Indomitable Spirit Read online

  Indomitable Spirit

  by

  Bernadette Marie

  This is a fictional work. The names, characters, incidents, places, and locations are solely the concepts and products of the author’s imagination or are used to create a fictitious story and should not be construed as real.

  5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND BOOKS, LLC

  PO Box 16507

  Denver, CO 80216

  www.5PrinceBooks.com

  ISBN 13: 978-1-63112-034-3 ISBN: 10: 1631120344

  Indomitable Spirit

  Bernadette Marie

  Copyright Bernadette Marie 2014

  Published by 5 Prince Publishing at Smashwords

  Front Cover Photo by Antoinette Giambrocco

  Cover design by Viola Estrella

  Author Photo: Damon Kappel 2009

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations, reviews, and articles. For any other permission please contact 5 Prince Publishing and Books, LLC.

  First Edition/First Printing April 2014 Printed U.S.A.

  5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND BOOKS, LLC.

  For Stan,

  My Indomitable Spirit is because of your belief in me.

  To My 5 little Blackbelts: You inspired me long before you could kihap, kick, and take names. You inspire me every day. I love you all.

  To my mom, dad, and sister: Every journey—businesses, books, or karate you were always there. I love you.

  To Connie: Who thought we’d move from the parent chairs to the board room together. Thank you, for everything.

  To Master Stephenie Becker: Thank you for sharing yourself with me. In your image I have created a strong, passionate woman who can hold her own…and love the man of her dreams.

  To my karate family: Since the day my white belt was tied on me you were there for me. 8 years may have come and gone, but those bonds are still as tight as the knot on that belt. Tang Soo!

  To Jester: Thank you for being my partner all those years and setting the bar so high. Also, thank you for giving me a handyman…one with a black eye and a sense of humor!

  To Sara: Thank you for stepping in and helping me wrap this up! You too will continue to do great things with your indomitable spirit.

  Dear Reader,

  It is with great honor and passion that I bring to you this book. Many years of my life were spent training in the martial arts. Without that discipline and realized belief in myself so many of my dreams wouldn’t have come true—including my writing career.

  Indomitable Spirit is what Kym O’Bryne has. Left in the small town of Aspen Creek, she has been giving the unglamorous task of building the family’s school. When she meets the less than cordial John Larson she assumes nothing good will ever happen when their paths cross.

  As she gets to know John, and his four children, she realizes there is a lot to learn and a lot to give. And with an indomitable spirit anything is possible.

  I hope you enjoy this Aspen Creek story. I look forward to bringing you many, many more.

  Happy Reading,

  Bernadette Marie

  Other Titles by Bernadette Marie

  THE KELLER FAMILY SERIES

  The Executive’s Decision

  A Second Chance

  Opposite Attraction

  Center Stage

  Lost and Found

  Love Songs

  Home Run

  The Acceptance (2014)

  The Merger (2014)

  The Escape Clause (2015)

  ASPEN CREEK SERIES

  First Kiss

  Unexpected Admirer

  On Thin Ice

  Indomitable Spirit

  MATCHMAKER SERIES

  Matchmakers

  Encore

  Finding Hope

  SINGLE TITLES

  Cart Before the Horse

  Candy Kisses

  THE THREE MRS. MONROE TRILOGY

  COMING SUMMER 2014

  Indomitable Spirit

  Chapter One

  Crisp wind blew off the lake and down through the small mountain town. The streets were bare as the sun crested the mountaintop and sent the lake shimmering in gold and orange hues. Kym O’Bryne stood on her deck, wrapped in her heavy robe and fuzzy slippers, nursing a warm cup of coffee that steamed in the brisk November air.

  She’d lived in many places. Korea, Ireland, California, and New York to name a few. Each place held its own mystique when fall began to give way to winter. But she’d never experienced anything like the change in the seasons in Colorado.

  Already she’d been up for hours. She’d tended to her grandfather. In April he’d turned ninety, and though sharp as a tack, he was becoming frail. It had become her duty to take care of him and she did so with honor. She’d run three miles on her treadmill, within her warm house, and had trained in her dojang, which was downstairs from where she lived. She’d inherited the failing karate school for her thirtieth birthday.

  Kym shook her head at the thought. She always assumed she’d run a school. What had made her father purchase the school and hand it over to her, she’d never know. It wasn’t what she considered an ideal location. It was, however, her grandfather’s dream to see his grandchildren carry on the family tradition. Though, when you saw the name O’Bryne on the door of a karate school, it didn’t actually give the impression of traditional Korean training.

  She shook off the cold and walked back into her home, slipped a piece of bread into the toaster, and finished her cup of coffee. Kym thought of her brothers and their minimal success with their schools. Both of her brothers, Ian and Liam, were Irish through and through. Ian with his blond hair and Liam with his red, both sported emerald green eyes like hers. They’d inherited them from their father, Todd O’Bryne of Dublin, Ireland.

  She took her toast from the toaster when it popped and buttered it generously and then slathered strawberry jelly on top of it. It was her little bit of indulgence.

  With her toast in hand she sat at the kitchen table, flipped open her laptop, and was pleased to find an email from her mother. She smiled.

  Oh, it was a grand thought that Todd and Mi Sun O’Bryne had retired back to Dublin, where her father was born. Her mother sent a picture of them standing in front of a pub once owned by her father’s family. They looked happy.

  Her mother’s name fit her so well. Mi Sun stood for beauty and goodness and that was what her mother always radiated.

  Her parents’ was a love story you’d have read in a book or seen in a movie. The tall, gangly Irishman who followed his wanderlust and landed in Korea, where he met the small, beautiful, and graceful daughter of a rice farmer. Both father and daughter dreamed of seeing the world. Todd and Mi Sun were married and lived in Korea for five years, where Ian was born. Then Todd took his family, father-in-law included, and moved to Ireland. That was where Kym was born.

  Named after her mother’s family Kym, Kym was born with the Korean features of her mother, except for the emerald green eyes she’d inherited from her father.

  After five years it was off to America to live in Sacramento where little Irish Liam was born and the first school of the Kyms and O’Brynes was started.

  It seems like a lifetime ago, Kym thought as she cleared her place at the table. She closed her laptop and moved to the cabinet to find the tea to make for her grandfather.

  Now Ian, Liam, and she owned schools all over the country that taught Tang Soo Do to the masses, changing lives as they went along.

  Kym, however, never thought her chance to change lives would be tucked in a small community in the Colorado mountains with less than three thousand people.

  When she reached
for the canister of tea, she found it was empty. That she should have known, it was on her list, but she’d forgotten to stop at the store. She wished she’d remembered, because the temperature had dropped at least thirty degrees from the day before and now she would have to bundle up, warm her car, and head out to find tea for her grandfather.

  John Larson pushed through the front door of the Aspen Creek Market. How, he wondered, could kids eat through four boxes of cereal, two boxes of Pop-Tarts, and a box of frozen waffles in a week? They were going to break him.

  He pulled out a cart, and with his head down, he started on his mission.

  “Good morning, John. How are you this lovely morning?”

  On a slight oath he turned to see Gloria, the cheerful clerk, standing at the register with her red apron barely encompassing her oversized chest and stomach.

  “Mornin’.” He pushed forward as quickly as he could. The last thing he needed on a Sunday morning was to be caught up in one of Gloria’s hour-long renditions of what her grandbabies did this week that no other child has done before—like eat and poop. He just didn’t need it.

  He fretted over the cereals that his sons liked because there was a heroic character on them and then over to the ones with a princess, for his little Abby. But in the end he reached for the generic bag of cereal with the name that sounded name brand, but wasn’t. He threw two different ones into his cart and with a grunt he took off to finish his shopping.

  A woman’s yelp made him shoot his head up when his cart collided with another. He found himself staring into the most mesmerizing green eyes he’d ever seen. How odd they seemed on the very petite Asian woman standing before him.

  His tongue swelled in his mouth and he couldn’t speak to apologize as she glared at him.

  “Sir, don’t you think an apology is in order?”

  He stood there, staring at the long, dark hair that fell from beneath her sensible stocking cap, over her shoulders and down her back. It had been a very long time since a woman’s beauty had rendered him unable to think or talk.

  “Well, then I’ll apologize for having my cart simply parked here in the way of your moving one.” She huffed out, reached for a box of tea bags, and tossed it into her cart.

  He simply watched as she backed up her cart and started around him. She stood erect, and, though she was probably only five feet tall, he thought she could easily walk among the city streets without anyone messing with the little ball of beauty and fire.

  She stopped and shot him another look with those beautiful, cool eyes. “I haven’t found too many people in this town who weren’t treated to manners as a child, but I guess there is always a first.” She went on her way, moving down the next aisle as John continued to get his breath back.

  Once he shook off the utter irritation and delight of the little woman, John went back to filling his cart with things his children would, no doubt, devour before he got home from work the next day.

  When he headed toward Gloria to check out, he noticed the dark-haired woman who had stunned his brain with just a few words walk out of the store.

  He unloaded his items onto the conveyor as Gloria began to scan the boxes, bags, and cans.

  “Where’s your veggies?” she asked, analyzing his purchases.

  “Pardon me?”

  “Those kids need veggies.”

  “Yeah, I’ll get some next time.” That would shut her up for a moment, he hoped. Then he realized he needed information, and if anyone in town had it, it would be Gloria. “Hey, who was that woman that was just in here?”

  “Oh, Kym?”

  “Kym?”

  “Just took over the karate school. Lives above it with her grandfather. Surprised you didn’t know about it.”

  He shrugged. “Been busy, I guess.”

  “Heard. Fixing up Malory’s bakery?”

  “Yeah.”

  He wondered if he’d heard about her moving to town. Then again, people were always talking, and he was usually in his own world. There was too much on his plate to worry about town gossip. Until now.

  He carried the bags to his truck and tossed them in the back. As he did he saw her, Kym, he reminded himself, dart out of Malory’s bakery with a cup of coffee. No doubt it was one of those fancy blends that she’d brought in just for those who had to have it. He didn’t see the point, but then again John didn’t need anything that was fancy.

  Kym hurried to her small Honda and drove away. John stood at the back of his truck and watched her disappear around the curve of the lake and behind the trees. It was a good thing she lived and worked at the same place, he figured. Sooner or later it was going to snow, and that little car wasn’t going to go anywhere.

  Wednesday mornings belonged to Kym. Her grandfather had made friends at the local seniors’ center and on Wednesday there was always something for him to do there. That pleased them both. Taking care of him was an honor she did not take lightly. But still, to have the house to herself was priceless.

  There were never any classes in her school until afternoon, and there were none on Wednesday. Sunday and Wednesday belonged to her; she saved her bookwork and her curriculum planning for business hours.

  As she made breakfast she made a list of the things she wanted to do.

  After her trip to the grocery store, she needed to drive into Grand Junction before the snow moved in and buy some loose tea. Her grandfather preferred it that way, though he’d never complain about a tea bag. Kym wanted to please him though and something as little as tea prepared the way he liked it brought her as much joy as it brought to him.

  One day she wanted to go to Denver and do some shopping, and at some point, she’d like to make her way to Black Hawk and Central City and try her hand at the slot machines.

  For today, she was going to venture around town and stick her head into the local shops. She’d been there a month and met only the parents of her students. More people knew her grandfather than knew her.

  As she rose from the table, her cell phone rang and she was disappointed to find that the sign she’d ordered for the school was ready for installation. On a sigh, she realized she’d be giving up her Wednesday to work anyway.

  The sign company had delivered her sign to Larson Hardware on Main Street. The owner, John Larson, had been contracted to hang it. However, she’d have to get in touch with him.

  Well, she thought, there was no time like the present to stick her head in the door of a local business.

  The hardware store was like many she’d been in over the years. Like a karate school, hardware stores had a look to them. Walls of hammers and screwdrivers met her, as well as the scents of paint and wood.

  A woman behind the front counter was cutting a key for a man who stood tapping his fingers. He leaned over, rested on his elbows, and when he caught sight of her, he gave her a nod. “How’s it going?”

  “Oh, it’s going well, thank you.” She tried to plaster a pleasant smile on her dry lips that the bitter air was trying to ruin.

  The woman turned off the noisy machine and slid the keys to the man. “Okay, Mac, all done.” She turned her head toward Kym. “Oh, hi. Sorry, I’ll be with you in just a moment.”

  Mac smiled. “Go ahead. I got time to wait.”

  “How can I help you?”

  Kym stepped up to the counter. “I was told I could find a John Larson here.”

  “Sometimes you can.” The woman leaned in near the man she’d called Mac and scanned her eyes over Kym. “He’s on a job right now. Can I help you?”

  “I’m Kym O’Bryne. My sign…”

  “Oh.” The woman stood up. “The karate gal.”

  Again, Kym forced a smile. “Yes, that’s me.”

  The man turned full to her and gave her a long study. “O’Bryne? You don’t look Irish.”

  “My father is Irish. My mother Korean. I take after her.”

  The woman walked around the counter and extended her hand. “I’m Kelley Larson, John’s sister and co-owner of
this establishment. This baboon is Mac Stern. Mac here coaches hockey over at the ice rink.”

  “It’s nice to meet you both.” She put pleasantness in her voice, as her mother always told her to do.

  “John is working over at Malory’s bakery today. I can have him give you a call.”

  “You know, I’ll poke my head in there. I’m making my way around town today.”

  “I’m glad you stopped in.” Kelley smiled widely. “You just let me know if you ever need anything. If I can’t help you, John certainly can.”

  Kym thanked her and went about walking up the street toward the bakery. She looked forward to meeting a man of whom his sister spoke so highly. The wind was calm, but the air was still brisk. She pulled the scarf around her neck tighter and opened the door.

  The smell of fresh baked bread and cookies washed over her as she shut the door behind her. The temperature inside was warm from the ovens and the obvious construction that was going on.

  Malory’s was one of the businesses Kym had visited every Sunday morning. The vanilla latte that she made was Kym’s indulgence each week.

  “Morning, Kym. What a treat to see you. It’s not even Sunday.” Malory Douglas waddled to the counter. Her extremely pregnant belly bulged beneath her apron.

  The smile Kym gave Malory was not forced. She liked her and her bakery and was always happy to be there. “Actually I came on business. I’m looking for John Larson.”