Across the Line (In The Zone) (28 page)

Chapter Fifty

The day after Chef Lau’s visit, Becca woke up with a cough that wouldn’t go away no matter how many throat lozenges she sucked on during the day. She felt alternately feverish and chilled and knew she probably shouldn’t be serving food to people, so she limited herself to cashiering. She also downed about a quart of orange juice in an attempt to ward off whatever was trying to get a hold of her.

It didn’t work.

By evening, she was lagging so much that Dominique, a college student whose work ethic reminded her of Savannah’s, told her to go home, that they could handle it. But Becca knew they couldn’t. Given a few more weeks, they would have been fine, but not with only three full days under their belts. She spent the rest of the evening sitting in her office and trying to run things from there in between bouts of coughing.

The next morning, she was coughing so much she couldn’t justify exposing her staff or customers to her germs. Her chest ached and she couldn’t muster the energy to get out of bed, let alone work at the café.

Becca called Dominique and told her she was in charge until further notice. She painstakingly wrote a detailed email outlining what Dominique had to do. She tried to limit the list to only the things that couldn’t be put off, but it turned out to be an incredibly long list anyway. After she pressed Send, she fell asleep, exhausted from both the illness and worry.

Chapter Fifty-One

Calder and Hart were waiting for the elevator that would bring them up to the premier level of the Mesa Arena. Jesse and his family and friends were waiting in the luxury box the team had provided for them. The Barracudas had just shut out the Chicago Blackhawks, 2–0, so Jesse and his entourage had seen a great, high-energy game. But Calder felt none of the dick-hardening triumph he usually did after a game like they’d just played. Sure, he was still physically jacked up, but the thrill was muted. It was like watching Fourth of July fireworks on a cell phone.

The elevator arrived and they got on.

Hart pressed the premier level button. “So Cups opened a few days ago. Did you go?”

“No.”

“You guys haven’t made up?”

“No.”

“Well, don’t take this the wrong way, CS, but maybe it’s better this way. I know you love her and honestly, I think she’s a wonderful woman, but Jeremy has this little niece who hates it when people try and help her. Throws a fit, like stomping her feet and crying. The whole bit. She insists on doing everything ‘all by herself.’ That’s her catchphrase.”

“Becca never pitched a fit.”

“What about the rest of it?”

The doors opened. They got their bearings, then turned right, smiling at the few fans still hanging around the bar but communicating with their pace that they weren’t there to socialize.

“Well,” Calder said, “she
is
extremely independent and determined. Goal-oriented too. If she played hockey, she’d be one tough motherfucker. In fact, I have no doubt if she were in the NHL and set her sights on a Stanley Cup ring, she’d get one.” Regret pinched his heart as he remembered her laughter and smiles when he was giving her hockey lessons and how well she’d done.

“But would she be a team player?” Hart asked. “Because I’m not so sure.”

They slowed their steps. Their destination was only a few feet away.

“What does being a team player have to do with anything?”

“CS, when you’re in a relationship, it’s like being on a team with only two people on it. You watch out for each other. You help each other. You share the glory and the pain. When I come home after a bad night at the arena, Jeremy’s there for me, just like I’m there for him.”

“Becca was there for me.” He thought about how she always had comfort food for him, like that time at the Statler when he’d just gotten news that Hart had signed with San Diego. She’d ordered all those desserts. After he played badly, she comforted him in bed, letting him work off all the excess energy and showing he was still a man even if he’d been emasculated on the ice.

“Yeah, but my point is, does she let you be there for
her?
There has to be give and take in a relationship, otherwise frustration starts to build. Remember how she didn’t tell you about the fire? How she didn’t want you to go out there? She’s been shutting you out emotionally. If she doesn’t let you into her life, what’s the point?”

“Okay, first of all, you’re one to talk about shutting someone out.”

Hart winced, nodded. “All right. That’s fine. I deserved that.”

“You sure as fuck did. Second, Becca does like to handle stuff herself, but that’s because she’s a strong woman. I wouldn’t want to be with someone who was a needy vampire, like Perri.”

“Of course not. All I’m saying is there has to be a happy medium between Perri the Mooch and Becca the Ice Queen.”

“Hey,” Calder said in a warning tone.

Hart shrugged. “If the crown fits.”

They went into the suite to visit with Jesse. It was a good visit, a much-needed boost to Calder’s mood. The Coming Out Strong website was becoming more and more popular. When a couple of Hollywood celebrities caught wind of it, they jumped on the bandwagon and promoted it. Jesse had appeared on a couple of morning TV shows as a result. The kid had more support now than he knew what to do with.

Even better, he was so appreciative. He welcomed the help.

Hart mentioned this as they reentered the dressing room down below. “That’s what I was talking about before. Jesse and I have become a team. I mean, you and me, we’re hockey players, CS. Teamwork is part of our genetic makeup, and I think that applies off the ice as much as it does on it. I just want you to be happy, and I’m not sure you can be if your woman delegates you to the bench all the time. You should be linemates.”

“Speaking of your woman,” Tim said, walking up to them, “Becca is in desperate need of help.”

“Yeah, right,” Calder said. “Becca handles everything without batting an eyelash.”

“Not this, Griff. She’s got a really nasty case of the flu. Her staff is trying their hardest, but Erin and I went by to check on things for her and it’s pretty much a clusterfuck.”

“Shit.”

“The girl Becca put in charge is afraid to bother her and so the problems are piling up. It’s really a huge mess. I’m telling you because I’m hoping you can come to her rescue with a great idea. I tried thinking of something, but the only thing I know about restaurants is how to eat at them.”

Calder frowned. “What she needs is someone who can step into her shoes, someone with experience who knows exactly what to do.”

“Get real, Calder,” Hart said. “It’s not like she’s a goalie and they can just call in the backup. Where are you going to find someone like that?”

Just as he was about to say “How the fuck should I know?” the perfect solution came to him. He knew exactly where to find a Becca replacement.

Chapter Fifty-Two

“Becca, I have two special visitors,” Erin announced.

Ever since she’d fallen ill, Erin had insisted on taking care of her. Becca had protested. The night before she and Calder had broken up, Erin avoided drinking any of the wine. When Becca asked why, Erin confessed that she and Tim had recently found out she was pregnant. They were keeping it hush-hush for a little while longer and Becca promised not to tell anyone.

Now Becca was sicker than she’d ever been before in her life and she was terrified Erin would get sick, too, but Erin argued she had more than her share of antibodies and rarely got the flu.

“I don’t want visitors,” she said. The last thing she wanted was to face people, not when her restaurant had derailed, was heading off the cliff and she was helpless to prevent it. All her hard work, the money she’d spent, the relationship she’d sacrificed—all of it, wasted. Despair was smothering her as thoroughly as the illness.

“But one of them came all the way from Ithaca,” Erin said, stepping aside to reveal Savannah, but holding an arm up so she couldn’t enter the room.

Becca couldn’t believe it. She actually thought she was having hallucinations. “Savannah, what are you doing here?” she asked weakly.

“I hope I’m here to take over the reins,” Savannah said from the doorway. “Calder told me you needed help.”

“What about school?” Becca asked, coughing.

Savannah shook her head. “I graduated early, remember? And to tell the truth, I actually need a job, away from Ithaca. Oliver and I broke up, so you’ll actually be doing me a huge favor.”

“You’re hired,” Becca said immediately.

Savannah would whip everything into shape. She knew Becca’s systems, methods and standards. She was calm and an excellent problem-solver. She knew how to handle a crew with firmness and respect. In short, like a young culinary superhero, she could save the day.

“When can you—” Becca lapsed into a coughing fit. When it subsided, she tried again, “When can you start?”

“Right now. Calder set me up with a rental car and I already have the address programmed into the GPS.”

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” Tears leaked out of her eyes. The relief was so complete, it was as if all the anxiety and fear she’d been feeling was escaping out of her tear ducts. “Thank you. You have literally saved Cups from closing.”

“We’re not going to let that happen, not after losing the first one,” Savannah said with a determined smile.

Becca gestured weakly toward the dresser. “Take my laptop. A lot of what you’ll need is on there.”

“Will do. Leave everything to me. You just concentrate on getting better.”

“I will. Thank you again. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Savannah left and Erin ushered in a man she introduced as Dr. Lerner.

He was a balding man of middle age, wearing khakis and a brown sweater. “Good to meet you, Becca. Erin asked me to come by because she thinks you have pneumonia, which can be a very serious ailment.”

“I can’t have pneumonia. I’m too young to get pneumonia,” Becca said after a coughing fit that felt like someone was repeatedly punching her in the chest.

“It’s true that the elderly are particularly susceptible, but even babies can get pneumonia.”

Five minutes later, Dr. Lerner confirmed Erin’s diagnosis. “I’m going to prescribe some antibiotics. If you don’t start feeling better after a couple of days, let me know. But this should do the trick.”

Chapter Fifty-Three

The Barracudas were on the road in the Midwest. Tomorrow’s game against the Blue Jackets was the second of three and they were to board their charter to Nashville directly afterward.

To Calder, being on the road was a relief. Away from San Diego, there was one focus: hockey. And the nondescript hotel room insulated him from the guerilla memories of Becca that regularly assaulted him at home. He also enjoyed bonding with his team.

Like tonight, a group of players went to a steakhouse of some repute. Cocooned in a side room, they enjoyed prime cuts of aged beef and a dizzying array of sides. As per tradition, the bill was not divvied up. Instead, they all threw their credit cards in a hat and the unlucky man whose card was withdrawn paid the bill. Alex ended up paying the seven-hundred-dollar tab, an entertaining example of karma, since Alex liked to order expensive wine when they went out for steaks.

Around midnight, Calder lay in bed crunching on M&M’s, watching reruns of
Married with Children
, when someone knocked on his hotel room door.

“Griff, it’s Tim. Open up.”

Wary of a prank, Calder looked through the peephole.

Tim stood there alone, looking worried. “Seriously. Open the door.”

Concerned, Calder turned on the light and let him in. “What’s going on?”

“Becca’s in the hospital.”

“
What?
”

“She took a turn for the worse.”

“Fucking shit on a cracker. We aren’t going to be home for three more days.”

The team might have allowed him to return to San Diego if it had been his wife or child in the hospital, but girlfriends, not so much.

“Erin said to call her if you want more details.”

Calder wasted no time. She answered on the first ring.

“Calder, don’t worry. She’s fine.”

“Tell me everything.”

She went on to give him a clinical description of Becca’s symptoms and vital signs. “I’d been trying to get her to check herself in, but she kept refusing. It wasn’t until she got confused about where she was that I finally took matters into my own hands and called for an ambulance.” She sighed. “She’s resting now and the team taking care of her is top-notch. I’ll keep an eye on her and let you know if anything happens.”

“Erin, you’re an angel. I can’t thank you enough. I seriously owe you.”

Filled with anxiety, Calder brushed past Tim and went directly to the minibar, where he pulled out a random bottle of booze, cracked it open and tried to drink it. The mouth of the bottle was so small and the liquor dribbled down his throat so slowly, he wanted to bite the neck off, broken glass be damned.

“Talk about stubborn,” he said, grabbing another bottle. This one was vodka. He sucked on the bottle this time, but it didn’t help. “Apparently, she’d rather die alone in her bed than go to the fucking hospital. Thank God for Erin. I fucking thank God for your wife, Tim. If it wasn’t for her...” Calder tossed the empty vodka bottle aside and waited for the alcohol to take effect. Even though he wanted to methodically go through every bottle in the fridge, he had a game in about eighteen hours and couldn’t afford to.

“Everything’s going to be fine, Calder. She’s right where she needs to be right now. They’ll take good care of her until you get back.”

Calder looked around for his shoes. “I’m going for a run.”

Tim raised an eyebrow. “It’s in the teens out there. And it’s snowing.”

“Then I’ll go to the gym. I can’t sit here in the room. I’ll go insane.”

“Well, don’t overdo it. The Blue Jackets are on a streak.”

The way he was feeling, with so much pent-up frustration and energy, all generated in the past ten minutes, he could run a fucking marathon
and
take on Columbus single-handedly.