A Fresh Start

Chapter 10

Grace had done what you do when everything in your world comes tumbling down. She had gone home.

Tucked up in bed with hot chocolate and a very staunchly supportive Violet, she should’ve felt better. But she didn’t.

She expected to hear from a lawyer or at least Rachel every day.

When Rachel did call, it wasn’t what she had expected. Rachel had finally broken her silence and ranted about Alan’s ‘sheer lunatic idiocy’ in ‘screwing up the best thing that had ever happened to him’, in her own words. It should’ve cheered Grace up, but it had just made her feel hollow.

Finally, Violet had had enough.

“Gracie, you need to go out and go for a walk,” she said, firmly.

Dully, Grace looked up at Violet.

“I don’t feel like it.”

“And as your mama, it’s my job to make you do what you need to do, whether you feel like it or not. Up and at them, my girl. Go.”

With much pushing and prodding, Grace got up and went. She was nearly blinded by the sunlight. She hadn’t stepped outside in a week.

Grace loved walking to the park. She had a book with her in her bag, as usual. Might as well, thought Grace, and she found herself sitting down at her favorite bench, reading the book, wishing she’d brought something to eat.

She felt his presence before he said even a word.

“Grace.”

Her heart nearly stopped. She felt her world tilt a little bit.

“What’re you doing here?” she asked, but the words didn’t come out like the strong accusation she had intended them to be. She sounded weak and relieved. She drank in the sight of him like she’d been starved for it.

Alan.

“Violet told me you’d be here. I had to get her to forgive me before I could ask you to do that.”

Grace’s jaw dropped.

Alan didn’t smile.

“Grace, I screwed up. I know I did. Everything I did has been unfair to you. I know that. I want, more than anything else, for you to give me a second chance. I will do everything I can to make it all up to you and not screw up again. But I’m pretty sure I will, and I’ll beg you to forgive me then, too. Will you give me another chance, Grace?”

She should say no. She should make him pay, at the very least.

But her heart spoke before her head said any of that. What would she gain by making him pay? He looked like he hadn’t slept a wink in a week. He looked as bad as she felt. To turn him away would make her unhappy.

Grace shut her pride up very firmly, and smiled.

“An apology from Alan Barden! That’s like getting a limited first edition of a classic. I’d have to be a fool not to take it.”

Alan grinned and his relief was apparent.

“Then come with me. Come and let me show you how happy I can make you. Come with me and let me worship your beautiful body, Grace.”

The words made her shiver deliciously.

It was like magic – the kind of magic she had secretly dreamed of from the day she had asked Alan out and he had said yes. Alan held her hand as they walked out, and there was a limo waiting for them.

Grace chuckled.

“A limo? You rented a limo?”

Alan grinned, looking boyishly charming and years younger.

“No, I bought it. I think we should break it in properly,” he declared with a gleam in his eyes that made her shiver.

He held her hand as she slid inside, following her in. Grace had a fleeting impression of the limo being ridiculously luxurious, with tinted windows and even curtains, when she forgot everything except Alan.

“Where are we going?” asked Grace, content to trust Alan but curious, nonetheless.

“You’ll see,” said Alan, refusing to give the mystery away.