“Can I meet up with you and get Aiden? I wanted to take him to school,” Lucas asked.

“He’s out today, some teacher in-service crap.”

“Wow.”

Thanks for letting me know Fallon, he thought.

“Awesome, can I come get him?” he asked, his temper slowly growing.

That woman drove him crazy!

“Sure! I’ll run it by Fallon to make sure but she’ll be at work all day, I doubt she’ll care. When do you want to come get him?”

Lucas thought for a moment. “Now?”

He missed Aiden a lot and couldn’t wait to see him, so why waste any time when Aiden was available now?

Audrey laughed before saying, “Okay dokey, I’ll get him ready. He’ll be excited.”

“Awesome, I’ll be in the driveway in about 20 minutes.”

Audrey laughed again. “Really?”

“I’m mad at her,” Lucas pouted.

“Y’all are hopeless. Okay, see you in a few.”

Lucas hung up the phone and couldn’t get dressed fast enough. He was beyond excited for he was going to go pick up his favorite little guy.

After a tear-filled greeting, Aiden sat in the backseat talking so fast that it was giving Lucas a headache, or maybe it was the fact that Lucas hadn’t slept the night before. Either way, his head was pounding. Aiden was excited to tell Lucas about everything that had been going on at school and how he had been practicing every day and couldn’t wait to show Lucas his moves. Lucas’ heart swelled at the mention of him showing Lucas his moves. It was something he used to tell his dad all the time, and hearing Aiden say it made him reminisce about those times with his dad.

It was a great feeling.

“So I saw the game when you kept fighting everyone. Mommy called you a nincompoop.”

Lucas scoffed. “Did she now?”

“Yup, she also called you childish today. What does that mean?”

Lucas rolled his eyes, he wasn’t childish. “How did she say it?”

“Um, she said that you were childish for not coming inside.”

“Who knows,” Lucas said with a laugh, hoping to take Aiden’s mind off it. He couldn’t believe that Fallon would say that. It wasn’t as if she was walking Aiden to the car, Audrey did! If anyone was childish, it was her!

Damn fool woman.

Lucas went through the McDonald’s drive thru, getting both him and Aiden some food before heading back to the house. After eating their breakfast and watching cartoons, the two went downstairs to play some hockey. Aiden couldn’t contain his excitement as Lucas drove the Zamboni around the rink with Aiden in his lap. He let out loud screams at each turn and talked endlessly about how awesome it was to ride the Zamboni. Lucas was glad to make him so happy and after parking the vehicle, the two got ready to take the ice. Lucas helped Aiden put his skates on and tape up his socks, but that was about it. Aiden was catching on to what equipment went where and Lucas couldn’t have been more proud.

His boy was meant to play hockey. Just like him.

They took the ice, warming up a little before they started taking shots on goal. As Lucas watched Aiden, he saw that Aiden had been practicing and pride filled him from the inside out. Aiden was perfect.

“Wow bud, that’s awesome!”

“Isn’t it!? I watched you do it on YouTube,” Aiden gushed as he skated around a little faster than he had the last time they were out.

“I can tell, you are doing amazing bud, I’m really proud of you.”

Aiden smiled widely up at Lucas before taking another shot on goal and it went in. He threw his arms above his head and let out a loud “Yee Haw” before he started for the goal to get the puck. As Lucas watched him gather all the pucks and pass them out to Lucas, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Fallon.

If she would stop being so hardheaded, she could be sitting on the bench, watching them play and cheering them on. She was the most amazing hockey girlfriend and he knew for a fact that she was going to be the best hockey mom ever. He just wished that they could do it as a family and not separately. He missed her so much and wished that she was upstairs right at that moment, making something good for him and Aiden to eat when they got done.

Shea’s words played over in Lucas’ head as he skated in circles around the pucks:

Just don’t give up.

And Lucas knew he couldn’t. He knew in his heart that Fallon was the woman for him, and damn it, he knew she knew that he was the man for her. Lucas was tired of it. He was going to march right up to her and demand a second chance! She owed it to both of them. They deserved each other.

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.

It hit Aiden.

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

Fallon was miserable.

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?