Dutch laughed, and so did the other staff.
“He’s got a monster crush on the former First Lady, sir,” Cindy said.
“You have very good taste, young man,” Dutch said, and Richard smiled too.
Forbes warned them before they left. “What you discussed here, with the president, is completely confidential, and it will not be discussed beyond these walls. Understood?”
They all said that they did, and then they all were released to return to their stations.
Forbes looked at Dutch. “That doesn’t mean Dr. Golan is incompetent. Please understand that. The housekeepers probably see a side of her that Dr. Golan never sees.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Dutch asked.
Forbes was puzzled. “What do you mean, sir?”
“The side the housekeepers see, that side Dr. Golan doesn’t see, is really the only side that matters.”
Forbes thought about it, and then nodded his head. “You’re right, of course,” he said. And they headed back upstairs, to the private waiting area.
When they walked back into the room, Jade and Sam both stood up, anxious to know just what was going on.
Jade smiled, but her desperation was already showing. “I can’t wait to get out of here, Daddy,” she said. “I can’t wait to get away for a couple of days.”
“I think getting away from the hospital is a good thing,” Dutch agreed. “But for now, it’s not going to happen. You’re going to stay here.”
Jade’s heart dropped. “Stay here?” she asked, astounded.
Sam wasn’t surprised, but she wasn’t about to take Dutch’s side against her daughter. “What do you mean, Dutch?” she asked him.
“I mean she’s not coming to my home. She’s not ready yet. Not yet.”
Jade frowned. “But I am ready, Daddy. What have I done?”
“You haven’t done anything. You’re doing well, if your psychiatrist is to be believed.”
“Why wouldn’t you believe him?” Sam asked. “He’s her psychiatrist!”
“I understand that. But I have to be certain, and I’m not there yet.”
“Certain of what?” Jade wanted to know. “Certain that I’m not crazy anymore?”
“Of course not, Jade,” Dutch said in an admonished tone.
“No, Jade,” Sam said, now understanding. “It’s not about you being crazy. It’s about you not being good enough to be around his family.”
“But I’m his family!” Jade blared.
Sam corrected her. “You’re his daughter. Gina and Little Walt are his family. And he doesn’t want the likes of you around those precious two.”
Dutch was surprised by Sam’s sarcasm. “That’s not the case,” he said.
“Then what is it?” Jade asked. “Why can’t I go home with you? With my father? You promised!”
“I have to be certain that whatever it was that caused you to hate my wife so bitterly, is no longer a part of who you are.”
“It’s not a part of who I am!”
“Perhaps that’s true,” Dutch said. “But until I’m satisfied, I’m not going to take the risk.”
Jade stared at her father. “You think I’ll harm them. Don’t you?”
“Jade,” Dutch started saying.
“Don’t you?” Jade asked again, cutting him off.
“You didn’t warn her,” Dutch said.
“Oh, not again, Dutch!” Sam blared.
“You said she deserved what happened to her,” Dutch continued, staring at his daughter. “You said you hated her to her face. I know you’ve improved. I’m certain you have. But that doctor didn’t convince me that you’re completely there yet. And I have to be convinced that you’re completely there. After what my wife has been through, I can’t settle for anything less.”
“But why all of a sudden, Dutch? Dr. Golan gave her an excellent report.”
“Too excellent,” Dutch admitted. “His lack of objectivity disturbs me. He was speaking as if he was Jade’s fan, not her doctor. That disturbs me mightily. And if my instincts are telling me no, to wait, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Jade looked at her father with tears in her eyes. Then she ran out of the room.
Sam was about to run after her. She knew Jade still had issues. But Dutch had gone too far. She turned back toward him before she left. “It’s not fair, Dutch,” she said. “Jade is your daughter. She deserves better than this.” Then Sam took off after her daughter.
Dutch understood completely how Sam felt. He understood completely how disappointed and angry Jade had to feel. But ever since he first laid eyes on Jade today, something was telling him not to do it. He didn’t listen the last time, when everything within him was telling him to not let Gina go to that house that day, and Gina nearly died. He didn’t care if everybody was angry and if everybody was disappointed. He was listening this time.
Jade was crying hysterically by the time Sam was allowed in her room. Sam closed the door, hurried to her daughter’s bedside, and slung her over so that they were face to face.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked her daughter.
“He wants me to die in here,” Jade said, her eyes filled with tears. “He’ll never allow me to get out of here. I’ll die here!”
“And what is crying going to do about it?” Sam wanted to know.
Jade shook her head, as more tears poured. “He doesn’t love me. Daddy doesn’t care anything about me!”
“And what is crying going to do about it, Jade?”
“I don’t care!” Jade screamed and Sam slapped her violently across the face.
“Ever since you were a small child, what did I tell you crying was good for?”
Jade stared at her mother, a woman she used to fear above any other human being. “Nothing but tears,” she said.
“And who, did I tell you ever since you were little, cared about your tears?”
Jade continued to stare at her mother. “Nobody.”
“Your father doesn’t care. We saw that today.”
“He can make those courts keep me here forever, Mommy. He has the power to make them keep me here to protect Gina from me. He thinks I’m going to harm her.”
“That’s exactly what he thinks. You don’t matter, and neither do I. It’s about time we both face that hard, cold fact. Gina is the only entity that matters to Dutch Harber. You and I? Non-factors.”
“But it’s not right!” Jade blared. “And it’ll never be right while. . .”
“While what baby?” Sam asked her daughter, although she already knew what she meant.
“Things will never change while Gina is still around.”
Sam nodded. “That’s absolutely right. So my question to you is are you going to lay down here and cry tears nobody gives a damn about, or get your ass up and do something about it?”
Jade looked at her mother. “But do what?” she wanted to know.
Sam didn’t immediately respond. She just sat there. Somebody had been talking to her for months on end, ever since Dutch forced Jade into this crazy house, trying to convince her that there was such a thing as retribution. Trying to convince her just what Jade had said: that Dutch didn’t commit Jade out of any concern for her. His true intention was to keep Jade locked up forever, locked safely away from his family and his life, for the love of Gina.
“Don’t worry baby,” she said to her daughter. “You keep fucking your doctor, and keep getting those good reports. I’ll handle the rest.”
Jade looked at her mother. She was on team Dutch for such a long time. She had even gotten on team Gina after Gina’s problems with Marcus Rance. Now she was seeing both of those assholes for the selfish haters they really were. And Jade liked the change in her mother. She even smiled. “It’s about time,” she said.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was movie night in the Harber household as Dutch, with his legs crossed and his body slouched, sat hugged-up on the sofa with Gina, while Little Wa
lt and Nanny sat on beanbags on the floor. They were all watching Shrek on DVD, and both parents couldn’t help but smile as Little Walt couldn’t stop laughing at Eddie Murphy’s version of Donkey. Even Nanny, who was usually very serious, was laughing too.
But Gina knew it hadn’t gone well in California. He had phoned her from the plane, but he gave her no details. Just that Jade wasn’t going to spend her furlough with them after all. She could tell by the tone of his voice the he didn’t want to discuss it further, at least not right then, and she respected that. And discussed other matters, instead.
Dutch had only been in town an hour before it was time for them to watch movies with the baby, and she didn’t exactly have time to bring it up then. But now was different. He was home, Little Walt was glued to the movie screen and therefore no longer in need of their undivided attention, so she turned her attention to Dutch.
“What happened with Jade?” she asked him.
Dutch pulled her closer. “I changed my mind,” he said.
Gina studied him. “Why?”
“I’m entitled.”
“You’re entitled. But why?”
Dutch exhaled. “It started when she first hugged me.”
“Jade?”
“Yes. At first it felt wonderful to have my daughter in my arms again, the way it used to be whenever I would visit her there. Everything was fine. But then, when we stopped embracing, she kissed me.”
Gina hesitated. “On the lips?”
“Yes. Which was fine. But it didn’t feel fine. It felt like old Jade. Like that same obsessiveness. It felt as if she was feeling freer now that she was about to see civilization again, and she was coming into herself again. Her same old self.”
“She exposed herself,” Gina said bluntly.
“That’s exactly how it felt, yes.” Dutch loved that he could speak so plainly to Gina, and she always understood. “It felt like . . . It felt as if she hadn’t changed at all.”
“But what about all of those wonderful reports that psychiatrist was giving her?”
“That was the other problem.”
“Her psychiatrist?”
“Dr. Reyza Golan, yes. I asked to meet with him, the way I usually do when I go see Jade.”
“But this time was different?”
“Not any different than my recent visits, no, I realized that. But because his report was so glowing, and I was already unsettled, I suddenly realized that his latest reports had been so different than his earlier reports.”
Gina didn’t get it. “You lost me there, Dutch.”
“When I first put Jade in Hammersmith, Dr. Golan would give me weekly reports, and all of his reports were very balanced and objective. She was in bad shape. And she wasn’t getting any better. Or, if they did see progress, it was marginal at best. Until maybe three-four weeks ago. That’s when his reports started changing.”
“They became more positive?”
“Positive isn’t the word. They became more like hero-worship reports than objective pronouncements. It was as if something clicked within that doctor and he suddenly concluded that she was completely cured. Or something else was at work there.”
“You mean he and Jade were in league to pull the wool over your eyes or something?”
“Something like that, yes. Dr. Forbes doesn’t seem to think so. He has complete confidence in the man. But that was the perception Golan was giving me. I felt as if something had changed, all right, but the change wasn’t in Jade. The change was in the doctor.”
Gina could see the concern in Dutch’s eyes as he spoke. It was as if he knew it was true, and he hated that it was true.
“He spoke of her today,” he continued, “the way a man would speak of someone he either loved, or feared.”
“Feared? But why would he fear Jade? Or even love her? Because she’s your daughter?”
“No. His background was thoroughly checked when Luther Forbes announced that he would lead her therapy team. He comes from the wealthiest of families. Old blue bloods. A former president isn’t going to impress him to the point that he feared for his job or anything like that. It was just a feeling that came over me as I listened to him speak of Jade. It wasn’t the true Jade he was describing, but a concocted Jade. And I was angry with myself for missing it when he first started that dog and pony show.”
Gina leaned closer against him. “Don’t you dare blame yourself for any of it. You were so hopeful for her recovery, of course you would have missed it. You were getting nothing but lukewarm to negative reports about her progress. Then suddenly good news. Good reports. You were pleased.”
Dutch shook his head. “But I should have been more careful, Gina. That morning you went to Jade’s house in DC, the morning Marcus Rance harmed you, something was bothering me. It was gnawing at me. But I dismissed those feelings as overprotectiveness and didn’t stop you from going. You nearly died,” he said this and squeezed her. He looked deep into her beautiful brown eyes. “I can’t take that chance again.”
Gina placed her hand on the side of his face. “And I thank you for that,” she said. “I know Jade’s pissed, and I’m sorry about that. But on behalf of myself and our son, I thank you, babe. I was terrified about that woman coming here.”
Dutch frowned. “Terrified?”
“Yes!”
“But why didn’t you tell me that?”
“Because I know you so very much want to establish a relationship with Jade again. A good, sound relationship. I couldn’t stand in the way of that.”
“But what about Walt? If you were afraid, you should have taken steps to protect him, Gina.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to, Dutch? Of course I took steps to protect my baby! It was already arranged. When you came back from California with her, Walt was going to already be in DC with LaLa and Crader.”
Dutch smiled. “Are you serious?”
“It was all arranged. If you would not have called me from your plane when you were getting ready to return to Jersey and told me she wasn’t coming with you, our son would have already been gone. It’s one thing to have Jade try her shit on me. I can fight back. Walt can’t. I wasn’t taking any chances either.”
Dutch stared at his wife. Love was not strong enough a word to describe how he felt about her. He placed his hand on the side of her face, too, and kissed her.
Their kiss was long and loving, and was only interrupted by Little Walt hitting Gina on her thigh.
“Mommy, come on!” he said. “Stop kissing Daddy and come on!”
His parents stopped kissing. Gina looked at him. “Come on where?”
“Let me ride you like Donkey rides the Dragon.”
Gina frowned. “What?”
“Come on,” Walt said and pulled Gina away from Dutch by the catch of her hand.
Gina looked back at Dutch with a smile, and followed her child to the floor. Walt then got on Gina’s back and tried to ride her. She laughed and went along with the ride.
Dutch watched mother and son with joy in his heart. The way Walt was giggling as he rode on her back. The way Gina was laughing and wiggling her ass as she rode her son. The way. . .
Dutch’s eyes kept roaming back to Gina’s wiggling ass. How firm it was. How tight. He knew what was between those firm, tight cheeks and how he hadn’t done her that way in a long time. He wanted to fill her up. The more he watched her, the more urgently his need became.
And by the time she had stopped riding Walt, and Walt was back into watching the movie, he was completely aroused. By the time she got off of the floor and returned by his side, his erection was so hard it was becoming painful. Gina saw that he had tented, and immediately felt heat between her legs.
“Mommy,” Walt was saying, “she stayed the way she was. She didn’t turn into a beautiful princess. She stayed the way she was.”
Dutch and Gina exchanged a knowing look, and Dutch got up and headed upstairs. Gina looked back at their son.
“What’s that, sweet
heart?” she asked him.
“She was supposed to turn pretty. But she didn’t.”
Gina looked at the movie screen. “So what does that tell you?” she asked her son.
“She wanted to be happy.”
Gina smiled. “That’s right, son. Beauty is fine, but happiness is better.”
Then Gina looked at the Nanny. “I’ll be back shortly,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Nanny replied with that look that made Gina certain the woman knew exactly why she suddenly had to follow her husband upstairs. But how could it be helped? The woman lived with them. She knew they weren’t in some kind of platonic relationship. Gina therefore didn’t give that woman’s look a second thought as she made her way to the stairs, and gladly headed up.
Dutch was just stepping out of his pants and briefs by the time Gina made it into their bedroom. She locked the door and then leaned against it, looking at his magnificent physique. His penis, sticking straight out and stiff as steel, was what caught her attention most, and then she looked into his gorgeous face.
“You wanted me?” she asked with a smile.
Dutch laughed. “Bring your ass over here,” he said playfully.
“But what if I have a headache, Dutch.”
“It’s not your head I’m after. Come here.”
Gina laughed and walked up to him. He began removing her blouse and bra as if he was a pro from way back.
“I think Nanny knows exactly what we’re up to,” she said.
“Good,” said Dutch as he undressed her. “Then she’ll know to keep her ass downstairs and our inquisitive son downstairs with her.”
Dutch began sucking Gina’s juicy breasts as soon as he removed her blouse and bra. She stepped out of her shoes as he continued to suck her. He began removing her pants and panties as he licked and sucked. She was always amazed at how quickly he could get her naked. Then they stood there, together, and began kissing.
They kissed long and lovingly. When they stopped kissing, Dutch pulled K-Y out of the nightstand drawer and began to salve her. Then they started kissing again until Dutch moved down and began sucking her breasts again.
For the Love of Gina: The President's Girlfriend Page 5