by Skye Jordan
All in all, Tate’s gut knew that seeing Olivia again was dangerous to his heart.
He also knew his heart was flipping somersaults at the idea.
One of the kids skated past them backwards, imitating Tate’s and Beckett’s frequent threat in a comical attempt at a baritone, “Gonna make you do sprints if your late, boys.”
“Good idea, Blake,” Tate called after the kid, his own true baritone echoing through the rink and drawing all the kids’ gazes. “Blake wants to do sprints. Great warm up. Everyone, go.”
All the kids groaned, slowly falling into line, starting sprints across the ice.
“That’ll teach him to be a smartass,” Tate said, grinning at the kids ribbing Blake.
Beckett gripped Tate’s shoulder and shoved him out on the ice with a good natured, “There’s my team captain.” He tossed Tate a hockey stick and they glided toward center ice. “Just think about it. And it wouldn’t hurt if you could talk her into taking the wedding job either.”
Tate rolled his eyes and stuck the stick out, hooking one of the kids around the waist and pulling him from the sprint, making the ten year old laugh so hard the kid fell on his ass.
That made Tate feel better. To get Beckett to leave him alone, Tate offered a non-committal, “I’ll think about calling her.”
Which would be difficult given he didn’t have her number, and getting it would require conversations he’d rather not have with people he’d rather not have them with.
Nearby, Beckett hooked another kid, and another young boy fell into a laughing mess onto the ice. God, Tate loved this camp. But he knew it wasn’t just the kids bringing out this joy. Olivia had broken through some wall inside him, allowing it out.
Beckett grinned over at Tate. “For a woman who put a smile on my face like the one you’re wearing right now, I’d do a lot more than call.”
Olivia was jerked from sleep when her bed rolled like a boat in a storm.
“I can’t wait anymore.” Quinn’s voice immediately oriented Olivia.
She was home—in the states. She was in DC, sleeping in the room she and Quinn had shared their entire young lives. Right up until Olivia had left home for Europe after their Dad had died. And Quinn was bouncing on her bed to wake her up, the way she had for years.
“You can’t sleep all day,” Quinn said. “I haven’t seen you in a year. Wake. Up.”
“Oh my God,” Olivia groaned and pulled the pillow over her head, laughing a muffled “Go away.
But she couldn’t deny the sweet sense of nostalgia swamping her as Quinn continued to bounce, and Olivia continued to laugh.
“Mom,” Olivia yelled, “make Quinn stop!”
“Mom’s not going to save you Livvy. You…need…to…wake…up.” She punctuated each of the words with a bounce.
“Oh, Quinn.” Their mother’s amused voice entered the room. “Let her sleep. She got in late and she worked hard last night.”
She’d also been worked over hard last night. Olivia had never realized so much pleasure could be so exhausting.
“I’m awake. Stop bouncing, or I’m going to puke on you.” Olivia threw the pillow at her sister and said, “What do you want?”
Quinn just grinned at her with that million-fucking-dollar smile. The one Olivia lost when their dad died and their family fell apart. The one she hadn’t been able to find since, no matter what corner of the world she’d searched.
Though, she might have caught a sparkle of it last night.
Tate.
Even the thought of him made a little burn rise in the pit of her stomach. She’d never been loved the way Tate loved her last night. She should really call it fucking, but somehow, that description didn’t quite fit. Last night Tate had made Olivia feel like nothing outside those four walls had mattered. Nothing but becoming so tangled up in Olivia he could never get out. Something he’d given her every impression he would have considered a happy accident, something he would have been completely and utterly satisfied with.
From the way he held her gaze while he drove her to multiple orgasms, to the way he curled around her after, slipping into sleep with his face buried in her hair, Tate had given her the intense experience of being deeply cherished beyond anything she’d ever felt with any other lover.
“Olivia.“ Quinn shook her leg.
“Stop it.” Olivia smacked Quinn’s hand away, annoyed at being jerked out of her warm memories of Tate. “Mom, make her leave me alone.”
Teresa wandered toward the bed with a familiar smile on her face, the one that told Olivia just how happy she was to have her home. The one that was so happy, it tipped the scales toward teary. Sometimes, Olivia thought coming home caused her family more pain than joy. And that cut at Olivia’s heart.
Their mother sat on the corner of the bed. “Just let her tell you the good news, and she’ll leave you alone.”
“Hardly.” Olivia rubbed both hands over her face and moaned. She knew her family. If they didn’t have to work today, they’d want to do something with her—go shopping, have lunch, take in a movie, wander the museums, walk the river. And as much as she wanted to do those things too, right now she really just wanted to lie here and think about Tate. Remember every minute of their night together. Maybe find something about him she could use to pry him off the pedestal she’d mounted him on after last night.
Since that obviously wasn’t going to happen, Olivia rolled to her side, propped herself up on her elbow and rested her head in her hand. And prepared for a long drawn out tale about Charlotte’s baby. “Fine. Talk, Quinny Quinn.”
She got that I-can’t-stand-it giddy grin, cast a look at their mom, then said, “We picked up six new jobs last night, Liv. Six.” Quinn was almost coming out of her skin. “And one of them is Beckett Croft’s daughter’s birthday party. Did you meet her last night? She was one of the kids there. A gregarious little blonde angel zipping all over the party.”
Olivia laughed at Quinn’s description, so full of affection for a little girl she barely knew. But Quinn had always had an affinity for kids. “Um, nope. There weren’t any kids running around my kitchen.”
Quinn deflated a little. “I hate that you didn’t get a chance to come out and meet everyone.” She glanced at her mother. “What a great group, weren’t they mom? Really neat people for being so famous and wealthy.”
Their mom agreed. “They’ll go down as one of my favorite jobs to date.”
“Who came?” Olivia asked, only mildly interested.
They both look back at her, but Quinn was the one to ask, “What do you mean?”
“The famous and wealthy. Who was that?”
Quinn’s face broke into another smile. “All of them. You’re the hockey fan. You should know how much that franchise is worth.”
Olivia pushed herself upright and combed her hands through her hair pulling it off her face, then dragged her tee shirt—one the many she’d stolen from her fathers’ dresser after he’d died and still slept in—over her knees. “I just used to go to the games with Dad. I don’t know anything about the franchise. Or even about the sport for that matter. Not anymore.”
Though she could attest to the intensity of one particular player in the bedroom.
“They make anywhere between half a million and eight million per year.”
Olivia frowned, resting her head in her hand. “I guess. I mean they’re professional athletes.”
She thought back to Tate’s townhome. It was in a nice part of DC. It was on the new side. It seemed roomy, though she hadn’t seen much beyond the dining room and Tate’s bedroom. With the prices in DC now, it had to have cost somewhere around a million and a half. But as her mind woke, the implications of Quinn’s information in relation to her family sank in. “And you’ve got six new jobs with these people?”
Quinn’s eyes rounded and she nodded, sending Olivia an ‘exactly’ message.
“That’s fantastic,” Olivia said. “Great crowd to be networking with. What kind of jobs?
” After ten years in the industry, Olivia’s mind started calculating and arranging at lightning speed and within a nanosecond, she found a few huge potential problems. “Do you guys have the cash to float you in case something falls through? Because when you’ve got events back to back like that, they can drain you really quick. And if your books aren’t so tight they squeak, one late payment can send the company’s financials into a tailspin. And, crap, I hope none of them come up before Charlotte’s ready to start working again.”
When she didn’t get an instant response, Olivia’s stomach tensed. “Okay, well, I hope you at least have a backup caterer.”
Quinn glanced at their mother. Teresa reached out and patted Olivia’s knee. “You’re just like your sister, worrying about money. Just leave that to me, sweetheart. As far as a caterer goes, everyone we spoke to at the party last night wanted you.”
The tension in Olivia’s stomach coiled up her spine.
“We explained that you’re not here long, and we are looking into other options, but Quinn and I were hoping you could stay, just a little while longer than you planned, and help us out. It would be fun and it might be the last time we get to see you until you’re done with school, or we have the time and money to take a break and come visit you.”
That was the first mention either of them had ever made about visiting her, regardless of what country she’d been living in at the time. So teasing her with a visit in an effort to get her to work while she was here created a sliver of resentment. One she didn’t feel fully entitled to since she’d been the one to move away.
Olivia exhaled. “I don’t know, mom.”
“Well, think about it.” Smiling, her mom pushed from the corner of the mattress. “I’m going to meet a potential candidate. Maybe it’ll all work out and none of us will have to worry about anything.”
The knot in Olivia’s gut loosened enough to allow her to breathe easier, but Quinn didn’t look convinced. After both of them gave their mother a kiss and promised to meet up with her in a few hours for family girl time, they stared at each other until the front door closed, securing their privacy.
All the unspoken problems they should have talked about last night weighted the air between them. Olivia crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall. “Spill it, Quinn. What’s really going on with the business?”
“It’s just been slow. We have calms and storms, but we don’t have the cash to just let things idle when it’s slow. Then we’ll get a big job, or a couple of big jobs in a row, and we have to leverage credit cards for deposits. We always pay the cards off when the client pays us, but sometimes there’s a lag. Sometimes the client makes a change and we don’t get paid as much as we think. Sometimes there are cancellations, so the money we think is coming in, doesn’t. We’ve been managing with lots of small jobs. And the money you send every month has saved us more than once. But last night was a huge step forward.”
Quinn rolled her eyes and shook her head. “We caught the engagement party as a fluke. Beckett’s and Eden’s wedding planner is a part time space cadet and dropped the ball. A friend of a friend recommended mom and we scooped it up and ran with it. The only reason Charlotte was available was because she wasn’t taking any more clients so close to her due date. But she’d just seen her doctor and had a check up, and he’d told her he didn’t anticipate seeing her again until she delivered. So, with three weeks left to sit around and watch paint dry, Charlotte jumped at the chance to work. Plus she’s a major Rough Riders’ fan.”
Quinn stood, crossed her arms and paced the room. “Once we got the engagement party, met with Eden and pitched our idea, Eden was hooked. She loved everything about it from the warehouse to the decorations to the fun food Charlotte had planned. And Eden’s enthusiasm carried through the team, which brought us three more jobs. One is big—a charity event in a little over three weeks. One of Beckett’s teammates,” Quinn rolled her eyes to the ceiling, “mom pointed him out last night but I didn’t get a chance to meet him. I can’t remember his name. There are so many of them.”
“Twenty-five,” Olivia said, remembering what Tate had told her about his team the night before while he’d been giving her a foot massage that turned into much, much, much more. She rubbed her tired eyes on a moan. “There are twenty five players on a team.”
“Anyway, this guy puts on one of those five-thousand-dollar-a-plate dinners to fund his charity every year, Afterschool Advantage. It’s black tie, the whole team goes and brings their wives or girlfriends or dates. Sponsors and donors and season ticket holders will be there. Some are buying full tables for family and friends. He says it funds the entire year of the program—”
“Three weeks?” That sliver of resentment was jabbing her beneath the ribs. Why was it so hard for her mother and her sister to remember something so major in Olivia’s life? “I won’t be here Quinn. I have school.”
“You said it starts in a month. This will happen right before. You can fly back the next day. Mom and I will handle everything after the party.”
”You want me to start full time school and go back to work jet lagged?” her anger rose. “Jesus, Quinn, do you realize I worked my ass off for two years to save enough money to offset my scholarship, partially because I was sending money home. Now you want me to work while I’m here and extend my stay so I can work some more? To hell with how that affects everything I have planned for my life back at home?”
With a heavy exhale, Quinn flopped down on the bed, reclining sideways and propping her head in her hand. “I’m sorry, Liv. I’d love to tell you we don’t need you. That we’re solid—”
“I don’t want you to lie.” Old anger from the past flared and bone-deep hurt flowed in its wake. “Don’t tell me what you think I need to hear, Quinn. Just tell me the fucking truth or I’ll get back on a plane right now.”
Identical anger and hurt flared in Quinn’s blue eyes, and she sat up. “And don’t you act like I’m trying to hide secrets that are fucking with your life. I’m telling you right now, we’re struggling and we could use your help. If you choose not to help, fine. If you want to leave, fine. But don’t you dare threaten to leave like that in front of mom. Abandoning us both the first time when we needed you the most hurt us enough for a lifetime.”
“And both of your lies hurt me for a lifetime.”
Quinn turned her gaze on the floor and shook her head. “I’m so sick of this. I’m sick of living in the past.”
“It’s not the past if you keep doing it. Why have you been telling me everything is fine when I call?”
“Because mom didn’t want you to worry. You were already sending money, what more could you do? We all know you wouldn’t come home.”
Her anger burned hotter. “Just because you never went after what you wanted in life doesn’t give you the right to judge me because I did.”
“I am where I want to be. I stayed to help mom get on her feet.”
And Olivia had left because they’d made it impossible for her to stay. “I’m not going to feel guilty that neither of you asked me for help over the years. Did all my experience in restaurant management just slip past you? Did you think it was irrelevant? Or could you just not bring yourselves to ask my advice about anything?”
“We may have not given you the credit you deserve, but you live across the fucking world, Olivia. Last night was the first time we’ve ever had the opportunity to see what you do first hand. And you were out so late—or early, depending on how you want to look at it—neither of us could tell you how impressed we were with everything you did last night. You didn’t even give us the chance to thank you. Honestly, Liv, you don’t make it easy to appreciate you.”
“Oh, perfect.” Olivia closed her eyes and rested her head back against the wall. “Now it’s my fault. I feel like I’ve stepped into a time machine.”
“Stop living in the past. We have a very real problem right now. Mom gave us eighteen years of her life when she could have been out working, creating
a career for herself, one that could be supporting her now. Dad’s life insurance is all wrapped up in that company. She doesn’t have anything to fall back on. I can always find work, but mom’s not as flexible. Finding a job that will cover health insurance and retirement at her age is impossible.”
Quinn pushed from the bed, crossed her arms and paced across the floor, then back before meeting Olivia’s eyes again. When she did, her anger had mellowed into frustration and fatigue, much like Olivia’s.
“We need to do what we have to do to make this work,” Quinn said. “I know this is bad timing for you, but I need you to pitch in here. Dad would want us to do this for her. So I’m asking you now. I’m asking you to stay and help so that we can hold onto this forward momentum and keep mom on her feet.”
Well shit.
What the hell was she supposed to say?
Olivia exhaled and her shoulders sank under the work ahead of her. “Fine. I’ll stay. But only until school starts. I’m not going to lose that scholarship.”
Quinn gave a nod, but she looked more resigned than happy about it. “Great.” She turned and wandered toward the door. “Then get dressed, sis, we’ve got work to do.” Before Olivia could ask what she was talking about, Quinn lined it out for her. “We have to check out the kitchen at a new venue, negotiate a menu with a new client and talk ponies, fairies and flying dragons with the most adorable almost-six-year-old you’ll ever meet.”
At the door Quinn paused and her mouth quivered into a fragile smile. “Thanks, Liv. We really miss you. Every day.”
And she turned the corner toward the kitchen.
Tears welled in Olivia’s eyes. She fell back on her bed and stared at the blurry ceiling wondering if she was more of the reason their family was broken than her father dying.
Then she wondered what Tate was doing, if he’d want to see her again, and how she would get in contact with him.