Wild Zone (Rough Riders Hockey 4)

She nodded and smiled. “I’ll check the calendar. Hey, did you want me to have Olivia—”

“No.” He said it too forcefully and put out a hand. But, no. God no. Talk about mortifying. “Please don’t.”

Quinn pressed her lips together and nodded. “Of course.”

“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. This isn’t your fault. I— This just really threw me, you know?”

“Sure, sure.” She nodded and chewed her lip. “I understand.”

She looked so uncomfortable that he couldn’t stand to just leave her like that. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked around the warehouse. “This is…a big operation.”

“Yeah,” she laughed the word. “Some days it feels overwhelming.”

“Sounds like you had some good news on the phone.”

She perked up. “Yes. A possible wedding job for friends of someone who was at Beckett’s engagement party.”

“That’s great.”

“It is. We’ve been struggling to get it to run in a way that will support my mom until retirement. I don’t know if Olivia told you, but our dad died some time ago.”

“Oh no, she didn’t.” Nope, Olivia didn’t say much about her personal life. Every time Tate had asked, she’d done something to make his eyes roll back in his head. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks. We were a really tight family, and he was our core. I doubt mom will ever remarry. They were that once in a lifetime for each other, you know?”

Nope. Tate didn’t know anything about that. “That’s got to be tough. How long ago?”

“Ten years now. Hard to believe he’s been gone that long. Sometimes it still feels so raw. We all still miss him so much.”

Tate nodded, calculating the years. “You had to be young.”

“Eighteen.” Her gaze went distant. “He got sick about mid way through our senior year.” She focused and smiled. “Made it to watch us walk across the stage though. Passed a few days later.”

Holy fuck. “I can’t even imagine how hard that would have been.”

She sighed deeply and nodded.

“It sounds like that’s about the time Olivia went to Europe.”

Quinn smiled again. It wasn’t a happy smile, but it wasn’t sad either. And it wasn’t bitter. It looked more like acceptance or resignation. She shrugged. “We’re all coping…in our own ways.”

Right. Quinn was coping by dealing with the issues, struggling through the obstacles and sticking it out by her mother’s side.

Olivia was coping by running away. Jumping from man to man to man.

Just like Lisa.

Did Tate have ‘Big Fat Sucker’ stamped on his forehead? Or was his judgment in women really just that shitty?

“Well, thanks for understanding,” Tate said. “It was good talking to you.”

“It’s not a problem, it’s forgotten. And, again, about Olivia…I’m sorry.”

Tate worked up what had to be a lousy smile. “Me too.”

Olivia was in trouble.

She knew when Quinn sent their mother out the door with a grocery list that reached her elbow that her sister was pissed at her. Again.