President's Girlfriend 06 - The Sins of the Fathers (23 page)

But then
Crader made his appearance, and LaLa was not only surprised, but downright
shocked.

Christian
looked at Crader, and then looked back at LaLa.

“You’re
okay?” he asked her.

As Crader
began to approach her, her heart began to pound.
 
She almost looked down at her form-fitting
white and yellow dress, as if to ensure she was looking her best, but she
caught herself.
 
She was done pleasing
others at the expense of her own happiness.
 
She looked fine, whether he thought so or not.
 

“You’re
okay, La?” Christian asked her again.

“Actually
no,” she replied.

“Want me to
stay by your side?”

“Yes,” she
said.
 
“Please.”

And
Christian stayed when Crader approached.

“Hello,
Chris,” he said.

“Hello,
Crader.”

Crader
wasn’t accustomed to Christian calling him by his first name, but he overlooked
it.
 
He, instead, looked at LaLa.
 
“Hey,” he said.

He looked
like death warmed over, she thought.
 
Blood-shot eyes, rumpled suit.
 
And for what, she wondered.
 
An
hour,
tops, of pleasure.
 
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” she admitted.

“I
know.
 
I wasn’t invited, if that’s what
you mean.
 
Gina is pretty upset with me
right now.
 
But I need to talk to Dutch.”

“A matter of national security?”
LaLa asked, attempting to smile.

Crader
looked into her mouth.
 
He craved that
bright white smile.
 
He craved her
beautiful, African lips.
 
Her soft, sweet face.
 
He’d give his right arm to have her and their daughter back home
again.
 
To take back what he had
done.
 
“Something
like
that,” he replied to her.

“The
president and First Lady are still getting ready in the Residence,” Christian
said.
 
“Jade’s with
them.”

Crader,
however, continued to stare at LaLa.
 
“You’ve been doing okay?” he asked her.

“I’ve been
great,” LaLa said, although it was hardly true.

Crader,
however, saw that sparkle in her eyes he always loved, and he believed it.
 
She was better off without him.
 
“Good,” he said, nodding his head.
 
Regret was overwhelming him, and it felt like
a knot in his throat.
 
“I’m glad to know
it.”

“Yep, I’m
doing just fine. I have to.
 
I’m doing
great.”

“I
understand you’ve moved back into your house in Georgetown.”

“For now, yes.”

LaLa would
never know how painful that sounded to Crader.
 
She had somewhere else to go.
 
Somewhere else to stay.
 
Something other than their life together.
 
“I was wondering if I could get Nicole for
the weekend.
 
If that’s
okay with you.”

LaLa
nodded.
 
“Of course it’s okay with me,
Crader.
 
You’re a wonderful father to our
daughter.”
 

Crader’s
heart squeezed when she said that.
 
And
he couldn’t take it anymore.
 
“Please
come back to me,” he begged, reaching for her hand.
 

But she
snatched her hand away, causing a few people to glance over.
 
She lowered her voice.
 
“I told you I don’t know what I’m going to do
right now, Cray, I told you that.”

“Okay.
Okay,” Crader said equally lowly, glancing around.
 
He didn’t want to make a spectacle of
himself.
 
At least, not more of a
spectacle than he’d already made of
himself
.
  
Especially with this new information they
found out about Elvelyn.
 
Info, if it
became public, that could destroy any chance he had of taking over when Dutch’s
term expired.
 

“I didn’t
mean to . . .,” he started.
 
“But I
respect you,
La
.
 
I’ll wait for you to decide.
 
You
have that right.”
 
Then he exhaled,
ashamed of himself.
  
“I need to see
Dutch, so I’d better get going.”

“Sure, Crader.”

“Take care
of yourself.”

“You too.”

Crader’s
heart was in agony, and he wanted to beg her again.
 
But he left LaLa’s side.
 

Christian
placed his hand on LaLa’s back and rubbed it.
 
“It’s okay, La,” he said.
 

Tears began
to appear in her eyes.
 
“This was a bad
idea,” she said.
 
“I shouldn’t have
come.”

“You have to
live your life, La,” Christian said.
 
“He
did this to you.
 
He’s the one who has to
pay.
 
Not you.”

“Thanks for
your support, Christian,” LaLa said with a smile that came no-where near her
eyes.
 
But she meant what she said.
 
She was grateful for Christian’s
support.
 
She even leaned against him,
still in need of that support.

Dutch stood
in his room-sized, walk-in closet and tore open a brand new dress shirt.
 
He was in trousers and a t-shirt as he began
putting on the shirt.
 
Jade was also in
the closet, seated on the center island.

“Didn’t I
tell you to get down from there?” Dutch said to her.

“You’re so
busy I never get a chance to spend any real time with you.
 
You’re either coming from a meeting or going
to one and I hardly can say hello to you.”

“Move,” he
said again and Jade rolled her eyes, but jumped down.
 
She immediately grabbed the front of her
father’s shirt.
 
“Let me button it.
 
You don’t let me do anything for you.”

But Dutch
would have none of it.
 
He removed her
hands.
 
“I think I can button my own
shirt, little girl,” he said with a smile as he began walking out of the
closet, buttoning his own shirt as he walked.

Jade didn’t
like his stubbornness, but she followed him out of the closet all the same.

“Can the
president go to the movies?”
 
she
asked as they walked over to the dressing table.
 
“I mean the real movies.
 
Not the movie theater in the White House.”

“He can go
anywhere he wants to go,” Dutch replied.
 
He stood at the dressing table and combed his hair.
 
His groomer was on call, but Dutch didn’t
bother to call him.
 

“Then take
me to the movies, Daddy,” Jade said with a smile.

“Get your
husband to take you,” Dutch replied.
 
“Where’s Christian anyway?”

“He’s
outside with everybody else.
 
Where he’s supposed to be.”

Dutch
glanced at her through the mirror.
 
“Are
you taking care of him the way you’re supposed to,
Jade
?”

Jade
hesitated.
 
“What do you mean?”

“You know
what I mean.”

Jade smiled.
 
“He’s boring, Daddy.”

“He’s your
husband.”

“He’s my
boring husband.”
 
She moved closer to
Dutch, placed her hands on his chest.
 
“Why can’t he be like you?” she asked, and Dutch looked at her.
 
Then he removed her hands and stared at her.

“What’s the
matter?” she asked, surprised by that odd look in his eyes.

“What are
you doing?’’ Dutch asked with a frown now on his face.

“What do you
mean?”

“I’m your
father.”

Jade laughed
one of the phoniest laughs Dutch had ever heard.
 
“I know you’re my father!”

“Why are you
playing games with me?
 
Why are you
flirting
with me?”

“Flirting
with you?” Jade asked
,
her skin blushed with
shame.
 
She never dreamed he’d call her
out like this.
 
“What are you talking
about?”

“I’m your
father,” Dutch made clear again.
 
“I know
we didn’t know each other for almost all of your life.
 
I know I’m new to you.
 
But you do not play the little seductress
with me.
 
Am I making myself clear, young
lady?”

Jade hated
when he became like this.
 
“Yes,” she
said.

“You have a
good man in Christian and you’d better not mess that up.
 
I used to wonder if he was good enough for
you.
 
Kept me up nights
wondering if any young man would ever be good enough for my little girl.
 
Now I’m beginning to wonder if it’s not the
other way around.”

Jade’s heart
dropped when he said that.
 
But she
didn’t have time to respond.
 
A voice was
heard, a voice she hated.

“What are
you two up to?” Gina’s voice said airily, and they turned to the sound.
 
She was walking into the bedroom from the adjacent
dressing room entrance.

Jade,
however, was already upset with her father for going there, and now this?

“Why would
you say something like that?” Jade responded in her nastiest of tones, a fixed
frown on her narrow face.
 
“It’s none of
your business what we’re up to.
 
What
kind of question is that, anyway?
 
I’m
talking to my father, okay, if that’s all right with you.
 
And it’s an
A
and
B
conversation.
 
You need to
C
your way out of it!”

Dutch looked
at his daughter as if he could hardly believe her nerve, and then he slapped
her hard across her face.
 

Jade
stumbled back, grabbing the side of her now stinging face.
 

“Who do you
think you’re talking to?” Dutch asked her, his own face unable to shield his
anger.

Jade held
her face and stared at her father, tears forming in her eyes.
 
“I was just telling her to stay out of my
conversation,” she said in a now bratty tone.
 
“I was telling her it was none of her business.”

“You don’t
tell her shit!” Dutch yelled.
 
“Not like
that!
 
And my business is her business
and don’t you ever forget that, Jade.”

Jade just
stared at her father.
 
There was anger,
hurt, and embarrassment all rolled into one.
 
He was always putting her in her place, and she was getting tired of it.
 
And that Gina, she thought as her eyes looked
angrily at Gina.
 
She couldn’t stand
Gina!
 
She was the reason.
 
She was always the reason.
 
There wasn’t a human being she hated more
than that smug-ass Gina Harber!
 
She just
knew Gina loved when Dutch slapped her.
 
Gina just loved it, Jade would bet any amount of money.
 
And it was too much for Jade.
 
Too damn much.
 
Of all the people who had to witness her
humiliation.
 
She fled from the room.

Gina looked
at Dutch, amazed.
 
Although Jade would
never believe it, she actually cared about her stepdaughter.
 
“What’s wrong with her?” she
asked,
concern in her voice.

Dutch just
stood there, upset that he laid a hand on his daughter in anger, but not
regretting it, either.
 
He exhaled.
 
“More than we can we will ever know, I’m
afraid,” he said.
 
But before he could
say more, there was a knock at the door.
 
Which was all he needed.

“Yes?” he
said.

The vice
president stepped inside.