“I know that now, but back then I was so in love, so engrossed in him, and for him just to break my heart like that, I just don’t know if I could do it again. Even though my body sings for his, I couldn’t imagine doing it again, because like I said, I was so in love. He did that to me, made me love him, everything about him, even the bad.”

Fallon watched her tears fall on the desk as all the emotions from the last seven years hit her hard. Audrey didn’t say anything for a long moment as the tears fell; she just wrapped Fallon in her arms, holding her close as she cried.

“That’s why you don’t want him to see Aiden huh? ‘Cause if he is around you’ll fall for him again.”

Fallon nodded against Audrey’s chest. “Not only am I scared he’ll hurt him, but I’m afraid he’ll hurt me again because I’ll fall for him like I did before. I thought I had stopped loving him, but I haven’t Audrey. Why?”

Her body shook as she cried, and Audrey just held her, letting the tears soak her shirt. Audrey really was the best sister ever. It had to be hard dealing with a sister that was close to being a basket case, but Audrey handled it like the champ she was. Fallon didn’t know what she would do without her.

“I think you should talk to him,” Audrey said when Fallon pulled back, wiping the mascara from her eyes.

“Why would I do that?”

“’Cause he needs to know. Tell him how you feel and you need to tell him about Aiden.”

Fallon shook her head. “After everything I’ve said, you still think that?”

Audrey gave her a small smile. “Fallon I love you so much, but you’re being selfish. You’re thinking of yourself and how this is going to affect you but what about our little guy? Or hell, Lucas? You don’t know the person he is now, people change so much in a year — you haven’t seen him in seven. Give him a chance, not for you, but for Aiden. He needs a daddy. I can’t do it for you, no matter how much I want to.”

“I don’t expect you to,” Fallon said, “but I much rather keep it just us, why bring someone else in?”

Audrey shook her head. “You’re so freaking stubborn. Fine. Let the shit hit the fan Fallon, it’ll be on you.”

Fallon didn’t say anything as Audrey got up in a huff, heading for the door. She didn’t mean to make Audrey mad, but really why did they need Lucas in their lives? Didn’t she see the way Fallon turned into a crazy person when it came to Lucas?

Before Audrey closed the door, she looked back at Fallon. “We have dinner reservations at J’s at six, me and Aiden will be waiting.”

Fallon nodded. “I won’t keep you long; I should be done here by 5:45.”

Fallon gave Audrey a smile since they all loved J Alexander’s and always enjoyed their family dinners, but Audrey didn’t return it. She just nodded before saying, “Good, text me when you get there.”

“Okay.”

Fallon watched as Audrey gave her one last look before shutting the door. Fallon opened the drawer to her desk, pulling out the little post-it notes that Lucas had written for her. Tears welled up in her eyes and began to fall again as she admired his messy handwriting. She found her two favorites and placed them back on her computer screen.

I miss you, all of you. Everything.

She missed him too, but her fears of being hurt kept her from doing what the next note requested of her.

I’m willing to talk about the problems and fix the problems that ended our relationship. Are you?

No, she wasn’t.

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

Fallon was running late.

Like always, she got caught up in work and made it to the restaurant 10 minutes after six. She pulled her phone out, texting Audrey that she was there as she went to the hostess stand. “Audrey Parker?”

“Um,” the girl looked down at her list as Fallon hit send and started tapping her toe. She hated being late, she always felt like Aiden and Audrey were secretly mad when she would make them wait for her. She didn’t mean to, she just always got caught up with something. Wine was a very distracting business.

“I don’t see a Audrey Parker,” the girl said.

Fallon looked down at her phone to see if Audrey had texted her, which she hadn’t before looking back up at the girl. “Maybe Fallon Parker?”

The girl looked back down at her list just as Fallon felt someone come up behind her. She took in a deep breath when she felt the heat from the person’s body as she quickly turned, seeing who she knew would be Lucas.

“Sorry, she’s with me,” Lucas said as his hand came up against the middle of Fallon’s back. He led her away from the hostess podium just as Fallon’s phone went off, but Fallon couldn’t even look at her phone, she was stunned by the look he was giving her.

The look.

He always pinned her with it when he wanted her naked. She couldn’t count the times he would be across the room at some function they were at and he would give her the look. Fallon’s breath caught as they just stood in the middle of the restaurant looking in each other eyes.

When Fallon’s phone went off again, she broke their intense staring match to look down at her phone. When she saw that the text was from Audrey, it was like she was being hit with a ton of bricks.

Audrey and Aiden were in the restaurant.

Oh, God.

“Whoa,” Fallon moved away from Lucas, pulling the text up, so she could quickly text that Lucas was there and for Audrey and Aiden to run. When the text came up, and Fallon read it, her body caught on fire with anger.