Wild Zone (Rough Riders Hockey 4)

Tate’s heart flipped. Olivia wearing his name, sitting with his dad, watching him teach his kids. Could life get any more fucking perfect?

Yes. It could—she could live in DC, not Paris. She could be his—long term, not for only another week.

Olivia’s gaze lifted to Mia’s, then jumped to Tate’s.

Tate met her eyes. “I’ll leave that up to Olivia.”

He tried to pull up some barriers in anticipation of her back peddling from what some women—including Lisa—had viewed as ownership as opposed to support.

Olivia’s smile was excited and immediate. “Oh, I’d love one with—“ She stopped short and looked at Mia. “I mean, not if it’s any more trouble. Because I love this one. It’s fabulous.”

Mia grinned and shook her head. “No trouble. I have some in the car.” She glanced at Tate as she pushed off the counter. “I’m a good sister like that. Be right back.”

Olivia’s mouth was still hanging open when Mia walked out. “Oh, shit.” She hung her head. “Your sister?” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Your sister just caught us in the pantry?”

Tate laughed, stepped close and wrapped Olivia in a hug. “No, she caught us coming out of the pantry. And believe me, baby, she ain’t got no room to say noth

in’ about sneaking around.”

10

Tate found it ridiculously hard to leave Olivia alone to work. Especially with all the new thoughts running through his head and the new feelings storming around his body.

He wandered out onto the deck where Beckett’s family and friends and teammates spread across the covered porch or kids played out in the big grass-covered yard. Joe was perched on the edge of a chair chatting with a group at the far end of the deck. Mia was sitting on Rafe’s lap nearby. Teresa continued to talk up guests, refill wineglasses and pick up the occasional plate while Quinn offered guests the latest morsel from the kitchen.

“Donovan.” Beckett sat on the steps leading from the deck to the yard along with three other Rough Riders. “We’re trying to pick a date for the guys’ weekend.” Tate started that direction with Beckett saying, “Can you believe it’s been five years?”

“Not for all of us,” Andre said in his thick Russian accent. He’d joined the team two years before.

“Thank you,” Isaac added, who’d been a Rough Rider for three years.

Beckett, Grant, Isaac and Andre were all looking at their phones. Tate leaned his back against the pillar on the deck.

“Let me rephrase,” Beckett said, “five years for the important members of this illustrious club.”

A few choice taunts moved through the group.

Beckett looked up from his phone. “Where’s Eden? Eden,” he yelled at his fiancé across the backyard. “Your calendar didn’t sync with mine.”

“Yeesh.” Grant shook his head. “That’s gotta be ugly. NHL player and paramedic with a six year old?”

Beckett chuckled. “I’d juggle fuckin’ balls of flame for those girls.”

Olivia stepped out onto the deck, instantly capturing all Tate’s attention. Her arms were loaded with more trays of hors d'oeuvres and she wandered from group to group, serving and chatting. God she looked gorgeous. No different than any other day, just, man, she was radiant. Her hair, her skin, her smile.

Her sweet little slip of a dress was soft navy with a small floral pattern distributed over the bottom of the skirt and bodice, two thin spaghetti straps on each shoulder. And all he could think about was how good she felt underneath.

“Dude, you’re drooling,” Isaac’s comment drew Tate’s gaze. “Stop ogling the hottie and check your calendar.” To the other guys, he said, “I’m free pretty much all summer. Give me a date and I’ll block it out.”

“She and her sister are very beautiful,” Andre said, glancing at Olivia, then back at his phone, “but beautiful woman, they bring problem. Headache for sure. I know. My Nika…” And he started speaking Russian. But the emphasis with which he said the words conveyed a message that made all the men laugh.

“I can hear you,” Nika sang from the bottom step where she sat playing with her two-year-old son Dmitri.

“I can’t do anything the first part of July,” Grant said. “Faith and I are spending the fourth in North Carolina and we’re making some improvements on the store.”

Grant’s girlfriend, Faith, owned her family hardware store in the hometown where she and Grant grew up. While Faith was more of a do-it-yourselfer guru on YouTube and talk show segments now, she still ran the store remotely, and they took frequent trips there in the summer.

“Count me out for the last half of August,” Beckett said. “Lily starts school and we’ll have to go back to school shopping.”