Dutch and Gina: The Power of Love (17 page)

This floored LaLa.
 
She stared at him.
 
Could it be true?
 
“But. . . You’ve gone out on dates.
 
And at Christian’s wedding I saw you dancing with all of those beautiful women.”

“I was trying to move on.
 
You told me where you stood.
 
I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself.” Then he exhaled, ran his hand through her long, soft hair.
 
“But I can’t move on, La.
 
I don’t want anybody else.
 
I want you.
 
I want you to be my woman.
 
I want you to be my wife.”

LaLa’s heart began to soar.
 
Because, in truth, she didn’t want anybody else either.
 
But then reality set in.
 
“But it won’t work, Crader,” she said.

“Yes, it will,” he said with a smile.
 
“If you’ll let it.”

“But how can I even entertain the thought of marrying a man who once cheated on me?”

“Because he’s a man.
 
I told you I wasn’t perfect, La.
 
And I’m not promising you perfection now.
 
But I am promising you love and protection and kindness and happiness.
 
Those I can swing.”

LaLa stared at him.
 
“And what about faithfulness?”

“That too,” he said easily.
 
“Because, ironically, I’ve been completely faithful to you since the night I cheated.”

LaLa smiled.
 
“Do you realize how crazy that sounds?”

He laughed.
 
“Yes.”

Then she shook her head.
 
“Can life really be this cockeyed?” she asked.

Crader laughed again, placed his hand on the side of her face.
 
“Yes, it can!” he proclaimed. Then his look turned sober.
 
“If you’ll let it.”

“But marriage, Crader?
 
We’re going to reconcile and just get married just like that?”

“Yes.”

“But why so suddenly?”

Crader hesitated.
 
He never dreamed he’d reveal so much of himself to any human being alive.
 
But he had to come clean with LaLa.
 
He had to make her understand just how committed he had decided to be.
 
“Because I don’t want you to think I’m about anything other than being with you.
 
I don’t want a girlfriend.
 
I’m too damn old for girlfriends.
 
Because when Dutch’s stint as president is over and I go home, I don’t want to be some pathetic old man in that big mansion of mine still chasing tail and still drowning myself in liquor over what could have been with you.
 
I don’t want to be that man!
 
I want you with me in that mansion.
 
I want our ten children running around.
 
I want laughter and love and the kind of family I’ve always dreamed of having.
 
But I can’t have any of that, La, if I can’t have you.”

Now tears were in LaLa’s eyes.
 
It all felt like a dream to her.
 
“Do you really mean it, Crader?
 
Please don’t take me down this road if you don’t mean it.”

Crader slid down from the sofa and got on his knees.
 
This was past feeling for him now.
 
This was the difference between a wonderful life, and a depressing, ordinary one.
 
“Loretta “LaLa” King, my diamond within a diamond, will you become my wife, my lover, my life?
 
Will you marry me?”

LaLa could no longer staunch the tear flow.
 
“I don’t know what to say, Crader.
 
I’m so scared that it could all go so wrong again!”

“It won’t.
 
Baby, it won’t.
 
Because I won’t let it.
 
Say yes.
 
Please make this broken man happy, and say yes.
 
I’m older than you, LaLa, by almost ten years, but you’re far wiser.
 
Please use that wisdom, look deep inside my heart, and say yes.”

LaLa smiled through her tears.
 
How could she say no?
  
She loved him.
 
Even after what he did to her, she loved him.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“I’ll marry you, Crader McKenzie.”

Crader jumped up from his knees, grabbed up LaLa, and twirled her in the kind of joy he hadn’t felt in years.
 
“Thank-you, Jesus!” he shouted.
 

LaLa laughed so hard that she felt like a school kid again.
 
And when he sat her down, and looked into her eyes, he said something that, for her, sealed the deal forever.
 

“I want to make love to you so badly, Loretta, that I can taste it.
 
But I won’t.
 
I will not touch you sexually until after the moment you become my wife.
 
Because I don’t ever want you to think this has anything to do with sex.
 
I want you, not your body, not this beautiful mug of yours.”
 
LaLa smiled.
  
“I want you, Lady McKenzie.
 
I want you!
 
If you’re willing to wait until our wedding night, so am I.”

LaLa’s heart soared without hesitation this time.
 
“I’m willing,” she said.
 
“You don’t know how happy I am that you said that.”
 
Because, in the back of her mind, she had always wondered if sex was all he had ever wanted from her.

They both knew that tomorrow would be the beginning of unrelenting damage control to savage what remained of Dutch’s presidency, or, in truth, Dutch himself.
 
But tonight, right here, right now, they refused to let any scandal or media frenzies or anything else steal the joy it took them too long to embrace.

And he lifted her, once again, and gave her another twirl.

EIGHT

Just inside the South Portico of the White House, senior members of Dutch’s staff had assembled in the halls to welcome him home.
 

Crader was there, too, up front with the president’s cabinet secretaries, speaking quietly as they waited.
 
They were what everybody in the White House called the principals, and it was an unusual display to see so much power concentrated in one hallway.
 
But they, like everyone else assembled, wanted to show their support, too.

LaLa was there as well, just behind Gina, and she found herself unable to stop taking peeps at Crader.
 
Last night they had decided that they would not tell anyone about their engagement (or even the fact that they were back together) until after Dutch and Gina had this monumental scandal under a little more control.
 
Right now it was a wild card, nobody knew where it would lead or where they would end up, and LaLa, who was Gina’s best friend, nor Crader, Dutch’s best pal, wanted to distract them from that awesome task ahead.

Dutch’s helicopter was just landing and Gina, who was in the very front of the pack, could barely take it.
 
Manny Levine and Primrose Grier, both of whom were also among the welcome committee, had urged her to remain inside the White House and wait for the president to come inside.
 
This was because of the press pad on the south lawn where the press was allowed to witness the president’s return, and to hurl questions in the hopes that he would answer one or two.
 
But in the White House efforts to, as Manny put it,
not let them see us sweat
, and to pretend that this scandal was not consuming their time or attention in the least, they wanted Dutch to arrive without outward display.
 
What happened in San Francisco was an unfortunate turn of events, was the rallying cry, but it was nothing more than that.

Gina heard their advice, and encapsulated it all, but as soon as Dutch stepped off of that Marine One helicopter, and began making his way toward the South Portico, she became so overcome with that very emotion they had warned her against.
 
She broke out of the doors and ran toward her husband.
 
She could hear Manny’s voice yelling for her to come back.

As soon as Dutch saw her running to him, he ran to her.
 
The White House Counsel had given him the
no public display
spiel too.
 
But to hell with how it looked, he thought.
 
He needed Gina unlike he had ever needed her before.
 
He played their game.
 
He went on to Seattle, he chaired the economic forum, he behaved like the cool under fire president they expected of him.
 
But enough was enough.
 
He wanted Gina.

And as soon as they met, he lifted her into his arms, his relief unable to be tamped down.
 
“Gi-na!
 
My Gi-na!” he said as he held her.
 

“Oh, Dutch!” Gina replied.
 
“I miss you so much!”

And for the longest time they just stood there, holding onto each other, allowing the reporter cameras to click frenetically.
 
But they didn’t care.
 
This ordeal was past feeling for them now.
 
Dutch wanted to be alone with Gina, to share his fears and anxieties and he wasn’t interested in how it looked or what the public would think.
 

He stood her back on her feet but kept his arms around her as they made their way toward the South Portico.
 
Manny was screaming at Crader for allowing this to happen; Crader was screaming at Manny for screaming at him; Primrose was on her cell phone to the White House Counsel, who was with the entourage coming up behind the president, asking why he didn’t prevent this from happening; and many of the cabinet secretaries were visibly alarmed.
 
Their political futures were tied to the success of the Harber Administration.
 
They felt Dutch could have at least stuck to the script.
 

But Dutch and Gina were not the script kind of people.
 
Especially at a time like this.

They entered the doors of the South Portico and the staffers began clapping.
 
Dutch felt equal parts grateful and embarrassed.
 
Liz was dead, what was there to clap about?
 
He understood that they were trying to be supportive of the boss, but there was a time and a place for everything.
 
This wasn’t either.

He stood there, his arm still around Gina’s waist, as he waited for the applause to end.
 
LaLa, and all of the staffers, were stunned at how defeated the president looked.
  
LaLa even placed her hand to her heart when she first saw Dutch’s drawn-looking face.
 
Crader, seeing her reaction, moved next to her.

“Thank-you,” Dutch said when the applause ended.
 
“But a young woman that many of you knew, Elizabeth Sinclair, is dead.
 
There’s nothing to cheer about here.
 
I want you all to say a prayer for Liz’s family and to hope that the authorities are able to get to the bottom of what exactly happened to her.
 
In the meantime, I want you all to get back to work.
 
I appreciate your support, I truly do, but the best thing you can do for me right now is to do the work the American people sent us here to do, and to do it well.
 
God bless you all.”

Dutch then shook the hands of his cabinet secretaries, thanking them individually for taking this unprecedented step to await his arrival.
 
But when Dutch’s political team, led by Manny Levine, wanted to huddle with him to talk strategy going forward, Gina stepped in.

“Not right now, guys,” she said, literally getting in between Dutch and his people.
 
“The president has to have a moment to himself.
 
After that, he’s all yours.”