“A little after eight.”
Gina exhaled. “Okay.”
“I’ll run your bath,” Dutch said and turned to go into the bathroom.
“I can get it,” Gina said, sitting up. She refused to decide what she was going to do based on emotion alone. She’d been through so much with this man. She had to decide if she could take any more. Because if she stayed with Dutch, she’d already concluded, there was certain to be even more drama.
Dutch felt wounded when she refused his offer to run her bath. She’d never in their entire marriage refused him like that. “It’s no problem,” he said, trying with all he had not to look at her now naked body. He failed.
“It’s a problem and you know it,” Gina said. “We have a problem. And we aren’t going to pretend that everything is fine and dandy because it’s not. You promised me space---”
Dutch held up his hands. “All right,” he said. “I’ll give you space.” Then he exhaled. “How did it go with LaLa?”
Gina nodded. “It went okay. She’s hurting, so we kind of encouraged each other.”
“She says Crader is inattentive.”
Gina yawned, nodding her head. “Not just that. She’s afraid of the future with him. If she’ll be enough for him.”
“Which is crazy. She’s enough for any man.”
“That’s because you love her unconditionally, Dutch. I don’t think Crader knows the meaning of the word.”
“That’s harsh.”
“That’s how I feel. Once a rat, always a rat as far as I’m concerned.”
Dutch studied Gina. “I hope that’s not your opinion of me.”
“You know it’s not.”
“I don’t know any such thing,” Dutch said heartfelt. “Living in the servants quarters of my own home? Wanting to hold my wife, but certain she’ll refuse me. Terrified that my son might figure out that all isn’t well between his parents. And for what, Gina? Because I . . .”
Gina looked at him. “Because you what, Dutch? Betrayed me? Ruined the only chance I could have had of getting to know my brother? Caused me to feel guilty and at fault for his death? Because of that, Dutch? Oh, yeah, that’s nothing. I must be nuts to even feel bad about that.”
“I wasn’t saying that.”
“That’s what it sounded like you were saying.”
“I just want this resolved so that we can be together again.”
“If we get it resolved,” Gina said, “you’ll be the first to know.”
Dutch’s heart dropped when Gina prefaced her response. If we get it resolved, she said. If. Dutch couldn’t even attempt to think about that right now. “I’ll call you later,” he said. “Answer your phone when I do.”
Then Dutch looked at her a moment longer, and left.
Gina plopped her elbows down on her lap, and then dropped her head too. She hated being in limbo like this, but she didn’t see where she had a choice. She was tired of living a drama-filled life. She was tired of it. What happened with DeAndre felt like the final straw to her. For the first time in her marriage, she honestly wasn’t sure if she had a future with Dutch Harber. And that realization, that kind of truth, was stinging her still.
Roman Wilkes took the stairs two at a time, hurried past Gina’s support staff, and walked straight into her office without knocking. He had a pile of papers in his hand and he plopped them down in front of her.
“Well good morning to you, too,” Gina said. She was seated behind her desk, going over their new mission statement, trying with all she had not to keep thinking about Dutch.
“Good morning,” Roman said. “I hope you’re having a good one because I’m having a fabulous one. Sign them, babe.”
“They said yes?” Gina asked excitedly.
“They said yes!” Roman blared out and Gina jumped up from her seat and gave him a big bear hug.
“Oh, Roman, this is fantastic! When did it happen?”
“Late, and I mean late last night. I would have phoned you, but I knew you had your own problems and was probably finally getting some much needed rest.”
“This would have perked me up,” she said, glancing down at those papers. “So we sign and then what?” she asked as she signed.
“Then we wait for the bank’s final approval, and then watch the cash take BBR from here, all the way up to here.” His hand went from his mid-section to above his head. “We will be the premiere legal center in America when we’re done.”
“Legal center my foot! We do legal, and I’ve let you run that department.”
“Which I’ve run brilliantly.”
“Which you’ve run brilliantly, yes,” Gina admitted with a smile. “But we do a lot more than that. We also counsel prostitutes and drug addicts and feed the homeless, and clothe the naked, we do a lot. That money will help us change a lot of people’s lives. Five million dollars? That’s the single biggest donation we’ve ever received.”
Roman retrieved the signed papers.
“So it’s money in the bank,” Gina said.
“Thank God,” Roman replied.
“Schedule a board meeting, Ro,” Gina ordered. “We want to make sure we have the right plans in place before we spend a dime.”
“Will do,” Roman said, and then he hesitated.
Gina looked at him. “What?”
“I heard about your brother,” he said. “I heard he hung himself? Is it true, Gina?”
That sinking feeling reemerged from the shadows deep inside of Gina. “Yes,” Gina was sad to say. “It’s true.”
“That’s a crying shame. Why would he do a thing like that?”
“He lost hope. He didn’t know I was his sister. He didn’t know I was on my way to do everything within my power to get his name cleared.”
“I guess you wish you would have called first and told him you was on your way.”
“Lord knows I wish we would have. But how can you expect something like that? Somebody hanging themselves?”
“And you guys are sure the cops didn’t have a hand in this hanging?”
Mitchell had some people check it out. It was suicide.”
Roman shook his head. “Crying shame,” he said.
“All he knew was that some attorney Dutch sent to question him told him that the best he could hope for is life without parole.”
“Oh no he didn’t,” Roman said. “Who was the attorney?”
“William Bates.”
“Oh, he’s a big time attorney, that’s for sure, but still. He should have known better than to go there this soon with a client. Life without parole? He tells that to an eighteen year old? Are you serious? Why would Dutch even send somebody that insensitive to talk to the boy?”
“Wait a minute now,” Gina said. “Dutch didn’t know Bill Bates was going to tell DeAndre a thing like that.”
“What do you mean he didn’t know? He sent him there didn’t he?”
“Yes, but he thought the guy was just going to get information, not give out advice.”
“Ah, there you go again,” Roman said. “Defending that husband of yours. No matter what happens, it’s never his fault.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Yes, you did, you always do. Because if my spouse would have kept something that major from me, it would have been over. No questions asked. I would not have been able to trust that person again for as long as I lived. Your brother died not knowing about you. That’s a shame, Gina, and Dutch should be ashamed of himself.”
“He thought he was protecting me,” Gina offered.
“There you go again,” Roman said, shaking his head.
“There I go what again?” Gina wanted to know.
“Defending him! He can never ever do any wrong in your eyes. He wears a hallo as far as you’re concerned.”
“That is so not true.”
“It’s true, but no matter. I’m too happy to be depressed. Let me get to the bank,” he said, as he began to leave.
Once he left, Gina leaned b
ack in her chair. It was the reverse for her. She was too depressed to be happy.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Movie night in the Harber household and Dutch felt like a kid again. He was in the guesthouse, having just made it home from work, and had time only to put down his briefcase before heading across the estate to the main house. He had missed dinner with his family (due to crucial meetings he could not avoid), and had already received two phone calls from Little Walt reminding him of movie night. Dutch smiled as he left his place and made his way across the estate. It was more like Walt’s night when he thought about it. Which, for Dutch and Gina both, made it all the more special.
Although it was nighttime, the estate was still lit up bright as a football stadium as the gardener, the pool man, the maids cleaning off the terraces, all were still at work. And every one of them spoke to Dutch, whom, to a person, they admired and respected above any other man they’d ever worked for.
Dutch spoke to them all as he walked. It had been a long day, and an even longer week, but being able to spend time with Gina and Walt again made him bear any tough day. And as soon as he entered the home and made his way downstairs into the movie room, Walt jumped from his mother’s lap and ran to Dutch.
“You made it!” he said with such joy that Dutch became overjoyed himself.
“I told you I would.”
“Come on,” Walt said, pulling Dutch by the hand toward the sofa. Dutch gladly moved with the pull. “You sit here,” Walt said to him. “By mommy.”
Gina smiled and shook her head as Walt made sure Dutch sat next to her. “Closer,” he even said when his father, in his mind, wasn’t sitting close enough to his mother. So Dutch obliged him, and he and Gina were touching arms.
“Better?” he asked Walt.
“Yes, thank-you,” Walt said, and then left them and went and sat on the floor with Nanny in front of the movie screen, the way he always did, and watched the just starting movie.
Dutch frowned. “What in the world is that? The Wiz?”
Gina looked at him. “Dutch, you’ve never heard of the Wiz before?”
“I’m reasonably sure that I haven’t.”
“It’s a remake of the Wizard of Oz. With an all-black cast.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Yes. With Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. It’s an old movie. But sometimes that’s what Walt likes.”
Dutch shook his head. “We birth an old man, Gina,” he said, and Gina couldn’t help but laugh so loud that it caused Walt, who was a good distance away from his parents, to turn around and place his finger to his mouth. Then he quickly turned back to the movie.
Dutch looked at Gina. They were close enough that he could feel her body heat, and he knew she could feel his. He wanted to hold her, or even just place an arm around her, but he knew she would probably get up and leave. But at least they were far enough away from Walt that they could speak freely and not be heard. He decided to speak freely. “So how are things going with you?” he asked her.
“It’s . . . going. We received a major donation that we’re really excited about.”
“At BBR?”
“That’s right.”
“I thought BBR was on sound financial footing.”
“It is. This donation is like icing on the cake.”
“If you needed icing, you should have come to me.”
“No, Dutch, you’ve given all you’re going to give to BBR. You’re easily our number one donor. That’s enough. You aren’t spending another dime of our son’s inheritance at BBR.”
Dutch smiled. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, although they both knew that donating to BBR was just a drop in the bucket of Walter’s inheritance.
She looked at him. “How did it go in Vegas?”
“It went well. There’s a good possibility that we might be expanding our reach. I was pleased with the investors. They seem like people I can do business with.”
“That’s good.”
Dutch hesitated.
“What is it?”
“I also took a drive and saw Jade.”
“Oh. Okay. Well that’s good. How is she doing?”
“I caught her having sex with her psychiatrist.”
Gina turned to him, astounded. “You have got to be kidding me. Sex with him? Are you sure?”
“I caught them in the very act,” Dutch said.
That Jade, Gina thought. “Was it the same psychiatrist that wrote all of those glowing reports about her progress?”
“One in the same,” Dutch said. “He was fired on the spot, from what Dr. Forbes later told me. Jade was reassigned to a different therapist.”
“Jade,” Gina said, shaking her head. “What is wrong with that girl?”
“I don’t know,” Dutch said, “and right now I don’t care. She’s not interested in getting better. She’s interested in playing games.”
Gina would have to agree with that.
“But when I asked how you were doing,” Dutch said, deciding to move on, “I didn’t mean how were you doing at work. I meant how were you doing period?”
Gina frowned. “You know how I’m doing. This is a very difficult time for me. Decisions have to be made. It’s tough.”
Dutch felt as if he was on the edge of a ledge, and only Gina could say the word that would pull him back in. “How’s Walt been doing?” he asked her. “I’m sorry I missed dinner with him tonight.”
“He’s been doing well actually. And as long as you never miss another movie night, he’ll be okay.” Dutch smiled. “As long as he doesn’t suspect any problems with us, he’ll be okay.”
“Given how insistent he was for me to sit next to you,” Dutch said, “I’m not so sure if he isn’t aware that something isn’t right already. You saw how perceptive he was about Loretta and Crader’s problems.”
“I know, yeah. But I’ve been paying attention to him, and Nanny has also. We haven’t seen anything disconcerting.”
Dutch decided to go there, certain that Gina hadn’t thought this separation through to the most obvious, yet most tragic, conclusion. “But what if this goes on for an extended period of time, Gina?” he asked her. “What if we never get back together?”
Gina felt her chest constrict at the mere thought of it.
Dutch continued. “What if we have to sit our boy down and tell him that . . .that we’ve, that his mother and father, have decided to go our separate ways?”
That sense of dread came over Gina. That feeling of queasiness in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t even think about it that way. “We’re not . . . I’m not anywhere near that, Dutch, so that’s not even something I’m thinking about.”
“I suggest you think about it,” Dutch said seriously, and she looked at him. “Because that’s where these give me some space and I need some time away requests can lead. Straight to divorce court.”
Gina stared at him.
“And if that happens, Gina,” he said, staring into her eyes, “it’ll break my heart.”
Gina’s heart dropped at just hearing Dutch say that. She didn’t want to hurt him. “What do you want me to do?” she asked. “Going to counseling can’t help this, because it’s not that kind of problem. It’s something I need to think through on my own, and it’s going to take time. I need to know for certain if I want to. . .”
She didn’t finish. Dutch, however, did. “If you want to what?” he asked. “Still be with me?”
But Gina didn’t back down. “Still deal with the drama of being with you,” she said. “This was supposed to be our happy days, Dutch, but it hasn’t been like I thought it would be at all.”
“What are you saying? You haven’t been happy since I resigned the presidency?”
“I never dreamed you’d keep my own brother a secret from me,” she said. “That changed everything, don’t you understand that? What else is out there?”
“I told you,” he said and then realized he had a sharp edge to his tone, although Walt still wasn’t hearing them.
But he lowered his voice anyway. “I told you nothing else is out there. Nothing.”
But Gina still wasn’t certain of that. She remembered all those times long ago, long before he decided to hide DeAndre’s existence from her, and how he would always say that he wasn’t a saint and he wasn’t perfect whenever she brought up issues of fidelity and trust. Even then she used to suspect there was something out there Dutch wasn’t sharing with her. And it had nothing to do with her brother. Back then, even Dutch didn’t know her brother existed.
But the thought that this would lead to her divorcing him was a scary thought. She looked at him. Although her anger and disappointment with him was still there, she felt a need to reassure him. “We’ll work this out, Dutch,” she said. “You’ve just got to give me some time.”
Dutch looked into her big, golden-brown eyes. He placed his hand on the side of her dark-brown face. And he saw some anger, yes, and still some disappointment. But he saw love there too. A lot of love there. The kind of love that made him suddenly confident that he could kiss her right now, and she would not recoil.
So he did it. As Michael Jackson and Diana Ross were singing Ease On Down the Road, he placed his thumb and finger on Gina’s chin and slowly placed his lips on her lips. When he saw Gina close her eyes as soon as their lips touched, he closed his too. It had been so long since he kissed her that it now felt as if he was kissing her for the first time. It felt just that intoxicatingly wonderful. But he didn’t rush it. He didn’t attempt to wrap her in his arms or give her any reason to pull away from him. He didn’t suspect she’d give him more than a kiss tonight, and that was why he was going to milk what she was willing to give.
Gina, too, felt that surge of intensity when Dutch started kissing her. For all of her bravado and tough talk, she was still deeply in love with this man. And his kiss.
And for minutes on end, she allowed him to kiss her. For minutes on end they kissed sweetly, then passionately, then tongue-kissed with sweeping kisses. Until they were getting too loud, smacking too hard. Gina pulled back when her hand slipped and touched his penis-area, and she felt just how rock-hard he had become.
Dutch quickly placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her back against him. He rested his forehead on hers. He was breathing almost in hyperventilation now. He wanted to be with her so badly that he could taste it. “Go upstairs with me, Gina,” he said.
For the Love of Gina: The President's Girlfriend Page 14
