DUTCH AND GINA: AFTER THE FALL (21 page)

But what could he do? He had her for a night. He’d better be grateful for that.

He put on his best smile as he approached her.

“ There you are,” he said when she looked his way.

“What are you doing back here anyway?” he asked as he sat down at the small, round table across from her.

“And why are you so dressed up?”

“It is the White House,” she said. “Shouldn’t I look my best? You’re always dressed up.”

Chris an looked down, at the same blue suit and blue and white e he wore at least once every week.

“But really, what’s up?” he said.

Jade sipped from the bo led water in front of her.

Then she hesitated. “I don’t feel bad about last night.” Then she looked at him. “Do you?”

Christian’s heart dropped. The memory of her naked in his bed, flashed before him. The idea that she would be with another man, and would never share his bed again terrified him. “Never,” he said, causing her to smile.

“Your boyfriend is here,” Christian finally said.

And it was Jade’s heart that dropped this me. She looked at him. “Are you sure? He said he was coming next week.”

“I know, but he’s here. I guess it was because of the accident.”

“He could have at least called me and told me something.”

“Well, Senator McKenzie is escor ng him to the Yellow Oval Room as we speak. The president told me to come and get you.”

Jade closed her eyes, opened them, and then stood.

Only she was slightly woozy and nearly stumbled.

Christian grabbed her by the arm.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m fine.”

“Maybe a doctor--”

“Chris, I’m fine,” she said, a emp ng to smile.

“Please don’t make an issue out of it.” Chris an nodded his head, and escorted her back inside.

Gina and Chris an sat on one sofa, and on the opposite sofa Jade and her boyfriend, Dr. Henry Osgood. What struck Gina first and Chris an also was the fact that Jade and Henry Osgood, who was around Gina’s age, looked about as compa ble as two le shoes.

Part of the problem was that Henry Osgood wasn’t very a rac ve at all. He had mid-length blonde hair piled and draped in a way that only enhanced his large, piled and draped in a way that only enhanced his large, humped nose and small, almost feckless-looking blue eyes. His lips were so thin they looked like mere lines across his face, and his ears spouted out like fat antennas. Gina tried as she sat there talking with them, but she couldn’t reconcile it for the life of her.

Here was Jade, this gorgeous black woman, and here was Henry Osgood, this older, conserva ve, undeniably odd looking white man. She was sorry, but they just didn’t match.

But that was only part of the problem. The main problem was Jade’s reac on to him. She seemed almost uncomfortable around him, and was at this very moment leaning more away from than toward him, and that, to Gina, made no sense. When she was da ng Dutch she loved to be up under him. S ll loved it if truth be told. But Jade seemed to want nothing to do with the guy. Gina stared at her. She almost seemed frightened by him.

Dutch’s people had conducted done extensive background on Henry Osgood and found him to be a completely upstanding ci zen, an excellent surgeon, and a man with a substantial amount of wealth. Maybe it was the money, Gina thought, that drove Jade into his arms. But somehow, Jade didn’t strike her at all as that kind of girl.

Chris an, too, found Henry Osgood off pu ng.

Something about the guy he flat didn’t like. And it wasn’t just because he was Jade’s beau. It was the condescending tone he took with him when they were first introduced, and the way he kept trying to stare him down when the First Lady and Jade were talking.

Dutch arrived just as the conversa on had veered away from gree ngs and into the weeds where the weather in DC was being compared to the weather in Cornwall and flowers in the Spring were being compared to summer blooms. Jade, for one, was thrilled to have that over with.

Henry and Chris an stood to their feet. “Mr.

President, it’s an honor to meet you, sir,” Henry said as he and Dutch shook hands. “ The idea that my fiancée could be your daughter is still hard to believe.” Dutch considered the younger man. “Your fiancée?” he asked in a puzzled tone. “I wasn’t aware of any engagement.”

Chris an and Gina weren’t aware of any either.

They looked at Jade, but she looked as surprised as they were.

“Well, not technically yet,” Henry clarified. “But that’s certainly the end game.”

Dutch glanced at his daughter. “Have a seat,” he said to Henry. When the president sat down, beside Gina, Henry sat down as well.

“Your mom’s here too,” Henry said, to everybody’s surprise.

“Mom’s in town?” Jade asked him.

“She is.”

“Where is she?” Dutch asked.

“At the hotel,” Henry said. “She has no inten ons of coming here, please don’t ask me why because I’m as clueless as you guys are. But a er she heard about that accident, she had to come and see her daughter.

She’s over at the Berkshire-Ritz Hotel, I took a suite over there. I assume it will be okay for her to go and see her mother?” Henry asked this of the president.

“With secret service escort, yes,” Dutch replied.

Henry looked at Jade. “You want to see your mother, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Jade said, rising immediately. “I’ll freshen up.” She knew what effort it took for her mother to break away from her bookstore to come and see about her.

see about her.

“Anyway,” Dutch rose to his feet, causing Henry and Chris an to rise too, “I have more mee ngs today than I can count, not a moment to spare, I’m afraid, and I’m going to see new recruits over at Quan co later this evening, so I probably won’t see you before you head back to the Carolinas. It’s nice to meet you, Henry.”

“You, too, sir,” Henry said, shaking his hand. “I know you have a busy schedule.”

“I couldn’t quarrel with you there.” He turned to Gina. “Honey, I’ll see you later. And don’t get yourself into any trouble,” he said in a mockingly scolding tone.

“You are so funny, ha, ha,” Gina replied as Dutch left laughing.

She couldn’t remember a me when he was more carefree and happy and alive with hopefulness. Even a er that scare last night that almost snatched it all away and momentarily knocked him off his stride, he was back. And better, in her view, than ever.

Jade was in her bedroom, pu ng souvenirs in her carrying bag, when knocks were heard on her door.

“Yes?” she said, expecting it to be Christian.

“May I come in?” it was the president.

“Yes, please.”

Dutch walked in. “What are you doing?” he asked as he walked over by her and sat down at the dressing table, facing her, not the mirror.

“Just ge ng these souvenirs I’ve collected for my mother.”

“Any reason why she wouldn’t come see you here, at the White House?”

Jade shrugged her shoulders. “ That’s just Mom.

She probably figure you blame her for not telling you about me or something.”

“I don’t blame her.”

“I know. And I’ve told her that repeatedly. But she doesn’t believe me.”

Dutch exhaled. “So that’s Henry?”

Jade hesitated. “Yes. That’s Henry.”

“And that’s the man you’ve fallen madly in love with, is it?”

She stopped loading her souvenirs. “He’s the man that I, yes, he’s my boyfriend.”

“That’s not what I asked you.”

Again she hesitated. “It’s not so easy to answer.”

“It should be. If he’s the man you love. Is he or isn’t he?”

She looked at her father. “No,” she said, “but he loves me.”

“Sure about that?”

She had to think about this. “Not really, no.” Dutch frowned. “Then why are you with him?”

“Why is he with me?”’

“I can think of about a thousand reasons.” Jade smiled. “I’m not with him, not really. I don’t think I’ve ever been really with him emo onally. But it was just that he was Mom’s colleague when she was prac cing medicine and she liked him and so we started dating.”

“He’s much older than you.”

“You’re older than your wife and that’s worked out.”

“But you don’t love Henry.”

Jade had to admit it again. “No,” she said.

“You want to have children, don’t you?”

“At some point, yes, I think I do.”

“He can’t have any. Did he tell you?”

By the look on her face, Dutch knew he had not.

“How do you know that?”

“We did a thorough background on him.”

Jade frowned. “You checked up on him?”

“Of course I checked up on him, what did you expect

“Of course I checked up on him, what did you expect me to do? Hand him over to you on a silver pla er, no questions asked?”

Then she exhaled. “I’m going to tell him.”

“When?”

“Today. If I’m able to.”

Dutch stood up. “Good. Don’t string the man along. If you’ve made up your mind, and would rather go your separate way, tell him so.”

“I will. I wouldn’t want him planning return trips to the White House when I’ve already moved on with my life. Wouldn’t be fair to him, at least that’s what Chris an says.” She glanced at Dutch when she mentioned Christian’s name.

Dutch walked up to her, placed his hands on her arms. “I know, in the end, you’ll do the right thing.”

“Chris an agrees with you, he says it’s never good to hide your true feelings.”

Dutch knew Chris an was smi en with her. He was only now realizing just how smi en she was with Christian. He kissed her on the forehead. “ Take care of yourself,” he said. “And don’t do anything you wouldn’t want your old man reading about in the morning papers,” he added, and then turned to leave.

“And Dad?”

He turned back.

“Thanks.”

Dutch smiled. “If he refuses to let you go, and you need me to beat him up, just say the word.” Jade laughed. “I doubt it’ll come to that,” she said.

And Dutch left.

Back in the si ng room, Gina and Henry were con nuing their Spring versus summer garden talk when Jade returned with her bag of souvenirs.

Christian and then Henry stood.

“Oh,” Gina said, “are you staying overnight, dear?”

“No, ma’am, these are just some souvenirs I planned to give to Mom when I saw her again. Stuff like DC

mugs and White House coasters and an autographed copy of the family photo we took.”

“Child, please,” Gina said with a smile, “she may want to burn that particular picture.”

Henry laughed. Jade wish she could say that her mother would never do anything like that, but she couldn’t. She hugged Gina’s neck. “See you later,” she said.

“Your Dad isn’t here to tell you,” Gina said, “so I’m telling you: behave.”

Jade smiled. “Yes, ma’am. Dad’s already told me.” Then she looked at a distraught Chris an. “Bye, Christopher,” she said, purposely mistaking his name.

“Bye yourself,” Christian said, his heart hammering.

She wanted to tell him not to worry, that she was going to end this game of charade with Henry today, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, but she couldn’t very well reassure him right in front of Henry.

She smiled and le with Henry, looking back, once again, at Christian as she did.

FOURTEEN

Jade spent an en re day with Henry and her mother and she was pleasantly surprised. There were no cri cisms of her or any ridiculous discussions on why they were displeased with her. Before she met her father almost three months ago, she thought their cri cisms were informa ve, and they were genuinely a emp ng to find ways for her to improve. But her father, and the First Lady, and Chris an never cri cized her that way. They, instead, treated her as if she was fine just the way she was. But to her relief, they didn’t go there. They allowed the day to progress into nice, comfortable fun.

Limited fun, of course. Because of security concerns they stayed inside the Berkshire-Ritz Hotel, in the suite, and then later, at the hotel’s restaurant, where the staff treated them as if they were royalty.

“And why shouldn’t they?” Henry asked as they took seats at the table. “It’s not every day they have the daughter of Samantha Redding dining in their establishment.”

Jade smiled only mildly, but her mother and Henry laughed uproariously. Henry could charm a wino out of his wine, Jade thought.

Once the laughter died down, her mother looked at her. “What’s your problem?” she asked her.

“My problem?”

“Yes, your problem,” Henry chimed in. “Ever since you’ve go en here you’ve been a million miles away.

So let’s have it,” he said. “What is it that you need to say?”

Jade had never thought she’d discuss anything as personal as a breakup in such a public place, and she wasn’t about to do it here. But they kept pushing for her to do just that, even when she told them it was a personal ma er, and they pushed so hard that she pushed back.

“Out with it, girl,” her mother kept saying. “I don’t know why you’re always so hesitant. I really hate that about you.”

“She’s slow as molasses, wouldn’t you say, Sam,” Henry chimed in again. “At least when she wants to be.”

“I don’t think we should see each other anymore,”

“I don’t think we should see each other anymore,” Jade spat out.
How’s that for speed
, she wanted to add.

At first Henry just sat there, staring at her, and she was unsure if he was pleased with the breakup or devastated by it.

Her mother, however, was completely devastated.

“How dare you say such a thing to Henry,” she said, her voice lowered to avoid drawing a en on to herself. “You can’t tell him something like that. And in a place like this.”

Jade knew it would turn out this way. She should have seen it coming.

“I told y’all it was personal.”

“Some mes you behave as if you have no respect for anyone,” her mother said. “You have some nerve.”

“ That’s okay, Sam,” Henry said. “I suspected there would be changes once she became a power player.” A power player, Jade thought. What was he talking about?

“Now suddenly people like you and I aren’t good enough for her.”

“But that’s not true,” Jade said.