A Very Merry Hockey Holiday (Assassins #6.5) (3 page)

A couple days later…

Fallon laid Emery in her bassinet and picked up a tray of ornaments. Stella, Asher, and Aiden were already at work hanging ornaments while Lucas hung the stockings. Their home was almost fully decorated. Aiden and Lucas had spent the afternoon hanging the lights, while Asher and Stella helped with the inside décor. Sweet Emery slept through most of it, not that anyone was complaining. That girl had some lungs, and Fallon was more convinced that she was her daddy’s girl.

Lucas was leaving later that night for a couple away games, and they wanted to have the house fully done. His mom, Molly, was coming into town in a week for Christmas and to meet her new granddaughter.

“Good job, Stella,” Fallon doted, receiving a huge grin from her. They all talked happily about whatever came to mind as they dressed the tree with mismatched ornaments, but Fallon didn’t care. Each ornament meant something. There were hockey sticks for Lucas, Asher, and Aiden, dance shoes for Stella, and wine for Fallon. Every time they went on vacation, she got an ornament for their tree. They had Disney ones and even Harry Potter ones since Aiden was still obsessed with the popular book series. It was a tree of love, and she didn’t give two shits that it didn’t match.

When they were all done, she smiled as she said, “Okay, here are all y’all’s first ornaments. Let’s hang them.”

“What about Emery?” Stella asked as Fallon handed her her little pink star with her birthday on it and her name in pretty cursive.

“I haven’t made it to the mall yet to have it made. She’ll have it before Christmas. I promise.”

“Actually,” Lucas said, coming to them. “I went and got it for you.”

Reaching into the tray she was holding, he held up another pink star with Emery’s name on it, and for some dumb reason, Fallon’s eyes welled up with tears.

“You did?”

He smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist. “I know how much it means to you to have the ornaments when we trim the tree, so the boys and I went to get it yesterday while you girls napped.”

Looking over at Aiden and Asher, she found them grinning, and her heart felt as if it was going to come out of her chest as she slowly nodded. It was a tradition in her family to always have all the ornaments before you did the tree. She hadn’t even wanted to decorate today, but Lucas pushed her to do it, and she was thankful for that. Wiping away a tear that fell, she shot them all a grin before handing the tray off to Lucas and then getting Emery. Her little eyes were wide as Fallon lifted her up and into the crook of her arm.

“Wanna hang your star, Emery? It’s your ornament for your first Christmas,” she asked as she made her way to where her family stood. Emery looked at her like she was speaking gibberish and spit up a little in response. Lucas reached over and wiped her mouth with a rag before kissing Fallon’s cheek. Meeting his gaze, her heart skipped a beat before she moved toward him, kissing him softly on his lips. Still after all this time, he made the butterflies in her stomach go insane. Kissing her nose as they parted, he held up their first Christmas ornament, and she didn’t think her heart could take it.

There was something about the ornament that made everything inside her go hot. Aiden had been away with Molly for the weekend, and they’d gone out to Gatlinburg for a mini-vacation. After touring the mountains and having a blast, they ended up in a little wedding chapel where they redid their vows, and one of the keepsakes was the ornament. After all that, they went back and had the hottest sex imaginable on the balcony of their huge cabin, the Smoky Mountains behind them as he drove her mad with orgasms. It had been one of her favorite trips to date and still gave her gooseflesh every time she thought about it.

“Our ornament,” she whispered as he handed her Emery’s.

“Yup, it’s my favorite,” he whispered back, kissing her ear. “Or maybe the things we did are.”

She sucked in a deep breath as she nodded slowly. “Yes, I think I have to agree with you on that.”

He shot her a wink before kissing her again. “Maybe once we get these monsters to bed, we can reenact that night.”

She scoffed. “Sorry, buddy, you have a month before you get inside me.”

“What are y’all talking about?” Aiden asked.

“It’s weird; they are gross,” Asher decided.

“I want to hang my ornament!” Stella yelled out, causing Fallon to grin.

Not moving, Lucas whispered, “As soon as I can, I’m going to make you come.”

Her stomach clenched as she kissed his jaw. “Well, Lord knows, I won’t stop you.”

“I figured,” he chuckled, kissing her again before they both looked back at their family. He had a huge grin on his face, and Fallon’s heart thudded in her chest as she took in the beauty of him. He was like the finest wine and got better with age. He was gorgeous and all hers, but her favorite thing in the world was watching him watch his family. He was happy, and it was good to know it was because of her and the kids.

“Okay, guys, let’s finish the tree,” Lucas commanded, and with her new daughter in her arms, Fallon reached out, hanging Emery’s star on one of the branches while everyone did the same. As they all stepped back, Lucas’s fingers threaded with hers as Aiden leaned against her arm, Stella on his hip. Asher wrapped his arms around Fallon’s butt and laid his head on her stomach as she let out a contented sigh.

Christmas was a time for giving, but what else could she ever get?

She had everything.

And then some.

W
atching the puck with intensity, Tate Odder was in set position as the Assassins’ defense fought off the Bruins’ offense. When Brooks took the puck up the ice, Tate stood up, shaking his limbs as he continued to watch. At any moment, the Bruins could get the puck back, but they wouldn’t get it past. Not on his watch. When a Bruins player stole the puck and sailed past the defense and up ice on a breakaway, Tate grinned.

Here we go.

He deked left, but Tate knew he would and went right along with him, blocking the puck. To his surprise though, the little shit got the puck back and tried to go top shelf. The crowd roared, thinking their team was going to take the lead, but in a picture-worthy way, Tate caught it in his glove, bringing it in close to his chest, and the crowd wasn’t happy. Tate was though, along with his teammates.

“Way to go, Odder,” his captain, Shea, said as he tapped Tate’s pad. “Great save.”

“Thanks, Cap.”

Handing the puck off to the ref, Tate got back in position and thought about winning.

And not about how miserable his wife was at home.

Surprisingly enough, Tate wasn’t scored on even though he couldn’t push away the thoughts of his wife. Audrey did well hiding her feelings, but he knew how much she was hurting and it was killing him. Any time he tried to talk about the issue, she didn’t want to discuss it because it hurt even more. He knew she felt like she’d failed him, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. He didn’t know what else to do, but one thing was for sure—he didn’t want her to know that he too was miserable.

It was Christmastime, and ordinarily, that was a joyful time of the year. Usually Audrey’s favorite. She made sure to make a big deal about buying presents and decorating. She baked her ass off and made a huge show of some damn elf that sat on a shelf for their daughter, Penelope. Tate didn’t see the point in the stupid elf, but Audrey and Penelope loved her. Because of that, he went along with the games the elf played.

Honestly though, his heart didn’t stand a chance when he looked into his baby girl’s crystal blue eyes or even her momma’s caramel eyes. They were his world and they were enough. He had told Audrey this many times, but she couldn’t accept it. She wanted to give him more children, but unfortunately, they hadn’t been lucky with the whole conceiving thing after they lost the last baby she was pregnant with. He still could hear her cries and it truly killed him. Since then, he hadn’t been able to get her pregnant. She blamed herself, but sometimes, he felt as if it was his fault. He should be able to get a woman pregnant, and he had, twice, but they only had one blessing to show for it. Again, that was enough. He just wished Audrey would realize that.

Leaning back in his locker, he let out a long breath before running his fingers through his too long blond hair. He needed a haircut, but he wasn’t worried about it. On top of worrying about the mental state of his beautiful wife, the holidays were always hard on him. Christmas had always been his family’s favorite time of the year, and knowing they weren’t here to watch Penelope grow almost brought tears to his eyes.

He wished he could shake off all the bad thoughts; he shouldn’t be thinking them, not with Christmas so close, but he couldn’t help it. He missed his family and he wanted his wife to be happy. He just wished it would all go away. He didn’t want to be depressed on Christmas, not with how much it meant to Penelope.

“You’re quiet. You okay?” Lucas, his best friend and his wife’s brother-in-law, asked.

He nodded. “Just thinking. Holidays are hard.”

Lucas moved a towel through his hair before looking over at him. “Yeah,” he said with a nod. “How’s Audrey holding up? Fallon thinks she is lying out her ass half the damn time.”

“Yeah, she is,” he confirmed, letting out a long breath. “I don’t know what to do, honestly.”

“How’s the surrogate thingy going?” he asked, but Tate was already shaking his head.

“It isn’t. She can’t find someone she trusts. It’s insane; I mean, surely they’ll take care of the baby.”

“Yeah, I mean, it worked for Harper.”

“I told her this but she just doesn’t want to pick someone. So I said, let’s do the in vitro. I mean, we’ve already done the drugs and they’ve taken my sperm and her eggs. All they need is to go through with the procedure, but she is scared that it will be a waste of time because they say her uterus is weak. I’m telling you, she wants a baby so fucking bad. And sure, I would love another one, but I don’t want this stress. I just want us to be happy. We have a beautiful daughter. What else do we need?”

Lucas slowly nodded and Tate felt desperate. Lucas didn’t understand any of this. He was blessed with four gorgeous kids and a wife who wasn’t driving him crazy now that she wasn’t pregnant. Audrey was great pregnant, horny as hell and drove him mad with her need for him, so he wouldn’t mind doing nine months of that again. But above all, he just wanted her to have everything she wanted. “I just want her to be happy, and I’ll do anything to get her there.”

“I know, buddy. You’re really good to her.”

Lucas cupped his shoulder as Tate said, “Because I love her. More than anything, and no matter how many times I tell her that, she doesn’t listen.”

“She is hardheaded like her sister. It will work out.”

Tate didn’t think it would, but he nodded and agreed, “I hope so.”