Dutch and Gina: The Power of Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

get away with any of it.  
      “Dutch, I was just joking around.   I didn’t mean,” he continued, but Dutch cut him off.
    “My wife and my children are individuals with very different likes and dislikes and the color of their skin has nothing to do with any of it.   The idea that you would seek to categorize people that way, a man of your sophistication, quite frankly amazes me.”
    Robert knew he had to damage control and control it fast.   “Come on, Dutch,” he said with a smile.   “You know me.   I’m known to occasionally put my foot in it.   This is one of those occasions.   I truly meant no harm.”
    “I know what you meant, Bob,” Dutch responded, staring his friend dead in the eye.
    Robert’s throat constricted.   For the sake of the plan, he had to dig and dig fast.   So he did what he usually did when in a tight jam: he grinned.  
    “I apologize,” he said in full charm offensive, his grin on full display.   “You know how I can be.   If there’s a way to screw up, I’ll find it.   Please accept my humble apology.”
    Dutch didn’t see what there was to grin about, but he accepted Robert’s apology anyway.   Life was too short, he felt, to hold grudges.
    Within minutes of this truce, however, Jade was storming off of the patio and into the house.   Christian, red-faced and angry, stood up, ran his hand through his hair, and then walked over and stood beside the president’s chair.   He was facing out, toward the beach, and his blond hair was brushing around wildly in the wind.  
    Robert smiled, he knew how impulsive and utterly irrational young love could be, and he sipped from his own glass of wine.   Dutch just sat there and waited for Christian to address him.
    Finally, when it was clear to Christian that his father-in-law wasn’t the interfering type, he exhaled and took a seat beside the president.   “Your daughter, sir,” he began, his slim body leaned forward, “is a stubborn, bone-headed wench!”   He said this angrily and all at once, prompting Robert to laugh.
    Robert’s laughter caused Christian to immediately redden even more, as he realized whom he had said it to.   “With respect, sir,” he added, his blue eyes filled with that sincerity Dutch loved about him.   “But she is.”
    “And what made you conclude,” Dutch asked, “that she was a stubborn, bone-headed wench?”
    “She won’t listen to me!   I told her she can’t go back to work, not with the baby on the way,     not when she’s the daughter of a sitting president, but she keeps insisting that it doesn’t matter.   But it does matter, sir.   I don’t want my wife working, and I don’t want her working with my child in her belly.”
    Dutch considered Christian.   He was concerned before the marriage if Christian was tough enough for the job.   Jade could be a handful, and Dutch had told him so.   But the young man insisted he was up to the challenge.   “Before you married her,” he asked, “did she tell you she wouldn’t return to work?”
    “No, sir, but . . . but it was just assumed she wouldn’t.   I mean, she’s the president’s daughter!   What would she look like working?   All of the Secret Service would have to be there with her all the time, and it wouldn’t be fair to her students.   I know she gets bored and everything, and I know she was a school teacher before she knew you were her father, but . . .”
    Dutch could just feel Christian’s distress.   “Calm down, son,” he said to him.
    “Yes, sir, it’s just that she won’t listen to me.   And I don’t know what to do.”
    Christian looked at Dutch, as if only he could give him the right answer.   Dutch, however, said nothing.
    “It’s just kind of tough, that’s all,” Christian added.
    “Did you expect marriage to be easy?”
    “Well, no, sir.   Not really.   But with Jade it’s just that . . .”
    “You married a strong woman with strong opinions.”
    “I understand