Her mother’s mouth hardened briefly. PJ and Julie shared a look. Their mother hadn’t been told that detail, though why her father thought he could hide it from her was beyond PJ’s understanding.

“I left because what I wanted to do wasn’t going to be possible at Colman. I tried to make it happen there, but Dad and Fee won’t listen and Jay is going to do whatever Fee says because he has Dad’s ear. I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s true.”

“You’ll understand better when you’re older. Your father needs you to take over. You and your siblings. You have to make sacrifices for family.”

“Sacrifices? Mom, what have you been told?” They’d carefully stepped around the situation because PJ hadn’t wanted to put her mom in the middle. But the more they spoke, the clearer it became that their mother hadn’t been told everything.

“Why don’t you tell me? Start from the beginning.”

So PJ did. She started with the first jobs painting the Colman logos on the cars they sponsored, and went right up through the meeting where she’d presented her plan and had it shot down.

“I’m looking at three different places right now to open my shop. I’m paying my bills. I have new clients lining up. All this attention and a lot of this money could be going to Colman. But it isn’t, because I’m supposed to just sell tires as my place in the company because that’s what Fee says.”

“Your uncle is a damned fool. Your dad and I are going to speak about this. I must have missed it when he explained it all to me. But it’s not all right with me to have my children estranged from their family and from the business they’ll carry into the next generation.” Her mother’s expression was enough to make PJ almost feel bad for her father.

Her mom patted her hand. “Leave this to me. Your uncle is a pain, but he can be gotten around.”

“Just ask all his ex-wives,” Julie muttered.

Their mom gasped and then she laughed, blushing. “You two.”

PJ left an hour later feeling a lot better than she had when she’d shown up.

She knocked on Asa’s door just before nine and he opened up.

“Come in.” He took her overnight bag as she passed. “Would you like a beer? I was just out on my deck drinking one.”

“Yes, that sounds fantastic. I’ll grab two since you have my bag.”

Longnecks dangling between her fingers, she followed him up to his room.

“How was dinner with your mom and sister?”

“It was all right, actually. My dad had lied to my mom about the way I left and the reasons for it.”

“How did she react when she found out?” Asa asked.

“She was surprised and upset. I’m always making waves, so I guess I figured her silence on the matter wasn’t that unusual. But she didn’t know.”

These fucking people made him want to punch things. “Yeah, so I think for this discussion you need to be naked and in the bedroom.”

“What?”

Asa smiled down at her, pausing a moment before he buried his fist in her hair and positioned that sweet, sweet mouth of hers just how he wanted it. After he’d kissed the tension out of her spine, he let go.

“That’s better. Now, naked and in bed.”

She got undressed and he took his time admiring her body. The curves of her, the lotus on her back, tonight a pink streak at her temple that matched the nail polish she wore.

So beautiful.

He got in bed and she snuggled up next to him. He clinked his beer to hers. “Now. Tell me about your family.”

“Will you tell me about yours?”

Asa brushed the pad of his thumb over the swell of her bottom lip and she sucked it into her mouth, biting him and then licking as she let go.

“Stop changing the subject.”

“I’m not.” She grinned. “Okay, so I was a little. But I want to know more about you.”

“That’s fair.” He kissed her quickly before settling back. “So you’re close enough with your mom to have dinner with her and Julie. But she hadn’t actually spoken to you about how and why you left Colman? You’ve talked to her since then, right? It’s been two months.”

He had to have heard wrong.

“There’s a lot of not talking about it in my family. It makes them uncomfortable when I confront them.”

“I don’t get it. Their youngest daughter actually walked out on the family business because she was told to be quiet and do what she was told, and neither of them has spoken to you about this? Or you to them?”

“I tried!”

Asa heard the unshed tears in her voice.

Putting his beer aside, he pulled her into his lap. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to upset you.”

“It is what it is. I need to accept that my dad’s never going to connect with me. Not on any level. I’ve known it since I was about fourteen, but I kept lying to myself. Hoping something would change. Trying to be exactly what he wanted, and when that didn’t work, I struck out on my own and I proved myself. I don’t expect him to make me CEO or anything like that. I don’t have the experience or education to do it. I just wanted to do custom paint, and I proved I could make a profit. My grandpa would have been proud. Why can’t he?”

“You were close to Howie then?”

She smiled as she tucked herself into his body.

“Yes. He was my best friend when I was little. He’d show up at our house and take us out for a drive. Or he’d steal us all away for a week at their house. Shawn and I were closest with him and my grandmother.”