Color Blind (BWWM Interracial Billionaire Single Mom Steamy Romance Novel) (14 page)

“
What do I have?”

“
I don’t remember how it’s
pronounced,
but it’s called ‘A-S’ for short. Ankle-something is all I know,” I laughed, trying to make light of the long name I couldn’t remember.
 

“
Oh. Will the kids at school know that I have AS when I go back?”

“
No. They won’t know anything. You’ll take your medicine at home, okay?”

Nevaeh nodded. “Lorraine and I will be right back. Why don’t you color me another
beautiful
picture? Okay?”
 

“
Ok,
Momma
.”
 

I motioned for Lorraine to follow me into the living room. “I need to get these prescriptions filled, can you keep an eye on her while I run to the pharmacy?”
 

“
Sure, no problem. Do you want me to get dinner started for you? Did you set anything out?”

“
Oh,
crap! No, I completely forgot this morning. I’ll pick something up. Do you want to eat with us?”
 

“
No, it’s okay. Tyrone’s grilling chicken breasts for us tonight. I’m sure he’ll start dinner as soon as I get home.”
 

“
Okay, I won’t be long. See you in a bit.”

I handed the prescriptions to the pharmacist who looked them over.
 

“
I’m sorry. We can fill her prescription strength NSAID, but we don’t fill DMARDs.”

“
You don’t fill them? Where am I supposed to go? Who does them?” I questioned, trying to figure things out.
 

“
Well, most patients who take them have to do mail order pharmacies; most insurance companies require it.”

“
Mail order? You mean my daughter has to wait for her prescription to come in the mail?”

“
Again, I’m sorry. That’s just the way it is. If you’d like, we can fill this portion of the prescription and fax a copy of this over to the mail order company, and they can fill the DMARD portion.”

I was at least glad the pharmacist was willing to help me. “Okay, that’d be great. Do you know how long until they typically send it out?”
 

“
I don’t know.”

I nodded. “Okay. How long for this one to be ready?”
 

“
Oh, say about 30 minutes. We can page you when it’s ready if you’re going to wait
for
it.”
 

“
Yes, please. Page me when it’s ready.”

After the prescription
had been filled
, I inquired as to which mail order pharmacy they faxed the DMARD drug to.
 

“
We ran your insurance, and it appears MaxCare is covered under your insurance, so we sent it there. They should contact you soon to obtain all of your information.”

“
Thank
you,
” I said as I paid for my daughter’s medicine and headed home.
 

Along the way, I stopped to pick up dinner for us. My thoughts raced as I replayed what the pharmacist told me.
Why don’t doctors tell you these things so you’re not shocked at the pharmacy
? It would have been nice to have a clue as to what was going on before I got there. At least Nevaeh didn’t seem too upset about her condition; the most she was worried about is whether the kids at school would know or not. Never mind the fact it could progress into
something much worse, but I didn’t tell her about that. I decided to call my mom and brothers to have a get-together this weekend. It would give me the chance to explain what had been going on with Nevaeh as well as tell them about Dale.
 

Later that night, Dale called to check on Nevaeh after she had gone to sleep. I was so relieved to hear his voice. I filled him in on tidbits of information I’d read
from
the literature. He agreed it was scary that a disease could leave a child crippled as it progressed. We talked on the phone until wee hours in the morning as we made plans to
barbecue
together that weekend.
 

“
Okay, but can we do it on Sunday? I was planning on getting my family together on Saturday to tell them about Nevaeh’s condition and talk to them about us,” I told him.

“
Really?” he sounded shocked. I can’t say that he was the only one. I was surprised by my own actions.

“
Yep, really,” I laughed. “The way I see it, you’ve been nothing but good to my daughter and I. My family’s going to have to learn to accept you. You’re a good man, Dale Halloway.”

I called my family when I woke up, eager to see if they could make it over to the house on Saturday. My mom and little brother Terrance said they’d be there, but Jason couldn’t come. Tony said he’d come too, but could only stay for an hour or so. As Saturday morning approached, I found myself more nervous than I’d been all week—and that was saying a lot.
 

As my mom and brothers gathered in the living room, I had Nevaeh play in her sandbox in the backyard. They eyed me suspiciously as we sat down.

“
So why’d you want all of us together?” Terrance asked.

“
I needed to talk to all of you about a couple of things and figured it would be best done in person. First, I want to
speak
about Nevaeh and her condition,” I started. They had a lot of questions about her disease, and I did my best to answer them. I noticed Tony watching the clock.
 

“
Hey sis, I hate to stop you, but I gotta go. We’re having a basketball game at the park this afternoon and I got $50 ridin’ on it. Gotta shoot them hoops, know what I’m sayin’?”

Shit. I gotta do this fast.
“Okay, but before you go, there’s something else
really important
that I need to say. I’ve been dating this amazing man, his name’s Dale Halloway, and…” Tony cut me off.
 

“
That’s great sis, see ya later,” he kissed me on the head.

“
Wait! That’s not all. I wanted to…” my mom cut me off.

“
You’re not pregnant are you? Child, if you’re pregnant, I’m gonna beat your ass,” she threatened.

“
No, ma, I’m not pregnant. I wanted to tell you that Dale is white.” The entire room fell silent and you could cut the tension with a knife.

“
You’re what?” my little brother, Terrance, asked. He looked pissed! They all looked
angry
, actually.
 

“
I know that none of you
are
going to like this, but Dale’s been
very good
to us. He brings us dinner, he comes over to the house to hang out and he’s even offered to help pay for Nevaeh’s medical expenses,” I tried to make him sound good.
 

“
You better break up with him, Kimberly,” my mom said. “We can’t have you
dating
no white man. Girl, what the hell is wrong with you?” she scolded.
 

“
Ma, I know what you’re thinking. But Dale’s not the crooked white cop that shot daddy. He’s a good man. We’re having a barbecue tomorrow if you’d like to come over to meet him.”

“
Oh, this is some bullshit,” Tony said as he opened the door and left.

Tears began to roll down my cheeks as my mom and little brother stared at me. They were fuming.
 

“
How could you betray us like this?” my mother hissed at me.

“
Mom, it’s not like that….”

“
Come on, Terrance, let’s go,” my mother jerked her purse up off the couch as they got up to leave.

“
Momma, please,” I begged them to stay. “Terrance, please, listen to me. He’s a great guy.”

“
Ain’t no white man gonna be part of our family. Ever!” he looked down at me with a stern look on his face. “Come on,
Ma,
lets
’s go.”
 

I spent most of the afternoon crying. There was no way that Dale and I would ever work out. My family made it very clear how they felt about our relationship.
How am I going to end things with him?
I couldn’t let my family hate the man I was falling for. I would have to break things off with him if I wanted a relationship with my family. Nevaeh would be so sad; she really liked him.
 

The next day when Dale came over to barbecue with us, I decided to talk to him about my family and our relationship. It wasn’t long after he came over, he started asking what was wrong.

“
Nothing,” I replied, not wanting to talk about things in front of Nevaeh.

“
I can tell something’s bothering you. What is it?”

“
Can this wait until after dinner?” I raised my voice, nodding towards Nevaeh.

“
Fine,” he answered as he chewed his food.

For the rest of dinner, we avoided eye contact. For me, it was mostly out of shame and frustration. For him, it was anger. He hated not knowing everything that I was thinking. It drove him nuts to know that I was keeping something from him. After we had
finished
eating, I sent Nevaeh off to her room to play so we could talk.
 

“
Listen, Dale, I warned you about this before,” I began.

“
Warned me about what?”

“
About my family and how they wouldn’t approve of our relationship. I spoke with them about us and they’re not happy.”

“
What does this mean for us? We’re not breaking up; that’s not an option,” he declared.

“
I’m afraid that we might have to stop seeing each other,” I tried to break it to him gently.

“
You’re absolutely fucking crazy if you think I’m giving up on you and that little girl in there.” He stepped forward, closing the gap in our distance until he was standing
in
my face. “You might not realize it now, but you need me. She needs me, and you can’t deny that.”
 

As I broke our glance by looking down at the floor, he grabbed my chin to turn my face back to him. Could he not see that it was tearing me up? The fact was, he was the greatest man who’d ever walked into our lives.

“
Dale, I don’t want you to get hurt. I’m only thinking of you,” I said tearfully.

“
Hurt? Who the hell’s going to hurt me? Your brothers? You think I’m scared of them?”

I stared at him in shock. He had no clue what my brothers could do to him. I spared him the stories of my brothers beating the shit out of two guys who tried to make a move on one of their friend’s little sisters. He also didn’t know that Terrance had only been out of prison for about a year, and he wasn’t afraid to go back. When my brothers were teens and in their early 20’s, they were straight up thugs. They stole cars at night—when they weren’t burglarizing places—and terrorized the neighborhood. My mom did everything she could to raise those boys right. Ever since my dad was murdered, they were out of control.

“
Dale, please,” I pleaded with him. “My brothers are dangerous. You have no idea.”

“
Kimberly, I never wanted to bring this to your attention,” he said pulling his shirt out of his pants, exposing a .357, “but I can pack some heat, too. You might not realize this, but as the owner of the gas company, I have to go to various developing areas to determine the best ways to run the gas lines. You’d be dumb to think I’ve never been mugged.”

“
You would shoot my brothers?” I was appalled.
Who the hell does he think he is?
 

“
I’m not saying I would shoot them, Kimberly, but I would protect myself. Don’t worry about me. I’m a big boy, and I’m more than willing to deal with your brothers if it comes down to it. I’m not backing down.”

Oh shit, here we go.
This was probably why my momma always warned me about crazy white guys. He was fucking crazy—for me and Nevaeh. It actually turned me on that he was willing to take an ass kicking if it meant winning my brothers over. My mom would take some work to win over, but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t handle myself.
 

On Monday, I called Dr. Newton’s
office
to schedule the first appointment with the specialist. I was nervous, scared, anxious and excited at the
same time. The potential for this doctor to pinpoint exactly how severe Nevaeh’s disease had grown was something I wanted to
know
but frightened me at the same time.