Love Out of Order (Indigo Love Spectrum) (19 page)

“Okay. Don’t worry, they’ll love you as much as I do,”
John said, reaching over to hug me.

“John? You love me?” I said, looking up at him.

He nodded, looking down at me quizzically. “What?”
“You’ve never said that before.”

“Really? Well, I dunno why I haven’t. But I do.”

“I love you, too,” I said, hugging him to me. The
prospect of meeting the Archers suddenly didn’t seem that daunting.

John’s words carried me all the way up the walkway to the front door. John opened it and we went through the
foyer and into the family room. Then all the warmth
faded from my body despite the merrily glowing fire in
the gas fireplace.

“Mom, Dad, this is Denise,” I heard John’s voice
coming from somewhere, but all I could see was the stern
face of John Archer III and the blanched face of Elizabeth
Archer. They didn’t handle surprise well. John Archer III
was a handsome man with a full head of silver hair. My John looked exactly like his father. Elizabeth Archer had
the best face money could buy. Her porcelain skin was
flawless. Her auburn hair, which didn’t have a hint of
gray, was pulled away from her oval face. She wore
matching pearl earrings and necklace. There was no
warmth in her severe, gray eyes. There was a lot in her
demeanor that reminded me of Sasha.

“Denise? This is your girlfriend?” Elizabeth recovered
first. Her eyes were focused intently on John. I was glad
as that gaze, more of a glare, would have killed me on the
spot had it been directed at me.

“Yes,” John said, moving a little closer to me.

“Denise. Nice to meet you,” John Archer III said
tersely, reaching out for my hand. I shook his hand,
trying not to wince at the firmness of his grip.

“
Denise.” Elizabeth said my name as if it almost
physically pained her to do so. Her handshake was limp,
and her hand was quickly withdrawn afterward.

“Nice to meet you both,” I said, feeling as if I was
barely in the room. Both of John’s parents were focused
on him.

“Where’s Thom? I want Thom to meet Denise,”
John said, that weird tone in his voice that had been in
it at the diner. A contradictory blend of uncertainty and
determination.

“He’s out. Kelly picked him up earlier,” Elizabeth
replied. “He’ll be black—oh, oh, excuse me. I misspoke.
I meant to say he’ll be back by dinner.”

Finally, there was some color in her face. Oh, so that
was what was bothering Mrs. Archer. Hm. Thought so.

“Denise. Darling. I’m sure you’re tired. Alex will show
you to your room. You can have some time to freshen up or take a nap or whatever you wish to do,” Elizabeth said.

She signaled an older Mexican-American gentleman
into the room. He was short and his body hinted at
having once been well built through his three-piece suit.
His black hair was starting to gray at the sides. Alex
picked up my suitcase. I followed him up a staircase and
down the hall to a doorway at the end of it.

The room was nice. Mahogany furniture. Four-poster
bed. Plenty of expensive-looking fixtures. The kind of
stuff from those furniture stores I passed, afraid to even
go in and look at the price tags, on my way to Ikea. I was
tempted to take a nap on the forty million thread count
s
heets, but I was even more tempted to eavesdrop on
John’s conversation with his parents.

Alex set my suitcase down and asked me if I needed
anything else. I assured him I didn’t. He then hurried off.
Probably afraid Elizabeth would demand something of
him when he wasn’t there to comply. I didn’t blame Alex. I was afraid of that woman, too.

“So this is who you left Sasha for? Unacceptable,
John.”

“I can’t believe this matters so much to you guys.”
John’s voice was tired and strained. I felt a little sorry for
him, but I was mad at him to for letting me walk into
this mess.

“John, you should have told us she’s—not white.
Why wouldn’t you tell us that?” John Archer III sounded
more than a little ticked.

“Well, quite frankly, I didn’t know you were racist,”
John said.

“Don’t you take that tone with me. And I am not
racist. That is a
horrible
thing to say. I have plenty of
black friends. Why, Charles was just promoted to partner
last week. But son—there’s a difference between us. You
can’t just go marrying one of them.”

“Dad. Pretending to like black people at work is not having black friends. Promoting someone who’s deserved
that promotion for years and had been overlooked again
and again does not count. And nobody’s saying anything
about marriage, but if—”

“Stop right there. This family has an image to
uphold. We are the Archers. Do you know what that
m
eans? I’ll throw you out on your ass, John. I will not
hesitate one moment.”

“But—”

“I’ll give it all to your brother, I swear. Who pays your
bills? Where do you think the money in that trust comes from? And you would turn your back on your family like
this? John, I am completely disappointed in you. Just when I thought you were finally beginning to get your
act together. And you have that poor girl here now. What
kind of New Year’s will this be? It’s all a disgrace. You can’t
be a partner like this. You can’t be on the board of
Randy’s company like this. How would I explain your
black babies to—anybody?”

“Dad, I’m tired of you trying to run everything. Your
way isn’t the only way. This is my choice and my life and
I love her. Screw the trust fund if that’s how you feel. The
firm, everything!”

“I am not losing my son over this,” Elizabeth Archer
screamed.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Oh, don’t thank me. Now what we have to do is get
Sasha back, son. You’re confused. Obviously this girl
has—”

“Denise didn’t do anything. I went after her. Yeah, your
perfect lily white son went after the evil black woman. I
love Denise. I do not love Sasha
.
I’m not going to marry
an image because that’s what you think is best for me. And
if I marry Denise, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I heard a thud. For a moment I thought it was me.
But then I realized that I was still on my feet.

“
Elizabeth! Look what you’ve done to your mother.
Get Alex,” John Archer III shouted, but Alex was already
running into the room. “Hurry, get a wet cloth and some
water. My wife has fainted. Faster, or you’ll be on your
way back to Mexico before dinner.”

Alex hurried back out of the living room. He didn’t even notice me.

“Out. We’ll discuss this later. You better hope and
pray you come to your senses, too. And thank your
mother. If it wasn’t for her protest, you’d be out of this
house tonight,” John Archer III said.

John burst out of the living room. He saw me. There
was a furious look on his face. Of all the thoughts that
could come into my head, I couldn’t help thinking of
how sexy he was at that moment.

“You heard all of that?” he asked quietly. His expres
sion softened.

“Most—I just I wanted to take a shower and I
couldn’t find the towels and I was looking for Alex . . .”
I rambled on nervously. Why did I feel guilty? Why did
I feel I owed him an explanation about anything? But
somehow, he had that effect on me.

“Come on.” John hugged me to him and we went
upstairs to the room Alex had shown me. He sat me
down on the bed and closed the door. He then pulled up
a chair in front of me. He turned the chair backward, sat
and rested his chin on the top of the back of the chair.
Those eyes. He could make me do or say anything with
those eyes. I looked away. He gently took my chin
between his fingers and turned me to face him again. I
still avoided his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t tell them.”

“You shouldn’t have heard that. I wanted to protect
you.”

“Yeah, ’cause that turned out so well.”

“Did you tell your parents I’m white before we went
to your place?”

“That’s different. I knew they wouldn’t care.” So I
exaggerated a little. I had been pretty sure they didn’t care
about such things, and I was right. “Why didn’t you tell
them? Why didn’t you at least warn me they didn’t
know?” Tears, hot and prickling, threatened to pour down my face at any moment. I couldn’t stop myself
from bringing my eyes back to his. They were so sad, so
tired, and yet still so intense.

“I guess I didn’t want to believe it would be an issue, even though deep down I knew. We never really talked
about it, but I mean, I guess the signs were there. I’m
sorry.”

He got up from the chair and sat next to me. I moved
a little further down on the bed.

“John, why would you put me in this position? You
knew what would happen. You knew. That’s why you were acting all strange at the train station. You knew.
That’s why you acted weird when I asked about them at
Thanksgiving. You always knew. Why did you bring me
into this? You’ve always known. And you knew we
wouldn’t be able to stay together. And now I’m in love
with you and there’s nothing I can do about it,” I said
a
s the tears streamed down my face. I knew it wasn’t all
his fault and that I had been in love with him before he
even broke up with Sasha, but I wasn’t about to admit
that.

“Denise, I know, and I’m sorry. But I just couldn’t stay away from you. There’s just something about you
that pulls me in. And what do you mean about us not staying together? Are you breaking up with me?” John
asked in a low tone, his voice thick with emotion. I
couldn’t bear to look directly at him or let him touch me. I would fall apart if he did either. I wouldn’t be able to
march myself right out of that house with whatever little
resolve I had left. I scooted back on the bed a little.

“They’re going to disown you. What do you think?”

“Who cares?” John reached up to brush away my
tears before I could stop him. I grabbed his arm,
intending to push him away, but I froze for a moment,
and that was all he needed. He gently loosened his arm
from my grip, grabbed my shoulders, and pushed me
back onto the bed. He lay on top of me, still holding me.

“You do,” I said, trying to swallow my sobs.

He bent down and sweetly kissed both of my wet
cheeks before kissing my lips. I sighed a little and then gave into him completely, kissing him back.

“I don’t. And even if I did, I can’t stay away from
you,” John whispered over my lips before kissing them
again. John’s kisses were undoing every bit of resolve I
wanted to have about the situation. I finally forced
myself to turn away from his kisses, and then he started
kissing my neck, which was even worse.

“
I can’t believe you put me in this situation. You got
me all the way up here and they hate me. You know I
can’t stay here. You know we can’t—”

“Sh. How about we stay for dinner? I really want you
to meet my brother. No, he’s cool. He’s not like them.
And we’ll take a train back to Virginia tomorrow, if they
won’t let me take the car. We’ll spend New Year’s in Richmond,” John murmured before kissing me again.
What was this spell he had me under? I was supposed to
be mad. And here he was, telling me all the right things.

“Hmph,” I snorted, still trying to put on a mad front.