Read President's Girlfriend 06 - The Sins of the Fathers for Free Online

work out and I don’t think a third
party living in your home is a good idea right now.   I feel the same way about Marcus being
there.   But it’s not my decision to make.”
    “But it
matters what you think, Dutch,” Sam said.   “Very much.”
    “But we want
her to stay with us,” Jade said in that sometimes bratty way of hers Dutch
didn’t like.   “It’s just until she work
some things out.”
    “As I said,”
Dutch reiterated, “it’s not my decision.”
    “But she’s
my mother.   She’s having hard times.   Why wouldn’t you want my mother to spend a
little time with me?”
    Dutch looked
at Sam.   “What hard times?” he asked her.
    Sam looked
away from him.   He had already concluded
that she didn’t come all this way to Finland just to ask if he approved of her
staying with Jade for a while.   There was
more to this tale.   A lot more, he
determined.   He also determined that Sam
was the kind of prideful person who wouldn’t want to discuss any “hard times”
in front of her daughter.
    He looked at
their daughter.   “Why don’t you go see
what Chris is up to,” he said to her.   “I
want to speak privately with your mother.”
    Jade,
however, was still perturbed with Dutch.   “Why can’t Ma stay with me?   What’s wrong with that?”
    “We’ll talk
about it later.”
    “But I want
her with me.   She’s my mother.   She wouldn’t be any burden on me.”
    Dutch gave
his daughter a look that could chill the sun.   A look Jade knew all too well.   She didn’t like doing so, she hated it, in
fact.   But that look told her not to push
it.   She therefore got up, and left the
room.
    Sam shook
her head.    “She’s a grown woman,” she
said with a smile, “but in age only.”
    Dutch,
however, didn’t return the smile.    His
issues with Jade weren’t funny to him.   “Why did you want to see me, Samantha?” he asked her.   “You didn’t come all this way about any
living arrangements.”
    Sam exhaled,
uncrossed her legs, leaned back, and crossed them again.   Dutch looked down at those shapely legs.   He realized, to his own surprise, that he was
getting aroused as he looked at her.
    “You’re
correct,” Sam finally said.   “I most
definitely didn’t come here about living arrangements.”
    Dutch waited
for her to continue.   She didn’t.   “Why did you come?” he asked her.
    She let out
a frustrated exhale.   “It’s been a tough
few years.   I can’t lie.”   She looked at him.   “A really tough few years.”
    “For the bookstore?”
    “The bookstore, me, everything.   The truth of the
matter is , I’m broke, Dutch.   I’m nearing bankruptcy.   It’s been tough.”
    Dutch stared
at her.   He had not expected this.   “How much?” he asked.
    Sam paused.   “The bookstore is the worst of it.   It’s swimming in a sea of red.   I mortgaged the house twice to staunch some
of the bleeding.   Now I’m about to lose
both of them.”
    “House and bookstore?”
    “Right.”
    How much
debt are we talking, Sam?”
    “A couple hundred
thousand,” she said.   “For
starters.”   Then tears began to
appear in her pretty eyes.   “I’m sorry,”
she said, wiping them away.
    “Nothing to be sorry about.   It’s a rough economy
for everybody.   I know that.”
    “I thought I
could make that bookstore work.   I tried
everything.   Buy one, get one free, reading labs, book signings, but nothing worked.   Some days a handful of people come through,
other days nobody walks through that door.”   She wiped more tears away.
    “ It’s okay, Sam,” Dutch said as he uncrossed his legs and
leaned forward.   “Don’t beat yourself
up.”
    “I never
learned how to do it, Dutch,” she admitted, her almond eyes looking at him with
a questioning glare.   “I thought I had it
figured out, but I never learned how to do it.   I did what my parents had wanted and earned my medical degree.   That was a big