Dare to be Dirty (The Dirty Girls Book Club #2) (29 page)

“Seriously. If you’re absolutely sure.” Up until now, her mom’s tone had been subdued, but now, sounding more emotional, she said, “But if you joined CPM, it would stay in the family, and that’s important to us.”

Kim heard a murmur of agreement from her father.

“It will always be in the family,” Kim pointed out. “You’ve hired so many relatives.” But she knew that wasn’t the same as having their only child in management. She’d won, and in the process she’d hurt her parents. An idea occurred to her. “Mom, I really don’t want to eventually run CPM, but maybe I could still be involved. I wouldn’t have a lot of hours to give, but perhaps there’s something I could do.”

Her mother must have put her hand partway over the phone. Kim heard a babble of Cantonese as her mother spoke to her dad in quick, excited bursts, and her father responded in his slower, deeper voice. She couldn’t catch what they were saying. Then her mom spoke into the phone again. “The Board of Directors. Would you serve on it?”

“I’m honored that you’d ask. Yes, of course.” Kim realized that, thanks to seeing Ty with his parents and hearing about their struggles, she’d finally grasped what a family business truly meant. “Mom, I would love to be part of what you and Dad have built together.”

“Good. Very good.” She was silent for a moment, then said, “It’s a pity Henry is so involved in his own family’s business.”

“Henry?” Kim blinked, and rose to her feet again. “How does he come into this? And I thought you liked that he worked in his family’s company.”

“That was when we thought you’d slowly take over running CPM. The next best option would be for your husband to come into the company.”

Kim’s mouth fell open. Clearly, the time for half-truths was past. “I need to tell you, Henry and I are friends, but we’re no longer dating.”

“Aiya!”
When her mom was really upset, she reacted first in Cantonese.

Kim walked onto the tiny balcony. “He hasn’t told his parents, so please don’t say anything.”

“I’m sorry about this, Kim.”

“Me too.” Once, she’d thought she and Henry were so compatible. Now she knew their compatibility was more about their common background and culture, not similar interests and dreams.

“Hmm . . . Have you met Jim Lau?”

“Who? No, I don’t think so.”

“He is a young lawyer at CPM. He has great potential. If you married him, perhaps he might eventually take over and we would still keep the company in the family.”

Oh my God.
Trust her mother. “Mom, I—”

“When you come home, you’ll meet Jim. You’ll like him.”

Was that an order? she wondered ruefully.

A lawyer with CPM, not a cowboy. Who knew, Jim Lau might be her perfect match, and that would make her parents so happy. Trying to ignore a ridiculous ache in her heart that protested against dating any man who wasn’t Ty, she said, “I’d be happy to meet him.”

“Ah, that is very good. I will arrange it. Now, your father wishes to talk to you.”

He said, in his choppier, more accented English, “Kim. A lot happening.”

“You and Mom are being wonderful about UmbrellaWings. Thank you, Dad.”

“You are only child. You will make family proud.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“We check flights. Send ticket.”

Yes, her time in Vancouver was nearly at an end, but she wasn’t ready to set an actual date to leave. “We can deal with that in a few weeks.”

“No. Now. You come home now. Tomorrow or next day.”

Twenty-nine

K
im’s brain had processed so much in the last hour that it now stalled. “What are you talking about? My two years aren’t up.”

“No reason stay.”

“But my studies at Emily Carr . . .”

He huffed, then switched to Cantonese. “Your classes are over and you’re just finishing assignments. Do that here. You want to start your own business and we have offered to help. Why wait?”

Because she wanted to spend more time with classmates and friends, to have a few more get-togethers with book club. To revisit her favorite spots in Vancouver and see the ones she’d never gotten around to.

She wanted to spend more time with Ty.

Vancouver wasn’t Hong Kong. It wasn’t home, but it was a wonderful second home. A city that was cleaner, fresher, and prettier than Hong Kong. A city where she’d made friends and had developed UmbrellaWings with their help. George had even suggested she build her business here.

Was that crazy? “What if—?” Words crammed her throat. She swallowed, then forced them out. “What if I started up the company in Vancouver? Umbrellas are a huge thing here. I think Vancouverites would love my ideas. They like beauty, nature, and a touch of whimsy.” What was she thinking? She belonged in Hong Kong with her parents. She was too young to start a business all on her own. As for Ty, even if they did spend more time together, she’d never somehow morph into a ranch wife.

Her father had covered the phone. She heard that dim gabble of Cantonese again.

Then he spoke to her in that language, his voice firm. “Don’t be foolish, daughter. You belong here with us. You will start your company here.”

Tentatively, she said, “I could start it here, then expand internationally and set up an operation in Hong Kong.”

“No. If you want our approval, assistance, and financing, you will start it here.”

“Give me that phone,” her mother said to him in Cantonese. Then, in English, “Kim, this is very disappointing. What is wrong with you? We give you what you want, and you fling it back in our faces?”

“Oh, Mom, I don’t mean it that way. I’m so grateful. But I do think Vancouver might be the perfect location to launch UmbrellaWings.”

“
Perfect
is here, with your parents’ guidance. We will send an e-ticket, and you will come home.”

Kim walked inside and glanced around the studio apartment she so loved. She breathed in, then out. All right, she’d leave. In a way, her parents’ decisiveness was a relief. The idea of staying in Vancouver and starting a business all by herself really was crazy. Besides, she couldn’t bear to disappoint and hurt her parents any more than she’d already done. “Yes, Mom. But please, could I have a little time to wind things up here and to pack?”

“Movers will pack your small place in two hours.” A pause, then a huff. “Fine. We will give you one week.” Her mother ended the call.

Dazed, Kim flopped down in her reading chair. She’d been given the one thing she most wanted in life, the thing she’d dreamed about since she was a child. She should be ecstatic. She should be jumping up and down, buying champagne, calling her friends to go out and celebrate.

What was wrong with her?

She gazed around the studio, the place where she’d experimented with her art. Where she’d experimented with sex, with Ty. She’d have to give notice to her parents’ building manager. Next month, this would be someone else’s home. She’d be living with her parents.

Which was good. Really it was.

She pulled up e-mail, sent her notice, then studied a message from Henry suggesting they have dinner on Thursday.

E-mail wouldn’t do for this, so she phoned him. “Henry, I’m sorry but I told my parents about us not being together any longer.”

“I thought we agreed to wait until we went home.”

“It turns out, I’m going home in a week.” Those words didn’t seem real. She filled him in on the details.

“I knew you wished to pursue art, but I did not believe you’d come up with a realistic plan. I am sorry that I doubted you.” He sounded formal and truly apologetic.

“It’s okay.” He was a product of his upbringing, just as she was. “There’s a part of me that wishes I could stay in Vancouver and start the business here,” she confessed. “To be independent. But I know I’m too young and inexperienced.”

“I have the same wish to be independent sometimes. But this is disloyal to our parents, who gave us everything.”

“I suppose.”

“Perhaps when we are both home, your and my relationship will be different. You—we—will be less, uh, distracted by things that are not relevant in the long term.”

Like her Chinese
rumspringa
, her passionate dirty girl fling with Ty Ronan? Was Henry right? Would things look different once they were back in Hong Kong?

“We get along, Kim. We care for each other.”

“We do, but that’s not enough.” Even if Ty wasn’t the right mate for her, she wanted passion. A person deserved that. She hoped both she and Henry would find it, but she didn’t believe it would ever flame between the two of them.

He sighed. “If you are sure.”

“I am. But thanks for helping make my time in Vancouver so great. Every time I felt homesick, you were like a touch of home and you made me feel better.”

As she ended the call, her e-mail pinged. Her mother had sent an e-ticket for a flight Wednesday morning, next week.

Biting her lip, Kim called Ty again.

“You talked to your parents?” he asked, without even a “hi.”

“They tried to talk me into working for CPM, but I didn’t back down and they finally said yes.”

“That’s wonderful. Way to go.” He sounded genuinely happy for her, happier than she felt right now.

“Thanks. Yes, it’s great.”

“You don’t sound as excited as I thought you’d be.”

“I am. It’s taking time to sink in. And, well, there’s more good news and, uh, some surprising news.”

“Go on.”

“My parents said they’d provide start-up funding.”

“Man, you really must have impressed them. Congratulations, honey.”

Honey.
There it was again. And he sounded so thrilled and proud that she could barely force the next words out. “But I have to go home next week. I’m flying out Wednesday morning on Cathay Pacific.”

“What?” he exclaimed. “Next Wednesday? Damn, I thought you had a month left.”

“They said if I’m going to start a business, I should come home and do it.”

“But . . . Well, huh.” The happy excitement had disappeared from his voice too.

“Yeah. I wasn’t expecting that.”

They were both quiet, then he said, “The rodeo this weekend? I guess that’s not going to work out?”

“I have so much to tidy up here.” It was a half-truth. Mostly, she’d feel too sad, traveling with Ty all weekend and knowing she’d never see him again.

“This isn’t good-bye,” he said firmly. “Not like this, on the phone.”

Tears filled her eyes again. It would be painful to see Ty. But no, they couldn’t end it this way. Struggling to keep her voice even, she said, “I could drive out tomorrow afternoon.”

“I’ll get some champagne and we’ll toast UmbrellaWings.” But he didn’t sound in any more celebratory a mood than she did.

She held it together to say, “That sounds good,” before she ended the call and surrendered to tears.

* * *

W
ednesday morning, Ty and his parents met to discuss changing feed suppliers. When, for the third time, he asked his dad to repeat what he’d said, Brand Ronan grumped, “Where’s your mind this morning, son?”

“Kim called last night. Her parents like her business plan, and she’s going back to Hong Kong next week.”

“It’s probably for the best,” his mom said. “Before the two of you got in too deep.”

The ache in his heart told him she might be right. Or that he might already be in too deep. He hated the thought of never seeing Kim again. But was that just because she was a sexy, vivacious woman, or were his feelings more serious? He’d never felt this kind of ache before.

“You knew she wasn’t going to stay.” There was a touch of sympathy in his dad’s voice. “City folks will always be drawn to big city life. She told you that.”

“She did.” He’d seen the way she enjoyed Ronan Ranch, but she’d always made it clear she loved Hong Kong. So why did he feel closer to her than to any other woman he’d ever dated?

“I like Kim,” his mom said briskly, “and I wish her well. Now you need to move on. You know Bill and Kay Field at Dairy in the Field?”

“Of course.”

“Their niece Sandy got her degree in agribusiness and has come to work at the dairy. She’s mid-twenties, pretty, real down to earth. Why don’t I ask them all over for dinner?”

“Mom, I don’t need you matchmaking.” He looked to his dad for backup but got only a shrug.

“You’re not doing so well on your own,” she said. “Dating women like Kim, who you’d never settle down with.”

Ouch.
“The right woman will come along.” Ty knew his tone was less than convincing. Right now, it was hard to imagine caring for anyone other than Kim.

“The right woman might come along to the dinner table,” his mother said tartly, “if you let me invite Sandy. What have you got against a girl you’ve never met?”

“Nothing. It’s the principle of the thing.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s avoidance.”

“You said that before,” he snapped. “What the hell—heck—are you talking about?”

She pressed her lips together, then released them. “You’re scared of being abandoned. Miranda left, and you never got over it.”

“Oh Jeez.” He raked his hands through his hair. “I was a baby. I don’t even remember her. Besides, Dad got over it just fine.”

“Your dad was a man, with a man’s brain to make sense of things.”

“And Betty to help me do it,” his father put in quietly.

His mom sent him a loving glance, then turned back to Ty. “You were a child. Childhood experiences have a powerful influence.”

“You snuck off and got a psychology degree in your spare time, did you?” he taunted.

“Don’t sass me. You’re not too old to have your ears boxed.”

“Sorry, Mom.”

“The one person in the world who was supposed to love and protect you instead walked out on you. That had to leave a scar.”

He barely resisted groaning.

“A scar that makes you afraid of loving, of committing to a relationship, for fear of being abandoned again.”

Kim had hinted at the same thing, but backed off. Could these two women possibly be right? “Feed suppliers,” Ty said firmly. “Are we gonna give the new guys a try?”

* * *

B
y the time Kim’s red car turned into his road, Ty had done a lot of thinking. Analyzing emotions and relationships was not his strong point, and he’d gotten himself all confused.

She climbed out of the car and started toward him. Today she wore a copper tank top painted with green and black stylized wings, and a long, floaty skirt with a similar pattern in greens, coppery-orange, and black. Her hair was streaked with bronze and green.

Kim was so out of place here, and yet she looked exactly right. Suddenly all the confusion stilled and something settled in his heart, deep and true: a certainty that said, “Her. This is the one.”

She’d asked him if he knew what love felt like. He hadn’t. Now, he did.

This.
This powerful surge that was ecstasy, fear, and nausea all in the same moment, like the one time he’d been damn fool enough to try bull riding. The nausea, he figured, wasn’t caused by love, but the fear he might lose her.

Might.
That was the operative word. His dragonfly girl couldn’t really intend to go back to Hong Kong. If he felt like this, she had to feel it too. Sure, their two worlds were very different, but somehow there had to be a way they’d mesh. Just the way he and she did, as if they’d been made for each other.

He strode to meet her and, without even a hello, swept her up in his arms and swung her around. She was light as a bird, graceful as a dragonfly, pretty as a butterfly. The woman had wings, and she’d flown away with his heart. Hell, she’d even made him whimsical.

He could have spun her forever—and would have, if it could keep her with him. But reality had to be dealt with. Putting her down, he said, “Congratulations on UmbrellaWings, honey.” Inside, his heart was chanting, “You can’t go, you can’t go, you can’t go.”

“Thanks.” She smiled, not beaming with joy but tentatively. “It’s pretty amazing. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

She didn’t have to do anything without him. Not ever again.

He had to have her. Right now. Had to merge with her, knowing that he loved her. “The hayloft. Come up to the hayloft.” Where better than his special spot for planning and dreaming?

She studied him. “I like the hayloft.” Again, he sensed reserve. Kim thought this was their last time together, while he was determined it wouldn’t be. He had to break through her reserve, find the passionate woman, make her feel what he did. Taking her hand, he guided her into the barn and up the steps to the loft.

His battered old leather recliner was in its spot by the window. He sat down. “Come here.”

With a questioning look, she sat across his lap, looping her arms around his neck. “Ty?”

Why did he used to think long blond hair was pretty? This, right here in his lap, was perfection. “Oh man, Kim, you’re something.” He flicked one of those sassy green strands of hair. “Dragonfly or butterfly?” He knew she’d have the name.

“Downy Emerald dragonfly.”

“Pretty.” He ran his finger down the straight line of her small nose. Traced the slight bow of her upper lip, the subtle curve of her lower one. Her lips parted and her tongue touched his finger. When his finger stilled, she drew the tip of it into his mouth and sucked.

Beneath his fly, his cock filled, imagining the suction of that small, warm, talented mouth. He shifted, letting her feel his hard-on under her butt. He slid his finger from between her lips and kissed her, not invading her mouth but toying with her lips, using his tongue and teeth to caress and nibble and tease.

She sighed, wriggled her butt against the hard ridge of his erection.