Empty Net (16 page)

Being the nosy girl she was, she typed in Tate’s name and waited for his timeline to come up. Tate had posted a new status sixteen minutes before, and Audrey couldn’t help but laugh when she read it.

Friendship is harder than I thought
.

She hit the Like button and rolled her eyes. Little did he know that she was thinking the same thing. She was starting to rethink her reasons for wanting to be with him. She had no clue what he wanted in a relationship, hell, she didn’t even know if he wanted a relationship. He just wanted to get to know her. What if he did, then didn’t like who she was? But what if he did and she really liked him? Next thing you know, they would be in love and she’d have to tell him she couldn’t have his children. Then what? Would he understand? Would he want to adopt a baby? Or would he leave her? Could she really put herself on the path to potential rejection?

Before she could make a witty comment, there was a knock at the door. She wondered who it was, and looking at the clock, saw it was almost midnight. Rolling off the couch, she headed for the window and saw Lucas’s truck in the driveway.

“Eek!”

She ran to the door and threw it open to her beautiful sister and her husband. “You’re home early!” she said, wrapping her arms around them.

“We caught an early flight home,” Fallon said against Audrey’s cheek. “We missed y’all too much.”

Audrey pulled back, grinning at two of her favorite people. They were tanner than they had been, and both looked blissfully happy, especially Fallon. Lucky bitch.

Jealous, Audrey said, “Did you have fun?”

“Too much! It was a blast. You have to go to Goa, it’s beautiful!” Fallon gushed as they came inside. “Audrey, oh my God, let me tell you, it was insane. No one was there but us and Alex, our chef. It was magical.”

Fallon looked up at Lucas in a dreamy way that made Audrey want to puke.

In a good way, of course.

“It was,” Lucas agreed, leaning over to softly kiss his wife. “Now where is my little guy?”

Audrey smiled. “Upstairs, in the closet that you have not finished.”

Lucas smiled sheepishly. “I’ll get it done.”

“When? You have hockey to play.”

“I’ll get to it. I have help I am going to call on,” he said with a grin.

Knowing that the help was Tate made Audrey’s belly flutter. She could just imagine him shirtless, sweat dripping down his hot, rock-hard body.

Ignoring her weird, horny, and completely inappropriate thoughts, she watched Lucas run upstairs to get Aiden. Turning her attention to her glowing sister, she asked, “So did y’all do it everywhere?”

Fallon scoffed, her face flushing. “Every damn surface imaginable!”

That had the sisters in a fit of laughter. “Oh, Audrey, it was fantastic. I feel so rejuvenated, so ready to get back to work, be a mommy, and watch some hockey. I just love my life.”

“At least one of us does. I’m happy for you, Fal,” Audrey said sincerely.

“Uh-oh, trouble in Audrey’s land?” Fallon asked, a concerned look on her face.

“Nothing that can’t be discussed when you come down from your sex-filled week. I
refuse to ruin that for you. So don’t think of me at all.”

“Okay,” Fallon scoffed, giving her a skeptical look, “if you didn’t want me to worry about it, you shouldn’t have made the comment.”

Thankfully, Lucas and Aiden came downstairs. Aiden was grinning, his arms held out for Fallon. She took him and hugged him tightly, covering his face with kisses. Audrey had noticed such a difference in her sister since Lucas came along. She was much happier and smiled a lot more. Fallon being happy should have made her happy, and it did for the most part, but there was still a part of Audrey that was jealous.

“Ready to go home, bud?” Lucas asked, wrapping his arms around his little family. Tears sprang to Audrey’s eyes.

“Did you get a new couch?” Fallon asked.

Shit! She had forgotten that Fallon would notice something like that.

“Yup! Those hippogriffs I left, they poop everywhere!” Aiden said. “Me and Will cleaned up what A.A. missed after she bought the new couch.”

“What?” Lucas asked, confused.

“Who is Will?” Fallon asked.

Audrey laughed. “I’ll explain everything later. Go home.”

“Okay,” Lucas said with a shake of his head, then kissed Audrey’s cheek and headed for the door.

“Say ’bye to A.A. and thank her for keeping your stinky butt,” Fallon said, and giggled.

Aiden held out his arms, and Audrey took him quickly, kissing his cheeks loudly.

“Thank you for keeping me,” he said against her cheek.

Then they were gone.

After shutting the door, Audrey fell onto her couch, digging her face into the pillow before taking a deep breath.

Then she cried herself to sleep.

“That’s all you got?”

Lucas glared before shooting the puck, hard, toward the net. Tate hit it using his glove hand with ease before giving his friend a taunting grin. Puck after puck, Tate brushed off shots with the skill that had been drilled into him since he was four. He would never forget the day his dad dressed him in too-big goalie gear and threw him in the net. His father and four of his father’s friends all took turns shooting pucks, hard, at him. He missed every single one.

But that wasn’t the case anymore.

He was pretty sure after years of practice and camps that he could take on the five grown men. Tate was now the highest ranked goalie in the U.S. It was a major accomplishment, one he was proud of. He only wished his dad was there to see it. He would have been so proud. His mother and sister would also have been excited for him.

Now there was no one to be excited for or proud of him.

He only had himself.

After blocking another shot that Lucas tried to put in between his legs, Lucas threw his stick against the boards, distracting Tate from his sad thoughts.

“Well,
shit
!”

Tate forced a laugh as he tucked his stick between his pad and leg before taking off his helmet. “Hey, thankfully you don’t really have to worry about shooting against me.”

Lucas shot him a dirty look from center ice before skating toward him. It was great to have Lucas home. Tate had been lonely, running and lifting weights without him. They had
gotten into a routine since becoming friends that Lucas felt more like his brother than a friend or teammate. It was nice to have someone who he could talk to. Maybe he wasn’t as alone as he thought. But not even Lucas knew all of his secrets.

He knew only the basics.

That he had been engaged, his parents and sister died, and he came to the United States.

There was really nothing more that he wanted to share with Lucas. But he wanted to share his life with someone. Someone who would love all of him, even his broken parts.

After a six-mile run, they decided to play around until Lucas had to get Aiden ready to go to school. It was such a convenience having an ice rink in Lucas’s house. Not only was Aiden right upstairs, making it easier on Fallon and Lucas for child care, but Lucas and Tate hardly ever had to go to the arena to skate except for team practices.

Running his hand through his wet hair, Tate squirted some water into his mouth before throwing the water bottle onto the back of the net.

“So what did you do while I was gone?” Lucas asked, his own water bottle in hand, before stopping in front of him.

“Nothing. Watched a whole lot of TV.”

Lucas laughed. “Sounds like fun.”

“Yeah, Leann called last night,” Tate said, referring to his old speech therapist.

“Did she, now? What did she have to say?” Lucas asked with a dirty grin on his face.

Tate shrugged. “She was making sure I was doing well, and asked if I wanted to come over.”

Lucas chuckled. “So you got laid last night.”

Tate laughed, shaking his head. “No, I didn’t go.”

Lucas stopped laughing. “What?”

Tate shrugged again, moving his skates back and forth. “I didn’t want to go.”

“Didn’t want to go? What are you talking about? She is gorgeous and you said she was fun.”

“She was, but I don’t want to have sex with her,” Tate said sheepishly.

Lucas’s face scrunched up. “I’m sorry. I am so confused right now.”

“What?” Tate asked.

“You were really into Leann. What happened?”

Audrey happened.

Tate hadn’t figured out a way to tell Lucas about Audrey and he needed to figure it out quickly. He knew that this friendship crap wasn’t going to last. The air crackled when he was around Audrey, he felt it and he knew she did too. She just had to get over ass-hat before she could fully give herself to him, and he was the perfect person to help her forget about him.

“I just don’t want to only screw around,” he said. “I want a relationship. I want to settle down. I’ve told you this.”

“I know that, even if I think it’s crazy. But Leann isn’t settling down material?”

Tate shrugged. He didn’t know if she was or not. He had slept with her a few times after his private lessons, and then she would leave. It was fun, but he just never felt a connection with Leann the way he had with Audrey. Hell, not even Elsa made him feel the way he did when he was with Audrey.

Looking up, he caught Lucas shaking his head.

“You’re not telling me something,” he said, giving Tate a sideways glance. Tate didn’t say anything, and Lucas’s eyes narrowed even more. “Please don’t tell me you are still hung up
on your runaway.”

Tate rolled his eyes. “I like her.”

“Like her? It was one time and you haven’t seen her since … Wait, have you seen her?”

Tate looked down, did not make eye contact.

“You have!” Lucas accused. When Tate looked up, Lucas’s eyes were dancing with mischief and he was pointing his finger at him, laughing.

“Maybe.”

“Who is she? Have you gotten her back in bed again?”

“I don’t want to tell you, and no, we are friends.”

Lucas’s laughter stopped and his hand dropped to his side. “I don’t know what I am more hurt by, the fact that you don’t want to tell me or that you guys are friends and you aren’t hitting it.”

“You shouldn’t be hurt by either. I’ll tell you when the time is right, and I would rather be friends with her than not have the chance to be around her at all,” Tate explained.

“I am so appalled right now,” Lucas said, his hand on his chest. He acted as if his heart was breaking, but it soon went away and an evil grin replaced his hurt expression. “If she has you this hung up, she must have been amazing, and you need to hit that again.”

Oh, if only he knew he was talking about his beloved sister-in-law, Tate thought with a grin.

“I want to go slow. No matter how much I want to jump in bed with her, I want her to know I’m in this for the long haul.”

Lucas shook his head. “You’re too young for this. When I was your age—”

“You met Fallon and fell hard for her,” Tate supplied.

“Well yeah, but when we broke up, I slept with anything that had legs and tits,” Lucas said with the cockiness of a man who had been around the block a time or two.

“And I bet you regret your selfish antics,” Tate accused. Lucas’s expression showed that he didn’t like hearing that. It didn’t stop Tate from going on, though. “Lucas, I don’t want to be like the other guys, meeting girls, having sex with them, and moving on to the next. It wasn’t the way I was raised. My dad met my mom, fell in love, married, and had me by the time he was twenty-one. I am a little behind.”

“It isn’t like it was back then, Tate. Especially here in the United States. But it’s whatever, I feel weird trying to make you sleep with all kinds of females when I am married and will never touch another but mine for the rest of my life. You do you, I’ll stay out of it, but I’m here if you need me.”

Tate reached over, tapping Lucas on the shin with his stick. “I know.”

“Cool, now come on. It’s past time I scored on you,” Lucas said, before he skated over to his stick.

“Bring it, Brooks,” Tate said, dropping his helmet.

Even though Lucas didn’t understand his reasons for wanting to settle down, Tate still knew it was for the best and that Lucas supported him. He wanted that person—the person his father had in his mother. He wanted what Lucas had in Fallon minus the anger. He wanted a loving, willing woman who would love him for his dorky, gap-toothed, wounded self. He wanted his forever kind of girl.

And Tate had a feeling he had one within reach.

Audrey was having a horrible morning.

It was one of those mornings she wished she could go back to sleep and try again the next day. Saying good-bye to Aiden was harder than she thought it would be. She knew she could see him whenever she wanted, but it was nice having the little guy around. Her house was so big and lonely now. And then there had been the text messages from Levi, when she stayed in bed on Sunday, crying.