“No, no.” Mike reached out to cover her hand while Lily Huang picked up the chopsticks and leaned them on a silver holder. “I meant that the pigeon stands for filial concern and longevity, not squab. Save room for the mango pudding, it’s marvelous.”
Bruce settled a murderous look on Mike’s hand, so firmly closed over Donna’s on the stiffly starched white cloth. The man patted Donna’s hand, once, twice.
“And you’re a lawyer, I understand, Bruce,” Mrs. Woo said.
He returned the woman’s smile with difficulty. “Yes, that’s right.” Mike’s arm still extended across the table.
“I expect that’s fascinating.”
“Fascinating,” Bruce agreed. He would find a way to make sure Donna never saw Mike Woo again.
“I believe I met your sister once. Laura Fenton Hunt?”
The smile on his face hurt. “My cousin.” Donna was undoubtedly the most gorgeous woman he’d ever met, and she was perfect inside as well as out.
“Ah, I see. She does a lot of civic work for Mrs. Winthrop.” Mrs. Woo was oblivious to his lack of concentration.
Mike Woo poured more wine for Donna, who was beginning to look dazed. This must be a hell of a strain for her. “Have you ever been to a real Chinatown parade?” Mike asked.
“No,” Donna responded with polite interest.
“Then we must go. I’d love to take you.” Woo and his father exchanged a glance in which Bruce read mutual understanding. The older man wanted his son married—to the right girl, from the right family—and he’d decided Donna was it.
“I think there’ll be some sort of parade next week,” Mike said to Donna. “I’ll call you and we’ll go.”
Over my dead body, Bruce thought.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MIKE WOO HELD up his right hand, spread the fingers and mouthed the word, “Five.”
Donna leaned closer to him and shouted against the blare of trombones, “So you’re fifth-generation Chinese-American?”
A girls’ band, their short red skirts flaring, the gold braid on their black jackets glinting, marched past, high-stepping in their white boots.
He watched the girls briefly and nodded. “So are you.”
“Not exactly…” Donna began to explain, then yelped when a firecracker sizzled between her feet. Mike took her arm and guided her through straining crowds to a table in front of a café.
She was glad she’d accepted Mike’s invitation to this parade—nervous, but glad, despite Bruce’s opposition.
“Let’s take a break from the din,” Mike said, holding out a chair for her. After she was seated, he flopped down beside her and rested his chin atop folded arms on the table. “Can you believe this? I bet half these people don’t know what they’re celebrating.”
“I don’t either,” Donna said. “What is it for?”
“It’s…” Mike looked at her for a moment before amusement crinkled the corners of his fine eyes. His smile, and the light from the café, did wonderful things for an already unforgettable face. “You know,” he said slowly, “I’m damned if I know. My mother just said…” He stopped and gazed at the dark sky.
Yells, thrumming voices, the jumbled cacophony of the parade, swept around them, and seconds unreeled while Donna felt her muscles relax. He’d almost admitted his mother had put him up to this date. She grinned, a little at first, then more broadly, until tears stung her eyes and she laughed. She gripped his arm and laughed the tears free, and watched the gradual transformation of Mike’s wry grimace into chuckles.
He shook his head and rubbed his face. “Smooth, huh? Look, I don’t want you to think—”
“You don’t have to explain.” Donna sniffed, inhaled a whiff of acrid gunpowder smoke, and coughed. “Honestly you don’t. I understand. Your mother put you up to taking me out to please Ray…uh…my father. They probably cooked the thing up together.”
Mike held his lower lip between white teeth. He was, Donna decided, incredibly attractive. Fortunately, he was no more interested in her than she was in him.
“You’re not offended?”
Impulsively, she reached over to hold his hand. “I’m relieved,” she admitted, and they laughed again. “I guess we’d both take first prize in a How-to-Pay-Scintillating-Compliments contest.”
He sobered. “You are a very beautiful woman, Donna. But I guess you know that.”
She blushed, but said nothing.
Overhead, brilliant paper lanterns bobbled. A figure in a grotesque lion costume capered close, then backed away waggling a giant head.
“You are beautiful,” Mike repeated. “Even more so when you’re embarrassed. I wish we could be friends.”
“And we can’t?”
Mike’s color heightened. “Of course, but you know what I mean. Any ongoing interest on my part, and our parents would be making wedding plans. Your father and mine are old friends, and they see a union between you and me as a blissful opportunity to join our families. Then, of course, a thirty-five-year-old son should be married and producing sons of his own.”
“And you wouldn’t want that?” Donna bit the inside of her cheek to keep a straight face.
“Well…I…that is…”
He was nice. And she was punishing him when she should be thanking him for putting an end to her misery. “Mike, Mike.” She held his hand tighter. “Remember Bruce Fenton, the man who brought me to dinner at the Harbor Village?”
“Yes. Nice guy.”
“The best guy, Mike. The very best.”
His lips parted slightly, and he blinked several times. “You two have a thing for each other?”
“I have a thing for him. I think he’s pretty interested in me, but he hides it well sometimes. Anyway, I want to marry him and, as you can imagine, that could raise a few problems in some areas.”
“Like with Ray,” he said thoughtfully.
A waiter forced his way toward them and took their order for iced tea. Donna waited until the man moved away. “You do know about my adoptive parents?”
Mike bowed his head, tapping his fingertips together. “Ray told my father. But your folks wouldn’t have any objection to Fenton, surely.”
Donna swallowed frustration. How would she ever make the factions in her life compatible? Everyone who had a stake in some part of her life thought their point of view was the only correct point of view. “I grew up with my adoptive parents. And, yes, frankly, I am concerned about their reaction to Bruce. They’re already hurt that I hunted down Raymond Tsung.”
He thought for a long time, then said, “Yes, I suppose they might be. I hadn’t considered that. But why shouldn’t they approve of Bruce?”
“They don’t know about him. At least, they know him—very well in fact, but they don’t know I’m in love with him. And he isn’t helping me by dwelling on how shocked my parents would be if they found out there was something between us. He insists he’s too old for me. Then, too, he’s divorced, and he thinks that makes him a bad marriage prospect.” She sighed. “I know he feels the way I do, but he’s so darned tied up with doing the right thing.” Mike was easy to talk to. The realization surprised and pleased her. “But I don’t want to talk about Bruce. I was hoping you could help me figure out a way to handle Ray.”
“Handle?” The iced tea was delivered, and Mike paid for it. He raised his glass and they drank. “What do you mean, handle Ray?”
“Well,” she said, then hesitated. “Well, he wants to take me in. You see how quickly he’s started thinking of getting me safely married into his circle and integrated into his world? He’s ready for me to become a full-time daughter.”
Mike jiggled his glass on the white-painted tabletop. “I got the impression you wanted that, too.” He looked directly at her. “Why did you look for him if you didn’t want to find him?”
“It’s…complicated.” And embarrassing, Donna thought. She couldn’t explain the whole situation to this man, nice as he was. “Can we just say things have gotten out of ha
nd, and leave it at that?”
He inclined his head toward her. “Whatever you say. But how can I help you? You do want some sort of help from me, don’t you?”
Donna drank her iced tea too fast, caught a piece of ice that shot from the glass, and laughed nervously. She pressed a napkin to her lips. What had she hoped to get from Mike?
“Hey.” He bowed his head close to hers. “We’re soulmates, kid. Both fighting the old family-pressure routine. You’d help me, right? So I’ll do the same for you if I can. Maybe I should tell you what I know about Ray.”
“Yes, yes.” Donna’s spirits lifted. Any tiny lead she could get on dealing with this new and enthusiastic father of hers would be helpful.
“He’s shrewd…in business, I mean,” Mike started. He wrinkled his nose. “But you already know that. He’s the kind of man who can listen. If you lay out whatever’s troubling you, carefully, he’ll try to understand your point of view.”
Sure, Donna thought, if Ray would ever stop being enthusiastic for long enough for her to lay out anything.
“Don’t you think he’ll be receptive to your observations? Understand you’d like to go a little slower with the family involvement?”
“Mmm? Yes,” Donna said quickly. “You’re right, I’ll do what you say. I’ll explain exactly how I feel to him.”
This discussion was useless. She might as well enjoy the wretched parade. Mike couldn’t help her.
He grinned. “Good girl.”
Ribbon streamers flew across the table, and more, and more, in myriad colors, curling around Donna’s neck, over her head. “Help!” she cried, laughing. But Mike was busy tearing away his own paper bonds. He grabbed her hand, and they dodged through clumps of people, heading for the mass of humanity at the curb.
“The dragon’s coming,” Mike shouted, ducking, working his way toward the street and pulling Donna with him. “See?” Miraculously, they were standing in the gutter with a clear view of dancing figures, clowns, and the last members of yet another marching band.
Donna clutched at Mike, and leaned out until she saw the fantastic head of the dragon advancing up Grant Avenue. “I see it.” She hopped from one foot to the other, instantly feeling foolish, then realized she was one of thousands of hopping, shouting people, many old enough to be her grandparents.
“It’s wonderful. Oh, Mike, it’s wild.” She craned her neck for a better view of the brilliant, twisting body winding through the night, smoke spurting from its scarlet-ringed nostrils. Lighted eyes flashed from jewel-studded sockets, a silver beard trailed from the snapping jaw, as striped horns of purple, turquoise and gold speared toward a moonless sky.
“I want to get closer,” Donna urged. “Can we?”
Mike didn’t answer. He’d become quite still. She glanced up at him and frowned. “What is it? What’s the matter?”
He inhaled sharply and smiled. “I thought I saw your friend.”
She followed the direction of his stare and narrowed her eyes to make out individuals in the shifting melee. “Who?”
“Fenton. Bruce Fenton.”
“Bruce…but I told him…he knows I wanted to get away…. Damn him, now he’s playing nervous father. As if I didn’t have enough of those.” Maybe Mike only thought he saw Bruce, she reasoned.
Mike was laughing suddenly, and Donna started to turn to him when she saw a familiar, tall, slender man shouldering a path purposefully through the crowd. Bruce! She’d told him she needed a complete change of pace, and a chance to talk to someone who might understand Raymond Tsung better than either of them did. And he’d still followed her.
“Why are you laughing?” she asked Mike without looking at him.
“Sorry. I was just thinking that I needn’t have worried about my parents’ matrimonial plans for me, or about Ray’s. And I don’t think you need to question Bruce Fenton’s feelings for you. Whether he admits it or not, the guy’s got a bad case. He must have been tailing us ever since I picked you up, otherwise he’d never have found us.”
“Well, that’s terrific, I guess.” And it was, but Donna didn’t want to confront Bruce now, here, where the meeting could only be awkward. “But I’d rather not talk to Bruce tonight.”
The dragon’s head drew level, then swept close to them. When Mike moved, Donna almost fell, and he half carried her forward, lifted the silken side of the make-believe beast and shoved her inside.
Donna opened her mouth, but no sound emerged. She tried to face Mike, but his hands at her waist propelled her forward, loping, tripping, gradually falling into step with the rest of the dragon’s “legs.”
Men shouted in Chinese, and Mike shouted back. Raucous laughter echoed deafeningly in the suffocating, smelly space.
“What are we doing?” Donna managed to ask between gasps. “They’ll throw us out. We’ll get into trouble.”
“No way,” Mike said. “You said you didn’t want to talk to Bruce right now. This should lose him.”
She had to grin. Wait till she told Bruce about her theatrical debut!
Bruce finally reached the curb. Damn it all, he’d lost sight of them. He should have stayed on the same side of the street, but when they’d left the café he’d been afraid they’d notice him.
The dragon passed, and he crossed over to where he’d seen them last. There was no sign of either of them. The crowd was closing in around the tail of the dragon, pursuing it up the avenue. He was carried along in the crush.
He shoved forward. Mike and Donna were probably following, too. He no longer cared what he’d say if they saw him. Donna didn’t belong in this madness. She must go home. He’d find her and take her home.
Gradually, he broke out to the edge of the crowd again and ran on, searching, glad of his height. He reached the dragon’s front end just as it wallowed out, cutting him off.
He stumbled and cursed under his breath, and at the same time looked down at the scuffling feet of the monster. His heart skipped a beat, then several beats, and Bruce wondered if he was going to have the cardiac arrest that crazy woman had been bound to cause him from the minute she’d arrived in San Francisco.
Among the dusty, trousered legs and tennis shoes ran one slender pair of feminine limbs moving as well as could be expected, perhaps better, in low-heeled but delicate fuchsia-colored sandals.
For an instant Bruce’s mind went blank and the hubbub receded. He saw only those perfect, narrow, golden ankles turning this way and that, ankles he knew so well.
An elbow in his back sent him grabbing for support. He clutched at a luminous tassel. He regained his balance and jumped, caught the base of one improbable horn with both hands, planted his heels and jerked the glowing eyes toward him.
Enraged shouts bellowed through the dragon’s mouth, all in Chinese; then Bruce heard a scream he recognized. Fury made him stronger than he’d ever been. He wrenched up silk by the handfuls until he was looking into Donna’s flushed face. “Come out,” he ordered. “You little idiot. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She came out, or rather he dragged her out beside him. Mike Woo, his face impassive despite his ruffled appearance, joined them. “This is my fault,” he interceded smoothly. “I thought Donna would get a kick out of seeing this—” he waved his arm at the dragon “—from the other side. She’s fine. I wouldn’t have let anything happen to her, Fenton.”
Bruce absorbed Mike’s words. He wanted to be somewhere else, now, with Donna. It was time they finally got a few issues settled.
Anxiously, Donna eyed first one and then the other man. Bruce was ignoring Mike while he concentrated on her. She didn’t like the hard set of his mouth.
“You don’t do that, man.” The man who’d been operating the dragon’s jaws rushed at Bruce, stopped short, but thumped his shoulder. “Who do you think you are, huh?”
“He’s—” Donna began.
“Be quiet,” Bruce snapped.
The man yanked Bruce’s sleeve. “You don’t mess with the dragon, man.
What’s your problem?”
“He was just—”
“Shut up, Donna,” Bruce said. People pushed in on all sides. “Look, buddy. The lady got mixed up with your people in there, and I was—”
“Fred,” Mike interrupted, clapping the man on the back. “Fred, it’s me, Mike Woo. Where ya been? Haven’t seen you in ages.”
Fred turned bemused eyes on Mike. The dragon, its occupants yelling incoherently, was in danger of being crushed. “Mike? I’ll be. What’s new? I been…hey, I gotta get this thing moving. Call me, huh? I’d like to talk to you.” He began sliding back into place. The instant before his face disappeared, he gave Bruce a parting glare and a warning: “You watch it, man. You better drop parades from your itinerary.” Then the dragon moved on, and with it the crowd, a pall of smoky air hanging above their heads.
“I’m taking you home,” Bruce announced.
She looked at her toes. “Mike will be taking me home, Bruce, when we’re ready.”
“Mike?” Bruce asked softly.
Donna glanced around. She and Bruce were alone. The hum of the parade swept steadily away, the bobbing tide of color leaving discarded food wrappers and paper cups in its wake. She pushed her hands into the pockets of her skirt. Mike had decided to take his cue and bow out.
“He was right to go,” Bruce said, as if he’d read her thoughts. “You and I have some talking to do.”
“Not tonight,” Donna said. “Drop me off at home, if you don’t mind. I don’t need another lecture tonight.”
Bruce’s arm, wrapped firmly around her waist, surprised Donna. She tensed, but didn’t pull away. He strode along, staring straight ahead, until they reached the same lot where Mike had parked. Mike’s dark blue Aston Martin was gone.
Slipping rapidly past the glittering outlines of Chinatown’s stores and restaurants in Bruce’s car, Donna kept her head turned sharply away from Bruce. He made no attempt at conversation. His sleek car sped on, but instead of turning toward Mark and Laura’s house, Bruce drove directly to his own place. Donna’s heart raced until it thudded in her throat.
Bruce parked in the alley leading to his garage and got out of the car. Donna made no attempt to move. He opened the door and waited.
Yes Is Forever Page 20
