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I’ll never forget the moment I walked into his parents’ home and saw the looks on their faces when they first laid eyes on me. Immediately, I knew Doug hadn’t told them I was Japanese-American. They did a lousy job of hiding their shock.
It was the worst evening of my life. Dinner was miserable. His parents hardly said a word to me. In fact, they could barely look me in the eye. Doug tried valiantly to fill the void by carrying the conversation all by himself, but it was still a disaster.
“It’s getting late,” his mother said as soon as dinner was over. “I hate to cut our evening short, but I have an early appointment in the morning. I’m afraid we’ll have to say goodnight.” Then she looked at her son, still ignoring me, and said, “I’m sure you can see yourselves out.”
Doug and I drove over an hour one way to spend forty-five minutes with his parents.
On the drive home, feeling sick to my stomach, I said, “You didn’t tell them I’m Japanese.”
“You’re Japanese-American. There’s a difference.”
I shrugged as my heart shattered into pieces. “Not to them.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he’d said as he reached across the front console for my hand. “They’ll come around.”
But they didn’t.
Doug broke up with me shortly after he’d gone back to visit his parents the following weekend to have a heart-to-heart talk with them. He never told me what they said to him, but I could guess.
“I’m sorry, Kennedy,” he’d said to me when he came to my dorm room after returning to campus. There were tears in his eyes when he held out his hand. “I’ll need the ring back. It was my mom’s.”
Apparently, I was unsuitable for their Caucasian son, and he didn’t feel inclined to fight for me,for us.
I cried as I took the engagement ring off my finger and placed it in his palm. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Not after everything we’d shared, all the plans we’d made.
“I really am sorry,” he’d said. “I hope you believe that.”
But his words did nothing to soothe the ache in my chest. “I don’t want an apology, Doug. I want you to fight for us.”
He looked away. “I can’t, Kennedy. My parents threatened to cut me off financially if I didn’t break up with you. I can’t afford tuition on my own. I tried to talk some sense into them, but they didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say.”
After taking back the ring, Doug walked out of my dorm room and out of my life. We never spoke again. When we’d run into each other on campus, he’d look the other way.
It wasn’t my first run-in with discrimination, but it was the most painful. The mostpersonal. The blatant rejection cut like a knife.
At the time, I never told anyone other than my parents about Doug. It was just too painful to admit. And any time I dated after Doug, I carried a deep-seated fear that bigotry would rear its ugly head again. In the back of my mind, I was afraid the same thing might happen with Connor’s family.
When I finally got up the courage to broach the subject with Connor and share my concerns, he said there was nothing to worry about. He assured me his family would welcome me with open arms.
After my experience with Doug’s parents, I wasn’t so sure.
I should have learned my lesson the first time.
Once back in the cottage, I head straight to my bedroom and unpack the few pieces of clothing I brought with me, hang them up in the closet, and stow my toiletries in the bathroom. Then I sit on the side of the bed and stare out the window at the lake. I find it soothing to watch the water. A light breeze sends ripples across the water’s surface, making it sparkle like diamonds. Families of Mallard ducks paddle around without a care in the world. A fancy white motorized boat and a green rowboat are moored to the dock that juts out into the lake.
Will and Skye have built an amazing life for themselves, and it’s clear they’re devoted to each other. They’re happy. I’m beginning to fear I’ll never experience that.
I jump when I hear a knock on my door. “Yes?”
“Can I come in?” Connor asks in a low voice.
Just hearing his voice makes my pulse race. I brace myself. “What is it, Connor?”
The door groans when he leans against it. “I can’t come in? Are you indecent? I don’t mind—I’ll close my eyes.”
I bite back a laugh at the sound of his quiet chuckle. “Can’t you talk to me through the door?”
“No, not really. I need to talk to you face-to-face.”
