Free President's Girlfriend 06 - The Sins of the Fathers by Mallory Monroe

of drain appear in Dutch’s eyes.   “Thank-you, Ally,” he said and then patted Walt on the hip.   “Up, you,” he said.   “Daddy has work to
do.”
    “Daddy working?” Walt asked as Gina lifted him off of Dutch and held him in her
arms.  
    “Yes, babe,”
Gina said.   “Daddy’s working.”
    “Daddy
always working,” Walt said.   And although
it was cute and funny and Allison grinned, neither Dutch nor Gina cracked a
smile.   It was one of the worse aspects
of their life in this DC fishbowl.   It
was hardly funny to them.
    Dutch
reached over, kissed Walt on the forehead, and kissed Gina on the lips.   “You two stay out of trouble,” he said, and
then proceeded to leave the terrace.   Allison proceeded to follow him, but Gina stopped her.   “Could I see you for a moment, Ally?” she
asked as Dutch kept going.
    “Of course,”
Allison said.   She knew she was chief of
staff today because Gina had fought for her promotion.   She, in truth, felt just as much loyalty to
Gina as she did to Dutch.
    Gina
motioned to the head Nanny, who immediately began to come.   “Go with Nanny, Walter,” she said to her
son.   “Mommy has to go to work, too.”
    “Mommy working?” Walt said as the Nanny took him from Gina.
    “That’s right,”
Gina said.
    “Mommy not
always working,” Walt said and Gina and Allison laughed.
    “That’s
exactly right, too,” Gina said.
    When the
nannies and Walt left the terrace, Gina invited Allison to a sit down.   After they both sat down, Gina didn’t waste
any time.
    “I want you
to clear the president’s schedule for the remainder of the day,” she said.
    This request
threw Allison.   The First Lady had never
interfered this way before.   “Clear his
schedule?”
    “Clear his
schedule.   I can’t just sit by and let
this happen.   He’s dead on his feet,
Ally, couldn’t you tell that?”
    She
could.   “I understand, ma’am, but he has
ten more meetings today alone.   And I’m
talking meetings with a lot of foreign dignitaries.”
    “I
understand that.   Every day when he’s in
town he has tons of meetings with all kinds of people, I get it.   But I saw that look of drain in his eyes,
Ally.   He can’t keep going like this, I
don’t care who he has to meet.”   Gina
then stood up, which prompted Allison to stand, too. “Clear his schedule,” she
said again.   “Y’all aren’t killing my
husband.”
    Allison had
never seen Gina so determined.   And she
suddenly realized if Dutch was her man she’d feel the same way.   Ten meetings in one day practically every day
of the week was ridiculous anyway.   “Yes,
ma’am,” she said.   “Consider his schedule
cleared.”
    Gina
smiled.   She knew she could count on
Ally.   And then she left the terrace,
determined to plan just the right getaway for Dutch.

 
 
 

 
 
    CHAPTER FIVE

 
    Marcus Rance sat on the sofa at the Osgood mansion and looked
at the tall, straight back of his host.   He looked over further, at a tall man in a wheelchair, paralyzed from
the neck down.   He had not been
introduced to Marcus, but it was obvious that he was Dr. Henry Osgood, Jade’s
ex-fiancé who supposedly attacked her, prompting Dutch to attack him.   In fact, the guy’s father, Marcus’s host, was
treating the one-time big shot surgeon as if he wasn’t his son, but   nothing more than
another piece of the furniture.  
    This was
awkward as hell for Marcus, and if Dutch and Gina would have acted right he
wouldn’t be here at all.   But the way
they treated him.   The way they said he
couldn’t stay at the White House.   Oh,
no, he wasn’t good enough to stay there.   Not around their precious little boy.   Dutch even put it more bluntly than that:   they really didn’t know him from Adam, Dutch
had said.   He wasn’t having a stranger
around his wife and child, he had added.  
    A stranger.   That was the way he had put it.   He called Marcus a stranger.   It