Color Blind (Able to Love)
Read Color Blind (Able to Love) Online
Authors: Michelle Lindo-Rice
Tags: #multicultural bwwm, #Christian, #multicultural and interracial romance, #Multicultural, #Fiction, #Romance, #Interracial, #multicultural chrisitian fiction
An Interracial Christian Romance
God had to blind him for him to truly see
Book One of the “Able to Love” Series
By Michelle Lindo-Rice
~~~
Smashwords Edition
Michelle Lindo-Rice
P.O. Box 495792, Port Charlotte, FL 33949
Color Blind Copyright © 2014 Michelle Lindo- Rice
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be re-produced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
I thank God for giving me the vision to write my first novella. His Holy Spirit guides me. I need him throughout the entire process.
Thanks to my sons, Eric Michael and Jordan Elijah, who let me follow my passion.
Thanks to author Rhonda McKnight. She’s a true mentor. Thanks to Felicia Murrell. Her editing skills and work ethic is above par.
Thanks to Michelle Stimpson who wrote the book, 21 Days to Publishing. I used this guide to help me with the behind-the-scenes stuff to get this book published.
Thank you to everyone who will one-click this book. I hope you enjoy and receive a blessing.
My sons, Eric and Jordan: May you both find real love without fear.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out all fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” I John 4:18
Chapter One
Was that who he thought it was?
Saul Sweeterman arched his wiry body over the steering wheel and peered through the windshield. His wiper blades sloshed away the fury of the pounding rain but it was difficult for him to see.
It was three o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon in May. Like clockwork, it was pouring rain. But even in the rain, he could see.
It was her.
He gazed at the passenger in the vehicle across the lane from him. Indeed, there sat his daughter, Cassandra Matthews, who hadn’t spoken to him in three long, agonizing years.
Sitting at the intersection of Veterans Blvd and Atwater Ave., he was glad for the red traffic light because he’d been given a precious glimpse of his beloved Cassandra. Eyeing her black, no, African-American, husband, Kellan Matthews, resentment filled his heart. Saul’s lips became as ugly as his feelings transforming into a harsh, angry line. Kellan was the reason he’d lost Cassandra.
Saul spotted a little head bouncing up and down in the rear seat behind his daughter’s seat. He tilted his head to get a better look. His granddaughter, Emily, was a beauty. There was no denying that. But, Saul’s problem was that she was biracial, and Saul couldn’t accept that. The races shouldn’t mix. He didn’t advocate slavery or apartheid, but Saul drew the line at interracial dating and marriage. It just shouldn’t be done. That’s what his parents had drilled into him from a child. It had been ingrained into his belief system. If pressed, he wouldn’t be able to provide a legitimate argument as to why he held such a firm belief, but Saul didn’t need one for something so intrinsically unnatural.
He had friends who were of a different race, but he’d never crossed that line. He hadn’t felt the need to explain this to his daughter either. He had assumed that it was just understood. Saul had been wrong. He sighed. He’d made a fatal mistake when he hadn’t spelled things out to his daughter.
“But your best friend, Uncle Marvin, is black,” Cassandra protested the day she broke the news that she was pregnant and getting married to a black man. She pointed over to the picture frame displayed on the mantle.
Saul followed the direction of her finger and smiled with fondness. Marvin was a goofball and committed to the game. They’d spent hours bonding over basketball until an injury ended Marvin’s chances in the NBA. Marvin didn’t let that deter him, though. He kept on going. “Yes, but, that’s because we played ball together. Marvin Alton was the exception. He married his own kind.”
“You’re prejudiced!” Cassandra screamed. She clenched her fists and got right up in his face like she was ready to fight him. Like she wanted to hit him.
“Don’t you fix your mouth to say those words,” Saul said. “I’m not prejudiced—I just have my preferences. I’m being realistic. Your child will have a lot of issues to deal with. He or she will struggle with developing an identity.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” Cassandra scoffed. She turned her head away from him blocking him from reading her face.
Saul remembered turning her head to face him. He looked into blue eyes so like his own, and touched her corn silk blond hair before saying, “Don’t marry him, Cassandra. Don’t have this baby.”
She gasped and turned from him in one single motion. Shame crawled up his spine. Saul wasn’t going to take his words back. He didn’t believe in abortion, but this was a unique situation. This constituted an emergency.
“In this day and time you’re asking me to be ashamed that I’m in love? When I told you about Kellan you sang his praises and encouraged me not to let such a promising young man, as you called him, slip away.”
“Yes, but that was when I thought… I mean Kellan didn’t sound like a…” Saul sputtered.
“A what? A
black
name?” Cassandra’s eyebrows creased. She raised her hands to still his words. “Dad, please stop talking. You’re going off every stereotype in the book and it shocks and saddens me. You’re behaving like a dinosaur. I love Kellan and my baby, and we’re going to get married.”
With a patriarchal tone and a wide swoop of his hands, Saul dictated, “Well, I want no part of it. If you marry him, don’t expect me to walk you down the aisle and smile and pretend I’m all right with you marrying someone you barely know—what’s it been five months?”
Tears filled her eyes. Saul knew he’d hurt her, but he wasn’t backing down.
Cassandra was just as stubborn. She walked out of his house, married Kellan and had her child without him. The only move Cassandra made was to send him a picture of Emily when she was born. Saul had the picture buried under some papers in his nightstand, but he never initiated contact.
The rain poured. Saul stared at his daughter, as the minutes crept by. She looked so much like Nora. He could hardly bear it. He shifted his eyes to look in the rearview mirror.
“What the?” He scrunched forward. Was he seeing right? There was a semi speeding in his direction. The moron was driving too fast for the slick roads. He wouldn’t be able to brake in time. Saul’s body clenched. This was an accident waiting to happen and the driver showed no signs of slowing down.
“Slow down! Slow down!”
The truck jumped the midline. Oh, no! He was heading straight for Cassandra’s car. Saul’s heart rate escalated. His palms sweated. He turned his body to get a good look behind him. Oh, boy, the truck wasn’t going to stop. For a few tense seconds, Saul debated. He jumped out of his truck. “Cassandra! Kellan!” he yelled. They were playing with Emily in the back seat.
Soaked, Saul scuttled towards his truck. There was only one way to circumvent what was coming. Saul knew what he had to do. He started the engine and slammed on the accelerator, praying his sturdy F-150 could take a hit. The truck driver must have finally caught on. Saul heard the sharp squeal of brakes. The semi began to spin on the slick road.
Saul continued driving. Cassandra and Kellan saw him at the same time. Their faces mirrored expressions of shock and horror as they looked up and saw the semi truck coming towards them. Saul registered their furious efforts to get Emily out of her car seat. “Get out the car,” he roared. Kellan jumped into the rear seat and covered his daughter with his body.
A millisecond before impact, Saul swung his truck in front of their vehicle. The semi truck rear-ended him. Saul’s F150 swung out into the ditch. He felt the crushing effect of steel against steel. Saul’s body reeled as he narrowly missed being hurled into the street. Cassandra’s car was now an easy target. The semi truck screeched to a halt as it slammed into their car. Saul heard screams and then a boom as glass shattered.
“Cassandra!” he wailed, willing his body to move, to go to his daughter, but a strong force pulled him slowly into blackness. As he succumbed, Saul heard a faint whisper in his ear, “Saul.” The quiet voice soothed him and peace reigned as he drifted off. Then suddenly, all was silent and blessed quietness engulfed him.
Chapter Two
Six weeks later
Aniyah Hays knocked twice and then pushed the door open to Saul Sweeterman’s room in the rehab wing of Fawcett Memorial. The lights were off and the curtains drawn. For a moment, she entertained the notion that Dracula waited to suck her blood dry. She grinned. Dismissing her fanciful thoughts, she slid the curtains back and turned on the lights.