Trying to Score (6 page)

“Of course,” Lucas said with his flirty smile, but then changed it when he remembered that Eleanor Adler wasn’t some girl he was trying to have sex with but his boss. It was so weird having a female as his boss, but he knew Mrs. Adler was no joke. She knew what she wanted and who to kill to get it.

Mrs. Adler moved a stack of papers in front of Lucas and he froze. He looked down at the stack of paper and all the words started to jumble together.

“I, uh, I forgot my glasses at home. Yeah! I didn’t know we would be doing paperwork, my manager/assistant is out in the waiting room, can I go get him? He can help me.”

“Uh sure, I’ll call him in,” Elli said before picking up the phone and telling her assistant to send Levi in. A few minutes later, Levi walked into the room with a confused look on his face until he saw the paperwork in front of Lucas. Lucas watched as he put on his ‘Ladies love me’ grin and held out his hand for Mrs. Adler.

For the next hour, Lucas sat and listened as Mrs. Adler went over the paperwork. He hated when these things happened, but that was what Levi was for. To always be there when Lucas wasn’t able to read something. It was hard to admit that Lucas had dyslexia, but he did. He couldn’t read without taking an hour on each word. He felt like it made him less of a person, and if people knew about his condition that they would judge him or think he was stupid. And Lucas didn’t do well when people called him stupid. That was the main reason why no one knew except for his mom and Levi about the condition.

Oh…and Fallon.

Lucas didn’t mean or even realized he had said her name out loud, until both Mrs. Adler and Levi looked over at him. Levi had an annoyed look on his face while Mrs. Adler had a surprised one of hers.

“Um, well, I used to know her, and since I’m in town now, I would love to see her again,” Lucas said. Mrs. Adler smiled again as Levi glared at Lucas.

“Well she is throwing a party at the Belle Mead Mansion in March, everyone’s invited from the team. I know it’s a while away but if you asking me for her number I won’t give it to you,” she said with a mischievous smile. “But I will tell her that you were asking.”

“No, don’t do that. I’ll wait or maybe I’ll run into her.”

“Maybe,” she said with a knowing grin.

This was why Lucas didn’t like a woman boss — if Mrs. Adler was a Mr. Adler and Lucas asked about Fallon they would have just let it go, but not Mrs. Adler. She had that look in her eyes, and Lucas knew that look.

Fallon shook her head as she looked up from her computer before looking over at Aiden, who sat on the couch watching Ghostbusters. “Honey, Halloween isn’t for nine months.”

“I know, but I want to get my costume now,” Aiden whined.

“Honey, let’s wait ‘til at least September before we start buying costumes,” Fallon said as Audrey came out the kitchen with a bag of marshmallows in her hand. When she took off running towards the couch, Fallon looked up again.

“Or! We can eat this whole bag of marshmallows and hope we turn into the marshmallow man!!” Audrey exclaimed before she started stuffing marshmallows in her mouth. Aiden started laughing but then he joined in, leaving Fallon to shake her head.

“Y’all are nuts,” she said just as her phone started ringing. It was Elli. “Hey,” Fallon said as she stood up to leave the room because believe it or not, consuming marshmallows to become the marshmallow man was a very loud event.

“Hey girl, talked to my papa, and he wants to set up a meeting next month, the 17th at 10 a.m.,” Elli said. In the background Fallon could hear sweet baby Shelli making sweet baby noise.

“Yeah,” Fallon said with dread filling her. She prayed that Elli didn’t tell him about Aiden or that she wasn’t married or anything. She should have told Elli not to tell him anything about her. She knew Lucas would ask questions, especially when he saw that Rocky Top Wines was a sponsor.

“Well, he was asking about you today, and I remember you breaking a bottle of wine at the sound of his name so I thought I would call, give you his number, so maybe y’all could talk,” she said in suggestive voice. Fallon took a deep breath, knowing that Elli hadn’t said anything.

Fallon sat for a minute, listening to Audrey and Aiden as they became marshmallow men, while trying to figure out what she was gonna say to Elli. She had known Elli for a long time, even before the sponsorship. Elli had done a lot of the photo work for Rocky Top Wines. She also had taken all of Fallon’s personal pictures for her. She loved Elli, and she wouldn’t lie to her, but it would be a cold day in hell before she told her the truth.

“Because I am, Elli. I’m asking that you hang with me for a little bit. Everything will come into light sooner than later.”

Elli didn’t say anything right away, but then Elli said what Fallon knew in her heart she would say. “Okay, just let me know if you need anything.”

How Lucas had done it would always been a mystery to Fallon.

She stood in the middle of her dorm room in complete awe. Every surface of the room was covered in little pink post-it notes with what he said was all the reasons he loved her. There had to be over a hundred of them!

Fallon walked around the room, reading each one.

I love you because you are there for me.

I love you because of your laugh.

I love you because you believe in me.

I love you because of your integrity.

I love you because you love my mom.

I love you because just like how you warm my hand when we are sleeping, you warm my heart just with one look.

I love you because you are great in bed…haha.

I love you because you are mine.

I love you because you play goalie for me, even though you are scared shitless of the puck.

Fallon’s smile grew wider with every one she read. Lucas was incredibly sweet. It was their two-year
anniversary
and he was in New York for a game and still had done all this for her. How did she get so lucky to be with a man that loved her so much?

In the middle of her bed was a big bouquet of white lilies with some kind of red flower she had never seen in her life in the middle. All around the bouquet were little wrapped boxes, so she tore into each one, finding a different shade of her favorite lip gloss in each box. In the last box, there wasn’t a tube of lip gloss but a ring. It wasn’t an engagement ring, but it still took Fallon’s breath away. It was platinum with small pink diamonds lining the whole band. When she looked inside the ring, there was an inscription.

For the woman that takes my breath away – love you, Lucas.

Fallon’s heart warmed as tears rushed down her cheeks. She slid the ring on her finger quickly before she tore open the card, and then the tears came faster as she read.

My Fallon,

I could go on for days telling you the reasons I love you. I love you because I do, because you are my everything. The flower is a
Kadupul flower and it’s the rarest flower that I could find. I got it because you are the rarest person I have ever met. You blow my mind with your awesomeness and I just love you Fallon, more than you’ll ever believe.

Happy Anniversary baby, here’s to a hundred more.

Love, Lucas.

Fallon dug her phone out of her pocket and saw that Lucas was probably on the ice, but she had to tell him thank you — she would leave him a voicemail. It only rang twice before someone surprisingly answered. The roar of a crowd filled the phone as the guy yelled into the phone.

“
Ms. Parker, just a second, he is finishing up his line. He’ll be off…now.”

“
Oh my God,” Fallon said breathlessly as she heard the phone being transferred. He had someone waiting for her call? He was perfect!

“
Happy Anniversary, baby girl,” Lucas said and then Fallon heard the guys razzing him.

“
Oh my God, Lucas, you’re amazing. I only got you that stick you wanted with my name on it!”

His laughter rang over the phone. “And I loved it. I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier.”

“
It's okay, I love you.”

“
I love you more, baby girl,” he said with all the love in the world in his voice, “so much more.”

“
Go score for me?”

“
I’m always scoring for you.”

“
I do love you Lucas.”

“
And I love you.”

It was sad really, that a post-it note that said ‘You have two messages’ was what triggered that memory. Rob, Fallon’s assistant, always used post-it notes to tell her things and would leave them on her computer screen. It was the first time Rob had done it since Lucas had come to Nashville and when she saw the little pink post-it note, her breath caught as that moment came back to her.

Fallon knew she should just face Lucas and get it over with, but each day it got harder and harder. Every time Aiden looked at Fallon, she wanted to cry because not only was she keeping the secret from Lucas, she was keeping it from Aiden. Aiden deserved a better mom, one that wasn’t scared of some guy who broke her heart into a billion pieces.

“Why are you just standing there like that?”

Fallon turned quickly, seeing Rob Slater in the doorway with his hands on his waist. His extremely long brown hair came over his shoulders, his tight pink shirt under his blazer jacket had Madonna looking back at her. His pants were, of course, tighter than Fallon’s, and all Fallon could think was how the hell she was gonna take him to this presentation when he looked better than she did.

“Dazed out,” Fallon answered as she fell into her plush pink chair.

Gosh, she loved this chair. It was so pink and fluffy. Since the company’s color was orange, Fallon made sure that her office was bright pink, and it was just plain gorgeous. Every surface was either pink or white, with glitter here and there. Pictures of her, Audrey and Aiden filled the office. She loved it, and it made her happy inside. The best part was her dad hated it, and that made Fallon happy all in itself.

“You’ve been weird the last couple weeks,” Rob said as he sat down, crossing his legs. It made Fallon sick how great Rob’s legs looked. Her legs didn’t even look that good.

“Lots of stuff going on.”

“Like? Come on, you tell me everything.”

Not everything
, she thought as she started gathering her notes for the presentation.

“Don’t worry about it; are you almost ready to go?”

“Yuppers, everything is packed in your car,” Rob said before standing and heading for the door. That was the great thing about Rob, he always knew when Fallon needed to be alone.

“Thank you,” she said as the door shut. She looked up at her screen and tore the post-it note down and threw it away.

That memory really messed with Fallon’s head and her hands shook from the images that played through her mind. Fallon hadn’t thought of that day in years, okay, maybe on the anniversary of the day every year, but not all the time. At that moment though, it was like the whole night was replaying in her head.

Lucas had come home early the next morning. They made love, slow and sweet, before lying in each other’s arms until sunrise. He told her he couldn’t live without her and that he loved just her and she told him the same, that her life wasn’t complete without him. Then just a short week later, he broke her heart.

A stray tear ran down her cheek, and Fallon quickly wiped it away. How was she still so raw after seven years? Just with one image of the day he broke her heart and she was in a puddle of tears.

Why?

Why did he have to come to Nashville?

There was a knock at the door and Fallon quickly wiped her tears as the door opened. Aiden came running into the room with a big white Gerber Daisy in one hand and a grin on his face. “Mommy! AA brought me over to wish you luck and to give you a flower and a kiss before school!”

Audrey came in behind him, and bless her, with a large Starbucks cup in hand.