Lucas laughed. “I doubt after seven years he would want to kill me. I mean come on, people do get over things after a couple years. Oh, but wait, he is your father.”

“Oh shut up, I’m serious. He almost killed me for not telling him who got me pregnant. This could be bad. Are you sure about this?”

Lucas rolled his eyes as he leaned against the counter. “Your father will not keep me from my kid, so get that out of your head.”

Fallon shrugged her shoulders. “Just letting you know. You’re the one that brought up your momma.”

“Mom won’t want to kill you. Smack you maybe, but I’ll protect you.”

When Fallon looked up at him, he had a sexy little smirk on his face and she glared as she looked away. “I don’t need your protection.”

“Okay, whatever. Anyways, a week?”

Fallon swallowed loudly. “A week?”

“Yeah.”

“Um, okay.”

“We’ll do it together. I wanna get to know him this week, and we’ll tell him at the end of it.”

“Um okay? He’s on spring break, he was gonna stay at the office with me.”

Lucas thought for a moment. “Can I take him during the day?”

“Don’t you have to play?”

“I’m practicing all week, but I won’t be playing. Elli wants me to take some time off.”

“Oh,” Fallon gulped. So, Elli knew.

“Yeah, so I’ll practice early in the morning and if it’s okay, I’ll come get him from the office and we’ll get to know each other.”

Fallon nodded. “Okay.”

“Cool, do you guys have plans tomorrow?”

Fallon shook her head. “I have to work, and Audrey was going to keep him.”

“Can I take him tomorrow?”

Fallon looked down at the table. “Sure,” she answered sadly.

And so it starts.

“Hey, I’m not going to let anything happen to him.”

“I hope not, I usually don’t let anyone take him.”

“He’ll be fine.” Lucas pulled his phone out of his pocket, sliding it over to her. “Put your phone number in my phone, and call your phone so you have my number when you need call me.”

Fallon caught the phone before it slid off the table before looking up at him. “So you’re still having problems with the dyslexia?”

Lucas looked away, his cheeks warming as he shrugged his shoulders. “Sometimes…yeah.”

Fallon nodded, hating that he was still suffering with the condition. Couldn’t he get help? Wasn’t there something they could do for him?

Fallon programmed her number into his phone. She then took a quick picture of herself, noticing that there was flour all over her face. Great, she was a mess. Fallon set the phone up so he could find her by her picture. After that, she called her phone and it rang, giving her his number. She handed Lucas back his phone before programming her phone just as he said, “I thought you would be living somewhere bigger.”

She looked up quickly. “What does that mean?”

Lucas looked down at her. “The house is small, there’s no backyard.”

“There’s a park right across the street, and we sacrifice living somewhere bigger so that Aiden can go to the top private school in Nashville. New Life is expensive.”

“Let me help then,” he answered, “so my kid can live somewhere nicer.”

“Whoa, screw you! My house is nice, thank you.”

“It’s small, a boy needs room.”

“Aiden is fine, and I don’t need anything from you for the fifth time. You want time with Aiden? I’ll give it to you even though I don’t feel right about it. But don’t you dare think I’m gonna start taking money from you so that when you’re ready to go, you’ll think your dues are paid,” she snapped.

“I wouldn’t do that, for the hundredth time, I am just trying to make sure Aiden has the best of the best.”

“He has lived without it for seven years, so he doesn’t need it now!”

“I will make sure he does, like it or not, I really don’t give a…”

The door flew open and Aiden came barreling into the house with Audrey and Levi coming in behind him. He grinned up at the two of them and put his hands on his hips. “I had ice cream, lots of it, but there wasn’t a movie I wanted to see so we came home. Did I say the ice cream was good?”

Lucas and Fallon were both breathing hard as they looked down at the cute little bundle of sugar they had made together. Fallon put aside her emotional issues with Lucas and smiled at her precious boy. “Did you have fun?”

“Loads, what are y’all doing?”

Lucas smiled as Fallon said, “Just talking. Lucas is gonna hang with you tomorrow, if you want.”

Aiden’s head bobbled like a bobblehead as he looked up at Lucas. “Sure! That would be awesome.”

“Awesome, I’ll pick you up at …” Lucas looked up at Fallon, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

“I go to work at 10 tomorrow, but Audrey will be here all day, right?” Fallon asked Audrey.

“Yeah,” she said with a nod.

Lucas looked down at Aiden. “Do you want to sleep in?”

“No, I’ll be ready by nine, all my shows will be over by then. Maybe you could come over and watch ‘em with me. Mommy could make us pancakes and we’ll watch my shows then go,” Aiden said excitedly. “Is Levi coming?”