When Grace Sings by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Author:Kim Vogel Sawyer [Sawyer, Kim Vogel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-73134-0
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2015-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

Anna—Grace

The doorbell rang, an intrusion against the cheerful melody of raindrops on the roof.

Sunny let out a squeal and dropped her crayon onto the coloring book. “I’ll get it!” She jumped up, bumping the table in her rapid movement.

The tea in Anna—Grace’s mug sloshed over the edge and spattered the papers she’d been grading. “Sunny, please be careful!” She reached for a napkin from the little basket in the center of the table. Sunny didn’t pause in her dash for the door. Shaking her head, Anna—Grace mopped up the mess. Miss Kroeker always said weather changes made the students fidgety. Sunny proved the teacher’s words true—she’d bounced from activity to activity this morning, and it wasn’t yet nine o’clock.

Anna—Grace carried the stained napkin to the little laundry room behind the kitchen and tossed it in with the load of towels already agitating in the washing machine.

“Sissy, Sissy, come see who is here!”

“Yes, Sunny, I’m coming.” She chuckled to herself at her sister’s shrill, excited voice—her parents had chosen well when they named this child, who found reasons for delight in nearly everything—and headed for the living room. She rounded the corner, then came to a startled halt when she saw who waited just inside the door. Her frozen pose of surprise lasted only three seconds. Then her excitement rose, her feet took wing, and she dashed across the floor with her arms outstretched. “Steven!”

He captured her in a hug. His clothes and hair were damp, and he smelled of fresh rain and wet wool and spice from his aftershave. She buried her face in the curve of his neck, savoring the sweet essence of the man she loved. She would have stayed there much longer if her little sister’s giggles hadn’t reminded her they had a small witness to their embrace.

She stepped away, her face flaming, and locked her hands behind her back. “I didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow.”

“Dad has your cousin Theo doing my chores, so he said I could take the day off.”

Having him near again sent her pulse tripping at twice its normal rate, but she kept herself in check to set a good example in front of her impressionable jabberbox of a sister. She hoped his solemn countenance was pasted on for Sunny’s sake. She smiled twice as brightly to compensate for his grim expression. “So you’re free the whole day?”

He nodded.

Sunny pulled at Anna—Grace’s skirt. “Sissy, can Steven color with me?”

Finally Anna—Grace remembered her parents weren’t home. She slapped her hand to her cheek and groaned.

Sunny’s face fell. “Does that mean no?”

She tugged Sunny to her side and turned an apologetic look on Steven. “Dad’s at the stained-glass studio—he needed to finish a project for a customer in Wichita and said he’d probably be out until late this afternoon. Mom isn’t here right now, either. She went to do her weekly shopping. I don’t know when she’ll be back.”

Steven nodded. “I understand.”

She wanted to cry. “I’m so sorry.” An entire day with Steven after two weeks apart would be a wonderful treat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.