Sheltering His Desire (16 page)

“I don’t know.” All of the user agreements
allowed the sites to be taken offline without consultation if there
were legal or safety concerns. Lys’s site wasn’t either of those
things. At this point he’d be tempted to tell her to go with
another crowd-funding vendor, if there were enough time to spin her
up with someone new, and get her donations in before the clock ran
out. “I’ll fix this.”

“Of course you will.” Her voice held a hard
edge. She sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m not snapping at you.”

“You should be. Someone needs to be reamed
for this.” He grabbed his phone, and dialed his mother’s office
line. It went straight to voice mail. Funny how it hadn’t forwarded
to her cell phone. She was either screening him or on the other
line. “You can come with me to yell at someone, if you’d like.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know that I’m
equipped for that this morning. Call me as soon as you have
answers.”

He squeezed her hand. “Of course.”

He let his rage soar as he stalked to his
car. He was half tempted to go into work dressed in the wrinkled
scrubs Lys had loaned him, but that wouldn’t help his case. If he
was taking on his mother, he had to be cool, professional, and
unflinching. This wasn’t just about Alyssia’s site, though the fact
it had been shut down certainly resided at the top of his list. His
mother never would have touched one of Jared’s projects like this.
Or Vivian’s. This was about shutting his business venture down
without conferring with him first. The hypocrisy that accompanied
the decision infuriated him. That she thought she could do this to
him because he was family.

For as long as he could remember, he’d
yielded, caved, and gone along with her whim because she was his
mother, and a parent should know best. It was out of respect and a
sense of propriety. Her actions indicated she didn’t hold him in
the same regard. He was done being steamrolled, and it was time to
put an end to it.

Tate straightened his tie, assumed the
calmest, coolest air he could summon, and strode toward his
mother’s office. The door was closed. He wasn’t surprised. He gave
her assistant, Kat his warmest smile. “Is Ms. Foster in?” He was on
her turf, so he’d follow her rules of formality regardless of the
unprofessional way she was approaching their relationship.

“Hey.” Kat’s neutral expression shifted to
warm and open when she saw him. “I’d let you in if I could, but
she’ll be on calls on and off most of the morning. I’ll tell her
you stopped by. Ping you if she pokes her head out for more than a
few seconds.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He let just enough of
his drawl slide in to sound polite. “You know what? I’ll just hang
out for a couple minutes, if that’s all right. See if she frees up
before the top of the hour?”

“Stay as long as you’d like.” Kat’s smile
grew. “I’ll send her a message and let her know you’re out
here.”

He covered her hand. “Don’t worry about that.
I’d hate to make her hurry just to see me. I’ll just hang out for a
little while.”

“Tate.” A familiar baritone snapped through
the friendly facade.

Tate ground his teeth at the sound of his
father’s voice, but managed to keep most of the reaction from his
voice. He whirled to face the older man. “Mr. Foster.” Calling him
Dad in public wasn’t the same taboo as referring to his mother so
informally, but Tate was already in that business frame of
mind.

“Can it.” Ben nodded toward his office at the
other end of the hall. “Let’s talk.”

It wasn’t the conversation Tate wanted to
have, but it might do. He followed, keeping his mouth shut until
the door closed them off from the rest of the world. He didn’t
bother with sitting. “Do you have any idea what she did?” That
wasn’t how he’d meant to open this conversation.

“I know what she didn’t do.” Ben took his
seat, and leaned back in his chair. “And that’s shut down the
shelter’s crowd-funding site.”

Shock filled Tate. “You? Why?”

“You made this personal; I made an executive
decision. This may be your spin-off, but ultimately it still falls
under the Skriddie label. Think of it as an investor getting
involved.”

“This isn’t just about business.” Tate didn’t
have to bullshit here, or play sweet. That was one thing he
appreciated about his father. “You know what happens to that place
if they can’t raise the capital they need.”

“It is about business. Her business is
dealing with bad media. Our business is dealing with bad media for
entirely different reasons. If we’re seen supporting her business,
ours looks worse.”

Tate understood the logic. He hated himself
for it, but he got it. That didn’t mean he agreed. “So this is all
about the bottom line.”

“Yes.” Ben leaned forward, fingers clasped
and arms resting on his desk. “Look. I don’t care what you’ve got
going on with Alyssia Tippins. Whether it’s something, or nothing,
or falls somewhere in the middle. That’s between you and her, and
despite what your mother thinks, there’s no reason to marry you to
a senator’s daughter who isn’t even old enough to drink.”

Tate bit the inside of his cheek to keep a
retort from slipping out. He was curious to know where this was
going.

“But that’s personal, this is business. Look
me in the eye and tell me you don’t understand my decision.”

“I get it. But I still don’t agree. This
isn’t just about return on investment.”

“That’s exactly what it’s about.” A sharp
crack lined Ben’s words. “We’re not a charity. The things we do, we
do to make money.”

Tate didn’t have a retort. He knew he
couldn’t win, but he wasn’t willing to back down or give up. “I
won’t be in the office the rest of the day.”

“Fine.” Ben turned to his computer,
indicating he felt the conversation was over. “Get this out of your
system. When you’re back tomorrow, I expect business as usual from
you.”

Tate was already reaching for his phone as he
stormed from the office. He didn’t have a plan, or even the
inklings of one, and he wasn’t going to find the answers here.

A text message from Lys waited for him.
How’d it go?

What the fuck was he going to tell her? He
shoved the device back in his pocket, and headed for his car. He’d
figure it out.

****

Alyssia lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.
Every time she drifted toward sleep, horrible images flashed in her
mind, muddled with a lack of solutions, and the creeping dread that
she didn’t have a way out of this problem. She rolled onto her
side, and her gaze fell on her cell phone. She would have heard if
it had gone off, but that didn’t stop her from clicking the button
to see if she’d missed any calls or texts.

Nothing.

“Damn it, Tate.” Talking to the empty room
was better than being alone with her thoughts. He was supposed to
keep her updated. He’d been so kind last night, and she knew that
man was still in there. She also couldn’t shake the feeling he was
falling into old patterns.

Sleep wasn’t going to happen. She climbed
from bed, and pulled on some clothes. Maybe she’d have lunch with
Jared, use that as an excuse to surprise Tate. That was a stupid
idea. She wasn’t being that girl anymore. Jared… Something clicked
in her thoughts, chinking and whirring.

She knew what to do, but she couldn’t do it
alone. She grabbed her phone and dialed.

“This is Mikki.”

A sliver of progress wormed its way into
Alyssia’s thoughts. This
would
work. “Hey, it’s me. I need a
huge, huge favor, and then maybe you can transfer me to Tate?”

“Like, the exciting, get into trouble kind of
favor?” Mikki asked.

“Probably not. But it’s a challenging kind of
thing, and I can’t pay you.”

“Then yes. But no to the second thing. Tate’s
not in today.”

Alyssia suppressed her disappointment—and
that was all it was. No irritation mingled with the feeling. “Tate
told me when he set up this whole crowdfunding thing that he rented
Skriddie servers because he didn’t have the people to build him a
setup.” The way he’d phrased it, it sounded like he couldn’t find
the talent. He’d slipped a few times though, that hiring that kind
of skill wasn’t in his budget. He’d even placed the hardware orders
before his investors—she’d taken that to mean his mother—pulled
their funding on the IT budget. He’d sworn he would set it all up
once they had the capital. “I don’t even know if I’m saying this
right. How long would it take you to setup and configure an entire
server array for the crowdfunding sites.”

Mikki laughed. “Me, personally? Thirty hours.
Maybe twenty.”

“So, asking you to do this means you’d be
giving up your evenings for a week or two.” Alyssia couldn’t do
that. “Never mind.”

“What are you kidding? I’m totally in.”

“Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent. Tell me what we’re
doing.”

Alyssia spent the next half hour laying out
her idea, and making sure Mikki had all the right information,
before thanking her future sister-in-law, and disconnecting.

Tate still hadn’t answered her messages. She
wasn’t going to waste a phone call on this; it was a conversation
that needed to happen in person. She headed to her car, pulled onto
the road, and pointed it in the familiar direction.

Her determination wavered when she drew
within sight of his driveway, and confirmed his car was there.
Maybe he was just home sick, or sleeping off too many long nights.
She should wait for him to return her messages.

She summoned her resolve, and parked her car
next to his. No backing down. It was his decision if he was going
to be a part of this or not, but he was going to tell her to her
face, and she wasn’t going to let him wrap it in excuses and faulty
logic. She rang the bell, and waited, toes tapping inside her
shoes.

The door jerked open more quickly than she
expected, and she jumped. Tate stood there, shadows under his eyes,
in a battered T-shirt and jeans, and a tired smile. “Hey. Shouldn’t
you be sleeping?”

He looked good, even exhausted. Concentrate.
Remember the plan. Get him to sign on, or walk away. She repeated
the words in her head. “I should be. I couldn’t. Can we talk?”

“Absolutely.” He stepped aside, and gestured
toward the couch.

She hovered near the entryway. No sitting
until she had a better idea of how this was going. “Did you get
answers this morning?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it. It’s under
control. I’ve got plan—”

“I am worried about it.” She crossed her
arms. “Do you remember yesterday afternoon? You don’t get to have
plans about my business without my input.”

He sighed, and pinched the bridge of his
nose. “I know. That’s not what this is. This impacts my entire
startup. I need to take care of it.”

“Tate.” She couldn’t keep the frustration
from her voice. “No.
You
don’t. Is this a lack of respect?
Do you not take me seriously? Maybe you think your friends are only
there when you’re the one taking care of them?” The words hurt,
tugging at insecurities she hated to acknowledge. But she was so
tired of dancing around
everything
when it came to him.

“No. Not at all.” He reached for her, then
dropped his hand. “I swear, that’s so very far from the truth. I
have so much respect for you. For everything you do. I’ve never met
a stronger person. The things you see, every day, and the fact you
still fight for something so good?”

His words flowed through her head and heart,
warming her in a way she didn’t want. What if it was just lip
service? “Then what are we doing? You don’t have to take care of
everything on your own. You help me, and I do the same for you.
It’s who we are.”

He dragged his fingers through his hair. “I
want you to be happy. I want those animals to be safe. I
desperately want to tell you I love you. To write you a check, to
make this all go away, to move on so you don’t have to deal with
it. Not because you’re incapable, but because no human being should
have to put up with this shit, especially you.”

She struggled to keep up with the
conversation, but her mind was stuck on three words, skipping back
to them. Replaying them over and over in her mind. “Did you just
say…?” She couldn’t force the question out. Already, her thoughts
were working to convince her she’d imagined it.

“I did.” He cupped her cheek, and her pulse
threatened to burst through her heart. “I love you, Lys. For as
long as I can remember. I’ve just never felt like I could give you
what you needed. I still can’t.”

She pushed him back, anger and confusion
mingling with the relief of the revelation. “You fucking asshole.
What the hell is wrong with you?

“I don’t even understand why you think you
can’t give me what I’m looking for.”

He clenched his jaw, then dragged in a shaky
breath before replying. “Can you really picture me being tied
down?”

“I can and I do. You’re already anchored
here. Maybe it’s easier to think that’s me being delusional, and
seeing things that aren’t there. But you just admitted it. You’re
as tied to me as I am to you. You don’t get to make a confession
like
I love you
, and wrap it in a bullshit line like ‘
I
know what’s good for you, and it’s not me
.’ You don’t get to
dump that on me and in the same breath remove my right to tell you
I feel the same.

“In fact, I’m tired of you making all sorts
of these decisions without my input. Faking that first donation on
my website? Okay, I convinced myself you hadn’t actually done that.
Loaning Jared the money years ago, so he could tell me it came from
him, when I bought the shelter? I pretended I didn’t know you’d
done that.” Her words spilled out, surprising her. How did she know
that? But the look on Tate’s face told her she was right. He’d been
there the entire time, making sure she succeeded. Helping. Finding
ways to keep her from turning him down.