State Of Grace
Chapter 2
A few hours later Grace returned to the house for lunch, muddy and tired.
“Hey, Momma. Luke wants turkey on wheat and Dad and I want roast beef,” she called through the open screen door. She heard a short, bubbly laugh carry out from the kitchen as she walked inside.
“May’s here?” she asked. Grace swung open the door to her small, but bright kitchen. She breathed in the smell of roast beef and vanilla which she knew was her momma’s perfume. Her best friend was standing there cooking and laughing with Grace’s mother. May Watson was small and dark with curly brown hair. May had lived in the same town as Grace as long as she could remember but wasn’t really the typical farm girl Grace was used to. The other girls were burly and big, the exact opposite of May but it didn’t bother her. May didn’t seem to notice or care if she fit in. To make this point even more evident, May wore the cutest clothes known to this small town. She stood in Grace’s kitchen wearing a wrap sweater, tight jeans and tall brown Uggs. Grace looked down at her old jeans, hiking boots and ratty long sleeve t-shirt.
“How is the…er…farming?” May asked. Luke had followed Grace through the house and pressed up against her, leaning against the frame. She leaned back almost involuntarily until she caught herself and walked away from him. Grace constantly found herself in oddly comfortable situations with Luke. He never seemed to ever notice or care.
Her father walked in the room and Grace was caught up in his appearance. It was so like her brother’s. While Grace was all light eyes and blonde hair, just like her mother, her brother was dark eyes and hair like her father. Her brother was gone though. He had been gone for two years now. She bit her lip, thinking about him. During high school, Grace’s brother, Ryan, had dated this amazing girl named Annie. They both finished college and continued their relationship and then he proposed. Annie said yes and the wedding followed soon after. It was a beautiful affair, Grace remembered, full of flowers and pretty dresses and candles. The day after the wedding, Annie and Ryan ran off and never returned. They wrote letters to both families, postmarked from New York City.
Her mother was sick with grief with them living in a city so far away from home but her father refused to let them contact Ryan or Annie. The only news Grace and her mother got were whispered conversations with Annie’s mother in the canned food isle at the local grocery store. The smell of roast beef brought Grace back to the present. Luke was holding out a plate in front of him. She looked up into his face and something inside her lurched. Luke was certainly good looking enough. He had blue eyes and brown hair. He was tall, tan and very well built from working on a farm all his life. Luke smiled a lopsided grin, gathered the saliva in his mouth and spit in Grace’s roast beef.
She opened to mouth to retort but Luke interrupted, “Ya’ll hear the news about the Jacobs’ farm?”
“Yeah they’ve gone and sold their farm, that’s what Mrs. Collins told me last week,” confirmed her mother.
“Yeah but the house is already sold,” said Luke.
“That’ll mean new neighbors for us,” said Grace’s father, shaking his head.
“What’s wrong with that?” asked May.
Grace’s dad smiled. He had always liked May in a way Grace couldn’t understand. May was the exact opposite of Grace; she didn’t work or study very hard, she loved clothes too much and talked about boys incessantly. Meanwhile Grace spent most of her days studying and working on the farm. Her boyfriends were nonexistent and she could care less about what she was wearing. Yet the patience her father had for May…it was odd.
“It means they might want to use the land the Jacobs haven’t farmed in years. We’ve gotten permission to use it but the new neighbors might want to farm,” replied her father.
Grace and Luke were returning to the fields after lunch when a very familiar blue bronco drove up the muddy drive way. Luke had kept walking but stopped when he saw that Grace was frozen in place.
“What?” he asked. He got no answer because the door of the bronco opened and a tall, handsome young man stepped out. He walked around to the passenger’s side and opened the door. A dark haired beauty stepped out and smiled at Grace. But Grace only had eyes for her brother.
“Ryan?”
“Hi there, Gracie,” he said.
She ran across the driveway, kicking up mud with her boots. She jumped and landed in a bear hug in his arms.
“I missed you so much,” he muttered into her hair. She couldn’t speak.
Grace detached herself from her brother and looked behind him. His beautiful wife, Annie, stood there smiling kindly. Grace ran and hugged her too. Her mother came out on the porch to sweep and looked up, surprised.
“Hi, Momma!” called Ryan.
“Oh Lord- Ryan and Annie!?” she said in disbelief.
“Nick! Nick! They’re back, honey, they’re back!” she shouted over her shoulder. Her eyes hadn’t left Annie and Ryan. Grace’s dad slowly walked down the porch steps and crossed the yard to reach the group.
“Ya’ll back then? For good?” he asked Ryan.
“Yes, Sir.”
They shook hands then and her father walked off to the field. “Grace. Luke. Get going,” he called as he retreated through the high wheat field.
chickenwing