After handing out business cards and vouchers for free bottles, Fallon spotted Elli
and Shea standing with an older guy holding an empty glass. He looked like he had
money, so Fallon made her way toward him. She liked to schmooze the big-money guys,
knowing that if she got lucky, they would hire Rocky Top to supply the wine for their
company parties.
“He has a bad rep. Money, booze, females, I don’t know,” the older guy was saying
when Fallon had reached them.
Elli didn’t seem very happy. “He’s clean, I feel good about him,” she said sternly.
But the gentleman 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,” Elli insisted.
“And first for penalty minutes. He’s got a huge chip on his shoulder,” the man added.
“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 and grinned, noticing Fallon just standing
there and staring at them. “Ricky Owen, Fallon Parker with Rocky Top Wine. She is
one of our biggest sponsors.”
“Who?” Fallon asked, ignoring Ricky’s hand, and hoping like hell that there was another
Brooks in the NHL who fought a lot.
Because she knew only 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 stared down
in shock, then
back up at Fallon’s stunned face.
Shea started laughing and said, “Or maybe she does.”
Oh, Fallon knew Lucas Brooks, all right.
He was coming to Nashville? she wondered.
Great, that was just
fucking
great
.
* * *
“You know, back in the day, we would be hung over, not moving into a new house, on
New Year’s Day,” Levi Moss said.
Lucas Brooks looked over at Levi, his best friend since childhood and personal assistant,
and laughed as he nodded in agreement. Levi was right—five years ago they both would
still be facedown in their own puke, or on some female’s breasts, on New Year’s Day.
“You’re right, but I would probably be broke and without a job, too,” Lucas added.
“True, very true indeed,” Levi said, nodding his head.
Lucas smiled as he piled the boxes that needed to go upstairs by the steps. The new
house he had bought was huge. He had asked for a simple home and had gotten this—nine
bedrooms, six baths, two dens, and, to top it off, 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.
After living in San Jose for the past nine years, Lucas still couldn’t believe he
had actually left the Sharks and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. He had loved his team,
but he needed a new set of faces and a new team, no matter how much he knew he would
miss the guys. Lucas was getting into too much trouble in San Jose, and if he wanted
to stay sober he had to leave the temptation. And everything in San Jose was a big
temptation.
Lucas knew the trouble spots, he knew the women, 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 own life, and followed Lucas to Nashville with no questions asked.
Lucas figured that Levi knew they had to get out of San Jose or Lucas was gonna relapse.
Lucas’s mom was happy, too—he was now only eight hours from his hometown of Eaton
Rapids, Michigan, 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 defense against
them. They
were intense, hard-hitting assholes, and a game didn’t happen without him fighting
someone. Now he was going to play for them.
After taking all fourteen boxes up to his room, Lucas looked around and nodded his
head. The home decorator, Beth King, had done a great job giving him what he wanted.
He wasn’t sure about which colors to choose, but after talking to her, she seemed
to know what he liked. She based them on the color of his eyes: 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 all the way to the ceiling. He had always liked big beds, and luckily
the room was still enormous even with the bed in it.
Along the walls 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 younger years, playing
hockey. His favorite picture, on the wall across from his bed, was of him when he
was four with his dad, James, on the first day he had ever played hockey. James’s
face was bright with excitement, and Lucas’s matched it—it was one of the best days
of his life, and he loved waking up to that memory.
Tearing himself away, he looked over at the closet, holding every stick he had ever
played with, and smiled. When Beth had said, “I’d be damned if there is going to be
a room just for your old sticks. I will think of something,” he didn’t think twice
about it. What was she going to do with forty-six sticks? She had surprised him with
the closet, having cut and glued each stick around the walls. He decided that Beth
King was 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 hanging up his clothes
when Levi came in with a box in his hand. Lucas didn’t pay attention to him 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 in his best friend’s hands. He could have
sworn that he had hidden that box away. Shit.
He walked over, took the box from Levi, and placed it on the floor of his closet.
“I’m waiting,” Levi said.
Lucas rolled his eyes. “What was I supposed to do with it? Leave it in California?”
he asked with a shrug.
“Yes! Or hell, here’s an idea, throw it away!”
Lucas ignored him as he went back to hanging up his clothes.
“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 turned and glared 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 again and turned back toward the closet. “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 just as Levi walked out the door, leaving Lucas with
thoughts of Fallon and her box of things. He had thought about her from time to time,
but finding the box when he was packing had opened—again—a can of worms that he had
tried to seal a long time ago. Losing Fallon was his epic failure, more so than even
his alcoholism. How he could have fucked up something so beautiful and perfect would
disturb him for the rest of his life.
Lucas looked back at the door, making sure Levi wasn’t around, then pulled the blue
box out of the closet and opened 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 and found a T-shirt with a 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 awhile back, and he
found out that it was still in business and doing very well. Levi had also mentioned
that Rocky Top Wine was a proud sponsor of the Assassins, which gave Lucas the hope
that he might see
Fallon again. His heart skipped a beat at the thought.
He couldn’t fathom seeing her, or touching her again. It had been so long ago, so
much had happened, so much had changed. They were two different people now. Who was
to say that she would even want to see him or talk to him? Lucas shook his head as
he held her bright orange shirt in his hand, knowing one thing for sure. If he’d ever
get 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 disease, 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 worked right alongside the Nashville Assassins, the team he was gonna
play for. There was a great chance that she would bump into him, even if she’d try
to avoid it.
She had to move.
That was the only thing she could think of when she pulled into her driveway. She
put the car in park and 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 that much, after all these years.
Thoughts of Lucas ran through her head as she gathered up her things. It was well
past 11:00 p.m. and she was glad to be home. It had been a long, rough day, and the
ending didn’t make it any better. As she walked up the sidewalk, she noticed her sister,
Audrey, sitting on the porch steps. Audrey waved as she looked across the yard at
the complex across the street. Fallon turned and looked in that direction, seeing
a moving van and a man unpacking things.
“Audrey, what the hell are you doing here?” Fallon asked.
Audrey sat wearing a bright yellow Juicy Couture jumpsuit, her long brown hair in
a messy bun, and no makeup. Audrey and Fallon could have been twins, although Audrey
was a little heavier and had big boobs.
Audrey smiled up at Fallon, then looked back toward the man. “Watching the show,”
she
said, pointing across the lawn. “Not only am I intrigued by the fact that he is movin’
in at eleven 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 off her boots, standing on the cold sidewalk in her stockings.
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 forty-five.…
Eww
.”
Audrey laughed. “Nah, but late thirties for sure though.”
“Still, you’re only twenty-seven. Go find someone your age.”
“No, guys are stupid at my age. I want a man with some age to him, someone who knows
his 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. Aiden grinned a toothless grin and she gave him a big smile.
Seeing him always brought such joy and love into her heart, she couldn’t imagine life
without him. He was her everything.
“Why is Momma’s favorite boy out of bed?” Fallon asked.
“I was waiting for you!” he gushed, running down the stairs at a speed only a six-year-old
could manage.
Aiden’s arms came around her middle and she smiled again, hugging him back. Fallon
loved her baby’s hugs—they made her days worth living—but sometimes her 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’s.
Read on for an excerpt from Toni Aleo’s
Empty Net
It figured that Audrey Parker would get dumped the day of her sister’s bachelorette
party.
It was just her luck.
As Audrey stood outside of Wanna B’s bar with her cell phone to her ear, she couldn’t
help but think how the day had started off so perfectly. She had spent the morning
in bed with her boyfriend. Then she went for a day of pampering with her beautiful
sister, Fallon, and all of Fallon’s friends. It was a wonderful afternoon and Audrey
knew that tonight was going to be even better.
That was until the fireworks began.
Levi Moss was positively the most hardheaded, stubborn, gorgeous man Audrey had ever
dated. He wasn’t much taller than her five-five frame, but that didn’t matter. He
stood as if he were six feet tall, with large arms and an even larger neck. Levi wore
his brown hair in a horrible buzz cut, which she didn’t care for, but his face more
than made up for it. His eyes were bright green with flecks of gold. His face was
sharply angled, with full lips, and she couldn’t help but smile when he did. She loved
his smile, and since he only smiled at her every once in a while, it always took her
breath away.