When Fallon got home, Aiden held the door as she walked through, a grin on her face. “I did well with you.”

He shot her a wry smile. “Or Dad beat me until I remembered to hold the door for women.”

“That too.”

“Aiden!” Asher hollered, running up and wrapping his arms around his brother’s waist. “I need you.”

Aiden beamed. “What happened?”

“TooHoot invaded my world and burned it to the ground. I need you to come help me retaliate,” Asher exclaimed, acting as if his game of Minecraft was real life, while Fallon thought it was a bunch of bullshit. Setting her purse on the bench, she looked back as Aiden’s eyes widened.

Aiden nodded, his brow furrowing. “Oh, it’s going down.”

“Right!”

“Yeah, let—”

“That’ll have to wait, Aiden James.” Aiden and Asher looked up at her, both of them on the verge on complaining until she held up her hand. “Asher William, you have a room to pick up, and Aiden has to talk to Daddy.”

Asher looked up at Aiden, his eyes wide, and Aiden waved him off. “I’m not in trouble.”

“Oh, good, I didn’t want you getting grounded during this time of importance.”

“Agreed, bro,” he said, tapping his fist to his brother’s as he went to the garage to put his bag away.

Before Fallon could get far, though, Asher stopped her. “Momma, can I read after I clean my room? Like, I don’t have anything to do today, right?”

“Nope, you only have three days till school starts back. You finish that advanced reading stuff?”

Asher grinned. “Yeah, Mom, like last week.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course you did, smarty pants. Okay, go do you.”

He wrapped his arms around her, and she squeezed him before he ran off down the hall. Fallon smiled as she walked around the living room, picking up random toys and crap and throwing it down the hall. She could hear the girls upstairs, singing to Ariel. Usually, she’d tell them to cool it, but she had to talk to Lucas. Heading toward the kitchen, she called out, “Lucas, I need you in the kitchen.”

He moaned from their bedroom. “Why?”

“’Cause I do. Get your Jurassic ass up and come on.”

Aiden scoffed as he shut the garage door, going to the fridge. “Jurassic butt.”

She hadn’t known he was there, but eh, it wasn’t like he hadn’t heard her lose her shit in the car before. “Fal, for real. I’m dying.”

“For real. We need to talk.”

“For real, I’m legit dying.”

“For real, Lucas Brooks. Aiden needs to talk to us.”

“Ugh. Why? Is he pregnant?”

Aiden glared. “I’m a dude!”

“That’s debatable,” Lucas said, basically limping into the kitchen. “I think I pulled something in my ass.”

“Seriously?”

“No, I’ll go get them to rub it out today.”

“Wonderful,” she said as she sat at the breakfast bar, glancing over at Aiden, who was leaning against the fridge.

“Is this about the truck?”

Aiden perked up. “I’m getting the truck?”

Fallon rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t, but thanks for ruining the surprise.”

Lucas looked from her to his son. “Surprise.” Aiden laughed which made Fallon glare, while Lucas just shrugged. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

“Maybe to shut your mouth until I ask you to open it.”

“Hey, you’re not the boss of me,” Lucas asserted, and that had all three of them grinning.

“She’s the boss of everyone,” Aiden announced, and Fallon nodded as Lucas laughed.

“So you think,” he said, glancing back at Fallon, his eyes dark, which she grinned at.

“That’s gross.”

Fallon rolled her eyes as she held her hands up. “Anyway, Coach Glen had some interesting news for Aiden today.”

Lucas’s grin dropped before he looked back at Aiden. “What?”

Aiden shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. “Bellevue is looking at me. They’ve come to my last three games apparently, and they’re coming to next week’s game to meet me. They aren’t ready to meet my parents yet, just me—to see what I’m about.”

Lucas held his hands up in triumph, glancing over to Fallon. “I mean, this is awesome. Why do you look like you want to cry?”

Fallon shook her head. She hadn’t realized she looked like that until he said it. “There is more.”

Lucas looked back at Aiden. “What? I thought you wanted to go to Bellevue.”

“I do.”

“Okay. Then, what?”

“Coach was saying this is awesome for me, which it is, because it’s what we want. But he thinks I should talk to my counselor because last time he checked, I had enough credits to graduate early if I take my two required senior courses over the summer. So then I would start in at Bellevue in the fall.”

Lucas chewed his lip for a second. “What do you think? That would give you no break whatsoever.”

“I don’t want a break. I want to get into Bellevue, and I want to play. I want eyes on me. I want to go into the NHL, and Coach said that if I’m seventeen, playing the way I’m playing, that I’ll get looks.”

Fallon watched as Lucas nodded slowly. “So, you’ll talk to your counselor, or do you need us to do it?”

“No, I plan to do it Monday. I sent an email after practice this morning asking for a meeting on Monday.”

Glancing down at the ground briefly, Lucas rested his hands on his hips as he nodded. “And this is what you want?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, then. Done deal,” he said, slapping his hands together before reaching for Aiden and hugging him tightly, his hand coming up to hold Aiden’s head to his shoulder. “I’m so proud of you.”

Aiden’s arms wrapped around his father, and Fallon’s heart swelled so big at the sight. They had always had such a beautiful relationship, but the respect and love between them continued to be awe-inspiring. Pulling back, Lucas held Aiden’s face and shook his head. “Two problems, though.”

Aiden laughed, his brows going up. “What?”

“Not sure you want to do this with all that hair. You’ll get made fun of.”

Aiden scoffed. “Everyone loves my hair.”

Lucas shook his head quickly. “Not me. I hate it.”

Aiden cheesed big at his father. He had grown a good inch taller than Lucas, which Fallon found very comical since he had always been so small as a child. Now, her baby was almost a man. A man she had worked so hard to ensure would succeed. Had she made the best decisions during the first part of his life? No, she shouldn’t have kept him from Lucas, and it was something she regretted more than she could ever put into words. She was lucky Aiden had become the person he was today, and she owed a lot of that to Lucas. He was hard when he needed to be, but he was also the most loving man she had ever met. He loved that boy more than he loved Fallon, she swore, but then, watching him with Asher, Stella, and Emery, she was surprised there was any love left over for her.

But there was plenty.

And then some.

When Lucas glanced back, his eyes meeting Fallon’s, his lips pulled up at the side as he said, “But don’t forget your mother.”

Aiden looked at Fallon as confusion took over her face. “Huh? What about her?”

“She’s going to cry herself to sleep because you’re leaving her.”

Gasping, Fallon glared because, in addition to Lucas loving her, he also knew her the best.

And his statement was the scary and absolute truth.

* * *

Lucas watched as his wife’s eyes changed from complete worry to anger in an instant before she threw an apple at him, but he caught it with ease. As he took a bite of it, she yelled out, “Don’t tell him that!”

Aiden’s eyes filled with worry. “What? You’re going to cry?”

“No.”

“Yes,” Lucas laughed. “We both will.”

“Lucas!”

Aiden glanced back at his father, a grin pulling at his lips. “You’ll cry?”

Lucas grinned ruefully as he held the eyes of his eldest. Aiden had grown to be such an amazing and sweet young man. Yeah, he had the grit, the drive that came with being a hockey player, but he also had the heart. He was kind and loved his family with all of that heart. He wasn’t like some of these other kids, running around, getting in trouble; Aiden didn’t do that. He stayed at the rink, or he hung out at home with his siblings. He was the complete opposite of what college-age Lucas had been, and sometimes he wondered if the kid was his. But then he looked into the dark gray eyes that mirrored his own, and he knew the truth.

The kid with the man bun was his.

Stupid man bun.

“Like a baby,” he answered, holding Aiden’s gaze. “My boy, living his dreams? The same dream I had, and you’ve watched me accomplish through the years? Yeah, I’ll cry because I will never feel like this again. We all know Asher doesn’t have the drive for the NHL, or the girls. You’re the only one to carry on my legacy. And, Aiden, I can’t even express how I feel about that.”

Aiden looked away, sucking in a breath as he nodded, and with one glance at Fallon, he saw her crying. She was so sappy when it came to her kids. “Thanks, Dad.”

“No, thank you. For making me proud. We’re so proud, bud, really. And I can’t wait to see where you go.”

Aiden beamed. “All the way.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll bring the Cup home.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll bring it home this year, though.”

Aiden scoffed. “If your body lets you.”

“Son, I’m a spring chicken.”

Fallon snorted. “In your dreams.”

“Hush, woman.”

Slapping Aiden’s back, Lucas squeezed his shoulder. “All right, good talk. I’m going back to bed.”

“When do I get the truck?”

“Tomorrow,” he said with a nod before reaching into the fridge.

“Cool!”

Looking over his shoulder, Lucas watched as Aiden went around the bar, wrapping his arms around Fallon, kissing her head. “You’re the best, Mom.”

Fallon’s eyes drifted shut as she leaned into their son before patting his arm. “Eh, I’m okay.”

He laughed. “The best. You both are. Thanks.”

When Aiden rounded the corner and disappeared from view, Lucas leaned into the fridge, meeting Fallon’s tearful gaze. “You gonna make it?”

She shook her head curtly. “Nope.”

His lips curved. “Need a hug?”

She nodded as she got up and came to him, melting into his arms as he held her tight, his body shaking with her sobs. “I don’t want him to leave us.”

“Baby, it’s forty minutes down the interstate.”

“But he won’t be here.”

“I know, but he needs this. He’s going to do big things.”

“Without me.”

“I mean, I don’t know of many boys who take their moms to school with them, but Aiden might be the exception.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“I know.”

“They’re all gonna leave us.”

“Yup.”

“What will we do?”

“Have sex everywhere,” he decided with a grin. “Hell, we might make another.”

Her eyes widened as she glared at him. “Never.”

He chuckled. “I know.”

“What if he doesn’t ever come back?”

“Then we’ll find him and break his kneecaps.”

She sputtered with laughter as she squeezed her husband. She leaned her chin to his chest as he grinned down at her, moving her hair out of her face. She looked a mess, her hair everywhere, a ratty tee on, but he would never think anything but how gorgeous she was. His everything. “Will you still love me and find me exciting when they’re all gone?”

His grin grew. “Yes, of course.”

“Okay.”

“You know why?”

“Why?”

“Because there is no one else. I want to get old and boring with no one but you.”

Her lips curved as she puckered her lips for a kiss, which he obliged her with without hesitation. Pulling away, he kissed her wrist with its tattoo of “I love you” written in his handwriting as she whispered, “Totally devoted?”

His heart soared for the woman she was today and for the woman he had fallen for so many years ago as he nodded. She was his heart, his soul, his everything. The words were easy to say, especially to someone he knew he would love for the rest of his days. Holding her face in his hands, he kissed her nose then the side of her mouth as he whispered, “Totally devoted and then some.”

Her eyes glassed over as she nodded. “We’re going to be okay?”

“We’re gonna be great. Don’t you worry. I’ll always be here. Always love you.”

She smiled. “Right back atcha.”

“Good. I’m lonely without you, and I’m afraid the kids will eat me.”

She giggled. “I have the same fears.”

Holding her close, he lifted her off the ground, kissing her chin. “We did good, Fallon Ryane Brooks.”

She nodded. “We did, and we still have three more to get through. Our little circus of crazy monkeys.”

His head fell back. “Why’d you remind me?”

She laughed. That was, until they heard Stella scream, “Mommy! Daddy! Emery cut my hair!”

When Fallon closed her eyes, Lucas looked over to see Stella holding a chunk of her hair while Emery shrugged her shoulders. “She needed a trim.”

But his sweet girl’s version of a trim was almost balding her older sister. Fallon was going to lose her shit. Looking back to his wife, he saw her eyes were still squeezed tight. “Is it bad?” she asked tentatively.

“No, not at all.” He grimaced, and when she opened her eyes and looked past him, she cried out.

“She basically scalped her!”

“Eh, might want to call and make an appointment to fix it before her party.”

Fallon groaned loudly as she wiggled out of his arms. “Emery Elaine!”

Leaning into the fridge, Lucas shook his head as Fallon went back to her role of ringleader, along with that of being the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.

His heart.