Wild Zone (Rough Riders Hockey 4)

“Liv used her money for school.”

Shock blasted Tate’s gut. His face chilled as the blood drained. “No.”

“I thought that was the case yesterday, but I wasn’t sure.” Quinn kept her eyes on her hands, her lips compressed as she nodded, obviously trying to hold back tears. “I feel… God I can’t even…”

Tate’s stomach ratcheted down so tight, a wave of nausea swept through. “Oh my— Why? Why would she do that?”

Quinn lifted her gaze to Tate’s and the sight of those blue eyes—Liv’s eyes—made him ache. “Because she always keeps her word. She always follows through. Because she loves all of us and she never bails on the people she loves.” Quinn huffed a sad laugh. “Even when she’s mad at them. Even when she has to live across the world for us to get along.” She paused, sighed. “I realized tonight that Liv’s always been the rock in our family. I thought it was my Dad, but now I can see Dad only nurtured Liv. She’s the real foundation of our family. She’s our rock.”

She’d been his rock too. Maybe more like a pebble, considering the amount of time he’d had with her. But he could clearly see she could have been the rock he’d always wanted in his life. And he’d fucked that up.

Tate buckled, trying to cover with an elbow on the table to prop him up.

“Talk to her again,” Quinn said. “She made peace with mom and me. Working our way back to a family won’t be easy, but she’s really trying. And I know she loves you.”

Servers swept away dinner plates and replaced them with dessert, a key lime streusel. Individual circular delicacies with a graham cracker crust and a layer of key lime pie beneath a decadent layer of streusel drizzled with icing and topped with a lime wedge. And on the side of each plate a small, tented card stood beside the dessert.

Tate’s name was hand lettered on the front of his. His heart jumped. Then he darted a look at the other cards to see if those were also named for their owner. But the others were blank.

He darted a look at Quinn and she immediately answered his unspoken question. “I have no idea what those are.”

People around the table picked up their cards and, delighted, read a handful of quotes about food. Some funny. Some simple truths. Nothing earth shattering. But somehow Tate knew his would mean something.

“Read it,” Quinn urged softly.

Tate’s walls crumbled away and emotions rose to the surface. He picked up the card and opened it.

"Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate." —A lan D. Wolfelt

Without a word, Tate pushed his chair back and stood, starting for the kitchen. He needed her. He needed her in his life. He needed her to be his rock. He had no idea how he was going to make her see how desperately he needed her, wanted her, loved her, but he pushed through the doors to the kitchen in search of her.

The sous chefs and service staff hummed through the space like bees. In comparison to the relaxed, light atmosphere in the dining room, this space seemed to be on fast forward. He scanned the space for her.

One of the sous chefs caught his eyes. “Hello, sir.” He wiped his hands on his apron and faced Tate with a smile. “What can I do for you?”

“Olivia. Where is she?”

His smile faltered. “Oh, she, she had something important to take care of. She had to leave. I assure you we have everything under control—”

“You’re doing a great job,” Tate interrupted. “Did she say where she was going or what she had to do?”

“Oh no, sir. I’m sorry.” He shrugged. “As soon as she finished with dessert, she left.”

17

Olivia stared out at the tarmac, but she didn’t see it. All her focus was on the voice of Le Cordon Bleu’s financial aid coordinator in her ear.

“I’m so sorry to hear you won’t be joining us,” Bijou said. “We miss you here. Albert and Fitz will be sad.”

Olivia smiled. The classes and seminars she’d taken at the school had led to a lot of work for her. So she knew most of the staff personally, which was why Bijou was calling her on a Sunday after getting Olivia’s email.

“I’m sad too. Very sad. But I’m sure another lucky person will benefit from the scholarship and I’ll continue to apply. Eventually—”

“Actually, I talked to Lourdes last night after I got your email. She looked over the candidates again and didn’t feel any of them rose to the level of consideration necessary for her to take the scholarship from you. We can’t change the due dates or starting dates, but Lourdes has agreed to hold the scholarship for you if you can start in the next session and if you can secure the scholarship with your portion of the total within two weeks.”

Olivia inhaled sharply. Heat burned along her ribs. Tears pushed to her eyes. “Oh my God.” She pressed her fingers to her lips. “Are you serious?”

Bijou laughed. “Oui, mon cherie.”