Trying to Score (Assassins) Read online

  “Sure did,” he said with a bold grin. “Gotta keep the baby train going. We’re knocking on 30’s door.”

  “Oh Lord! Not 30!” Fallon said in mock horror, making everyone laugh.

  “It’s the excuse he’s using,” Elli said with a laugh.

  “I think it’s all a ruse, he just likes making babies,” Fallon giggled as Elli’s cheeks warmed with color.

  Shea let out a booming laugh before saying, “You got that right!”

  They shared a laugh before Fallon took a drink of her wine. She loved hanging with Elli and Shea, they were so cute and perfect together. Even if their love made her want to puke, she still loved them.

  “Fallon is going to sophisticate hockey,” Elli said with a grin for Shea. He laughed as he looked back over at Fallon.

  “Are you now?”

  “Yes, I am. I can do it. I’m awesome.”

  Elli giggled as Shea smiled, then Elli said, “You sure are babe! Oh Shea, there’s Ricky Owen. Hey, excuse us Fallon, I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “Sure, great seeing y’all,” Fallon said. She watched as they walked away, hand in hand, with big smiles on their faces. They were so stinkin’ happy, it was sickening. But then she thought of what they had to do to get to where they were, and she couldn’t help but be happy for them.

  What could she say; she was a sucker for love.

  Fallon stood for a little while longer before she starting noticing guys checking her out. Since dating was the last thing on her mind, she took that as her cue to start working the room. She grabbed a bottle of the Rocky Top’s Big Orange Cabernet Sauvignon and started towards the crowd.

  Fallon always walked with confidence ─ she had to or no one would buy from her. She knew what she had with her products and knew that with only one taste anyone would fall in love with Rocky Top’s wine. It was that good.

  It had been in the family for over 80 years; there wasn’t a moment from Fallon’s childhood were she didn’t remember being in the fields, picking grapes to eat. She grew up with dirty feet and grape-stained clothes. She loved it, she lived it, and now that Fallon ran the PR department, it was finally getting to the level it needed to be. Rocky Top needed to be at the top and if Fallon had anything to do with it, it would be.

  After working the room handing out business cards and vouchers for free bottles, Fallon spotted Elli standing with some older guy that had an empty glass. Since he looked like he had money, Fallon made her way towards him. She always liked to schmooze the big money guys ─ they always bought case after case for their companies. If Fallon got lucky, they usually hired them as the wine for their parties.

  Which was always great for business.

  “He has a bad rep. Money, booze, females, I don’t know,” the older guy said when Fallon reached the group. It was only Elli, Shea and the older guy, and Elli didn’t seem very happy.

  “He’s clean, I feel good about him,” Elli said sternly. The older guy 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.”

  “And first for penalty minutes. He’s a got a huge chip on his shoulder.”

  “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 with a grin when she noticed that Fallon was just standing there staring at them. “Ricky Owen, Fallon Parker with Rocky Top Wine. She is one of our biggest sponsors.”

  “Who?” Fallon asked totally ignoring Ricky’s hand, and hoping like hell that there was another Brooks in the NHL that fought a lot.

  Because she only knew 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 looked down in shock before looking back up at Fallon’s stunned face.

  Shea starting laughing as everyone still looked at Fallon in shock, then he said, “Or maybe she does.”

  Oh, Fallon knew Lucas Brooks alright.

  He was coming to Nashville?

  Great, that was just fucking great.

  **********************************

  “You know back in the day, we would be hung over instead of moving into a new house on New Year’s Day.”

  Lucas Brooks looked over at Levi Moss, his best friend, and laughed as he nodded in agreement. Levi was right – five years ago, they both would still be face down in their own puke or in some female’s breasts on New Year’s Day, not moving into their new house.

  “You’re right, but I would probably be broke and without a job too,” Lucas added.

  “True, very true indeed,” Levi said as he nodded his head.

  Lucas smiled as he piled the boxes by the stairs that needed to go upstairs. The new house he had bought was huge. He had asked for a simple home and got this — nine bedrooms, six baths, two dens, and to top it off there was 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.

  Lucas still couldn’t believe he was in Nashville, Tennessee. After living in San Jose for the past nine years, he couldn’t believe he had moved or even left the Sharks. He loved his team, he missed the guys and he had only been gone a week but moving to Nashville was much needed. Lucas needed a new set of faces and a new team, no matter how much he missed the guys. Lucas was getting into too much trouble in San Jose and if he wanted to stay sober, he had to leave where the temptation was.

  And everything in San Jose was a big temptation.

  Lucas knew the spots, he knew the women, he knew how to get in trouble 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 life, and followed Lucas to Nashville with no question at all. Lucas figured that Levi knew they had to get out of San Jose or he was gonna relapse. Lucas’ mom was happy too ─ he was only eight hours from his home town of Eaton Rapids, Michigan now, 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 their defense. They were intense, hard-hitting assholes, and a game didn’t happen without him fighting someone from that team.

  Now he was going to play with them.

  Yay.

  After taking all 14 boxes up to his room, Lucas looked around the room that was his and nodded his head. The home decorator, Beth, had done a great job with giving him what he wanted. He wasn’t sure about the colors he wanted, but after talking to Beth, she seemed to know what he wanted. She wanted to base his room off his eyes, so 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 up to the ceiling. He had always liked big beds, and luckily the room was still massive even with the bed in it.

  Along the walls, there 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 years playing hockey. His favorite picture was the one that was on the wall across from his bed — it was of him when he was four with his dad, James, on the first day he had ever played hockey. James’ face was bright with excitement and Lucas’ matched it — it was one of the best days of his life and he loved waking up to that picture.

  Tearing himself from the picture that held so many memories, he looked over at the closet that held every stick he had ever played with and smiled. When Beth said ‘I’d be damned if there is going to be a room for your old sticks, I will think of someth