face as she came over and sat beside him on the bench. Shea leaned against the locker, not looking Lucas in the eyes. Lucas focused on the holes in the foam floor as Mrs. Adler placed her hand on his back.

“How you holding up, Lucas?” she asked in a low voice. Lucas shook his head. He had no one to talk too. Levi didn’t understand, all he cared about was the legal stuff and Lucas couldn’t even think of telling his mom yet. She would flip out and would be on the first plane to Nashville, ready to take over. He didn’t need that right now.

“I’ve been better,” Lucas answered.

“When did she tell you?”

Lucas still didn’t look at his boss as he shook his head. “She didn’t. I went to her house and Aiden came out on the porch. She never told me anything.”

Out the corner of his eye, he saw Elli shake her head. “Damn fool woman,” she whispered before moving her hand up and down his back. “What did Fallon say?”