ROMANCING MO RYAN (22 page)

But Nikki kept her cool.
 
She stood up.
 
“I’m Nikki Tarver.
 
I came---”

“I don’t want to know your name,” the father snapped.
 
“Why are you telling me your name?
 
I want to know what are you doing in my home?”

Nikki’s heart plunged.
 
She looked to Mo, who was already prepared to come.
 
He had just stood up from the dining room table in the far end of the great room and was saying, “let me call you back,” into his cell phone.
 
He then killed the call and began walking toward his parents.

“Monty!” his mother said as her eyes followed where Nikki was looking and saw her son standing there.
 
She smiled and moved past her husband, to greet him.
 
The husband, however, kept his eyes on Nikki.

“It’s so good to see you again, son,” she said as she and Mo hugged.
 
Mo, however, had his eyes on his father.
 
He, in fact, kept his arm around his mother’s waist when they stopped hugging, but moved toward his confrontational father.

“Hello, father,” Mo said.
 
But his father would have none of it.

“Who is this woman?” he wanted to know.

“This woman,” Mo said, placing his other hand around Nikki’s waist, “is my woman.
 
I told you I was bringing a guest.”

“You didn’t tell me she was. . .”
 
It was obvious to Nikki what the father wanted to say, but wasn’t quite bold enough.
 
He, instead, looked at his wife as if he couldn’t believe what Mo had done, and then looked at Mo.

“In my office,” he said and without an answer began heading for the room on the opposite side of the house, a room Nikki had previously thought was a library.
 

Mo looked at his mother.
 
She placed her white, wrinkled hand on the side of her son’s face.
 
“Don’t argue with him,” she said.
 
“The doctor said he shouldn’t get upset.”

“Has he been keeping his appointments?”

“No.
 
If I pester him enough he’ll go, but that’s rare.”

Mo nodded.
 
“Still stubborn as a mule.”

“Perhaps more so now,” his mother said.
 
“That’s why I hope you won’t hold it against him.”

“Hold what against him?
 
The fact that he just treated my woman as if she was some burglar in his home?
 
Is that what I’m supposed to overlook because he’s old and ornery now and doesn’t give a damn about anybody but himself?”

Then Mo exhaled, to release his own tension.
 
And he looked at Nikki.
 
“You’re okay?” he asked her.

She didn’t want to exacerbate an already tense situation, but she wasn’t going to lie either.
 
“I don’t think so,” she said honestly.
 
“But I will be.”
 

Mo studied her.
 
He could see a twinge of disappointment in her eyes, and he was sorry.
 
But it was very important to him that she saw his father for exactly who he was, because he wasn’t going to change.

“Mother,” he said, “I want you to meet Nicole Tarver.
 
She’s the young lady I told you about.”

“How do you do?” the mother asked in a polite but hardly warm manner.
 

Nikki replied accordingly.
 
“I’m here, thank the Lord.
 
How are you?”

“Oh,” the mother said as if surprised.
 
“So you believe in God?”

Nikki’s mouth almost gaped open.
 
She almost told that woman a thing or two.
 
What did they think she was?
 
Some kind of savage with no moral core?
 
But she managed to keep it together.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“Do you?”

“Have a seat, mother,” Mo said, to diffuse that growing tension.
 

Mrs. Ryan gave Nikki a look of disapproval as she moved over to the chair, rather than sit next to Nikki.
 
As she made her way to that chair she also told Mo that he should do as his father had instructed and go see him in his office.

“No thanks,” Mo replied as he and Nikki sat down on the couch.

“Oh, Monty,” his mother said, “you can be as stubborn as he is.
 
You know he’s waiting for you.”

“I don’t know why he would be.
 
He didn’t ask me anything.”

“You should have told us, Monty.”

Mo frowned.
 
“Told you what?”

“You should have told us that you were bringing her here.”

Nikki looked at Mo.
 
He was getting pissed.
 
“I told you I was bringing a very important lady with me.
 
You and father both were thrilled when I told you, you told me it was about time, and that was the end of the conversation.
 
Simply because Nikki is black---”

“That hasn’t anything to do with it,” Mrs. Ryan quickly interjected, but her protest fooled no-one.

“Because Nikki is black,” Mo continued, “doesn’t mean I have to mention that fact to anyone or make sure they’re used to the idea or comfortable with it any more than I would have to mention the fact that she was blonde or blue-eyed or tall or short.
 
Our natural eye color or our height or our skin color isn’t something we can do anything about, and I’m not about to turn into some negative something she has no control over.
 
So what is it exactly that I should have told you about, Mother, if it isn’t her skin color?”

“Nothing,” the mother said tightly.
 
“Nothing at all.”

“Montgomery,” the father yelled from across the room as he charged toward them, “why are you keeping me waiting?
 
What’s your problem?”

“I don’t have a problem,” Mo said calmly.
 
“What’s yours?”

The father hesitated, an anger sneer on his face.
 
“Still an asshole I see,” he said of his son.

“Russell just,” Mrs. Ryan started.
 
Nikki could tell that she was as perturbed as her husband, but she was able to control it better.
 
“Just sit down, dear.
 
Let’s just talk this out civilly.
 
We both know there’s an issue here, a major issue,” she added, glancing at Nikki, “but let’s resolve it as amicably as we possibly can.”

“Okay,” Russell Ryan said, refusing to even consider sitting down, “let’s resolve it now.
 
“Why did you bring that woman to my home?”

“I brought my woman, Nikki Tarver, to your home because I told you I was bringing my woman, Nikki Tarver, to your home.”

“You didn’t tell me she was black,” Russell Ryan said pointblank.

“I didn’t tell you she had brown eyes or black hair or was five six, either.”

“Damn you, Monty,” the father proclaimed.
 
“You always do this.
 
No matter what I want for you, it’s never what you want.
 
You could have been president of my company, sitting on top of the world, but you decide to be some
got
damn ambulance chaser and some judge.
 
It worked for you, you’re headed to the state Supreme Court, that’s wonderful.
 
But it’s still not what I would have chosen for you.
  
Now of all the women you could have fallen for, you fall for this one.
 
Some young black!
 
Well I’ll tell you what, son, that black bitch won’t be spending a night in my home!”

Mo immediately stood up, standing Nikki up with him.
 
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys.
 
“Go to the car,” he said to her.
 
“I’ll get our things.”

“Oh, Monty, honestly,” his mother said, rising too.
 
“Surely you aren’t going to just leave?”

“What do you expect me to do?” he asked his mother.
 
“Stay?”

The father, however, answered him.
 
“I expect you to tell that girl to take a hike, because you’re going to be here with your family; because you’re going to attend your sister’s wedding; because she’s not welcomed!
 
That’s what I’m expecting you to do.”
 

“Then you’re expecting it from the wrong man,” Mo said.
 
“I’ll meet you at the car, Nikki,” he added as Nikki headed out of the front door, and Mo headed upstairs.

By the time he did have their luggage and arrived at the car, Nikki was standing at his car visibly shaken.
 
He placed their luggage in the trunk, and then walked up to her.

“It’s all right, Nikki.”

Nikki searched his eyes.
 
“Why didn’t you tell them?”

“Because we can’t allow that to matter,” he said.
 
“Because we can’t allow them or anybody else to turn the color of your skin into something negative. If she was some white girl with blonde hair they would have welcomed her with open arms.
 
They wouldn’t have known a
got
damn thing about her, but they would have welcomed her.
 
But because your skin color is a little darker, they can’t welcome you?
 
And they expect me to just accept that?”
 
He shook his head. “No, Nikki.
 
I’m not that man.
 
Their problem with you is not going to ever be our problem.
 
That’s why I didn’t tell them.
 
You had to see them for who they are, and they had to see you for who you are.
 
They didn’t give you a chance, so we aren’t giving them one, either.”
  

“But I can’t do it, Mo.
 
I can’t be responsible for a rift between you and your parents.”

“Stop that, Nikki,” Mo said, clutching her by her arms.
 
“You’re doing exactly what they want you to do.
 
They want you to feel guilty.
 
They want you to feel as if you need to be somebody else to be acceptable.
 
There’s been a rift between me and my parents since I graduated college and refused to be made over in their image.
 
And I refused to be made over in their image because a part of me just never liked them.
 
I had to love them, they’re my parents, but I never liked them.
 
And now you see why.
 
Let’s get out of here.”

“We’re leaving?
 
You aren’t going to attend your sister’s wedding?”

“Yes, I’ll be there.
 
And you will too.
 
Caroline would want it.
 
But we’re going to stay at the Marriott, enjoy the beachfront views, and enjoy this city and our vacation.
 
And those two people in that house, who would rather hold onto hate than to their own son, will not ruin our time together, you hear me?
 
We’re in the Keys, it’s a beautiful day, let’s have some fun.
 
Whatta you say, Nikki?”

Nikki loved him.
 
“I wonder,” she said, “if we can get that same room we had yesterday.”

Mo laughed.
 
“I hope not,” he said as he opened the car door.
 
“The bed’s probably broken.”

Nikki laughed too, and got into the car.