Chapter 1:

“Ma!!” Grace yelled down the stairs to her mother. “Can I wear your yellow sweater? Damien and I decided to go to the parade tonight.” The Church of Second Chance’s had been Tasha and her daughter Grace’s home church since Grace was a toddler. They were having a parade that night to celebrate fifteen years of ministry in the city of Baltimore. Tasha was looking forward to attending with her daughter, but she sprained her ankle a few days earlier while exercising and was sentenced to the dreaded crutches for a few more weeks. She wasn’t excited about that. She and Grace had a very close relationship, one that other mothers and daughters really admired, they loved finding attending events. She also hated wasting a good Friday night. Also, Tasha wasn’t very fond of Damien, Grace’s boyfriend of almost two months, he just did not rub her the right way. To Tasha, Damien seemed to have a lot going for himself, but it all just seemed a little too perfect. He presented himself as an outstanding young man who respected women, loved children, gave back, loved God, had a full ride scholarship to Howard University, helped elderly ladies across the street, kept at-risk-youth off the street, and had even started attending church with Grace and Tasha. He was in the process of visiting churches. Damien had expressed to them that the one he was attending on campus had just gotten a new pastor who just didn’t sit right with Damien.

“Sure,” Tasha responded reluctantly, as Grace came down the stairs to join her mother for dinner.

“Well, now I don’t want to wear it anymore.” Grace replied.

“Sorry, Grace Face, I just really wanted to go tonight, plus I don’t trust that little boyfriend of yours.”

“Ma, I am convinced that you have some sort of vendetta against Damien. Seriously, can you think of anything he’s done that would cause you not to trust him?”

“I know. That’s the problem, he’s too nice, overly nice like he has something to hide. Plus he’s a grown man. How-ever, it may just be my crazy mama-bear paranoia, I mean your dad was definitely the perfect man. I wonder if Mom thought this about Ernest, you know, that your dad was too nice, too perfect. He was definitely a true gentleman, that’s for sure!” Although Tasha did not care for Damien, she wanted Grace to know that she was aware she was growing up and didn’t want to push her away before she left for college next year.

“Ma, he’s only three years older than me, actually two, since I’ll be eighteen in two months, five days and three hours. Daddy was five years older than you, and y’all were married for fifteen years, love doesn’t have an age requirement. ‘And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes Heaven drowsy with the harmony.’”

“Girl, please. Here she goes quoting Shakespeare. First of all, don’t forget Shakespeare also wrote Romeo and Juliet, and we all know what happened in that story, second of all, it’s been less than two months, you better not love that boy. Third of all, you’re trippin’ with that birthday countdown.”

Tasha and Grace were both literary enthusiasts and randomly quoted authors, both to each other and to their friends. People thought they were kind of strange for that since they didn’t usually see African Americans quoting literary work, but that’s what made their bond so unique, they were different in their own way and didn’t care.

“Nah, you definitely don’t have to worry about that yet, there’s no love here, I don’t think. It’s way too early for all of that, but I do like him a lot,” Grace blushingly replied.

Grace is a senior at Balentine High School in Baltimore, Maryland. An outstanding honor student who loves literature, art, music, volleyball, basketball, golf … in fact there aren’t a lot of things that Grace didn’t like. She did not confine herself to one activity, she wanted to be the person that enjoys life, and she views that as doing as many things as possible to avoid missing anything that may interest her even more. Tasha respects her daughter’s enthusiasm and spunk, but she often gets on Grace’s case about this because, although she wants Grace to be multitalented and unrestricted, she wants to make sure Grace understands the importance of being focused. As intelligent and talented as Grace is, she still has no idea what her focus will be in college, and that is just driving Tasha up the wall. Although Grace will be attending college with no financial obligation, she wants to make sure Grace takes full advantage of that. Ernest, Tasha’s husband, and Grace’s dad was in the Army but was killed in an IED attack while deployed to Iraq two years ago. Grace’s dad was huge on education and wanted to make sure his daughter had the best opportunities, so he transferred his educational benefits a year before he was killed. The three of them had the best relationship a family could ask for, so his death took a severe toll on Grace and Tasha. They were emotionally, spiritually, and mentally depleted during that period. As a result of that, Grace and Tasha found themselves always at odds with each other, they couldn’t seem to get along, but they were both just hurting, bitter and, to top it off, they realized they were furious at God.

It wasn’t until a year ago that their relationship began to return to normal, and they were finally beginning to heal. They knew Ernest would not have wanted them to be at each other’s throats, he would want them to move on and love on each other. Ernest loved Jesus immensely and always expressed the importance of dealing with things. He was not a sweep-things-under-the-rug kind of guy, he understood that if you didn’t get to the root of an issue that things will continue to spiral out of control, and that is what Grace and Tasha had to do, get to the source of their bickering and fighting. They decided to go to some therapy sessions that their church was offering, and it was in those sessions that they realized they’d never adequately dealt with the pain of losing Ernest, it happened so suddenly, abruptly, and traumatically that they never gave themselves time to process it, so they took it out on each other. Once they admitted what was going on and allowed God to heal them, they were on their way to being individually restored and restoring their relationship. Now, their relationship is better than it’s ever been. Ernest always called their daughter Grace Face, so during their therapy sessions, Tasha adopted her late husband’s pet name and has been calling Grace that ever since. It allows them to keep a piece of Ernest in their everyday conversations.

After dinner, Grace asked her mother if she needed anything before Damien arrived to pick her up. Tasha assured her that she was fine and urged her daughter to have a great time and not to worry about her. “When you get off those crutches, we are going to Zumba class. Just be careful not to do anything beyond your age ability, that’s how you ended up in those crutches in the first place,” Grace says jokingly as Tasha gives her an annoyed look.

“Oh, you are a comedian tonight, don’t make me hit you with one of these crutches, I will just tell the hospital that I accidentally stepped on you while you were asleep on the floor.”

Looking unimpressed with her mother’s attempt at a joke, Grace responded: “They will not believe you for two reasons, why would I be asleep on the floor, and how could you not see me on the floor?”

“It makes perfect sense. See, I wouldn’t see you on the floor because it would be midnight, and all of the lights are off. You fell asleep watching TV and rolled off the couch unto the floor, and the TV auto shut off because of inactivity. So, it was pitch black in the living room. I went downstairs to get my cell phone charger out of the living room, not expecting someone to be lying on the floor, so I stepped right on your face with the crutch. You screamed, it startled me, and in response to the piercing shriek, I swung my crutch, this time making contact with your arm. That, my friend, is my story, and I’m sticking to it.”

“So, for you to just sit here and concoct that psychotic story, I am convinced that you need to stop watching the ID channel and Lifetime, that’s not an acceptable imagination for a sane person.” Grace and Tasha burst into laughter, interrupted by the blaring sound of a car horn.

“Oh shoot, Damien’s here, I need to go grab my phone.” As Grace runs upstairs to grab her phone, Tasha peers out the window at the orange sports car parked outside of her house, she thinks to herself, maybe Damien really is a great guy, my daughter seems infatuated with him, and she’s a pretty bright girl, she’d be able to sense a creep, right? I guess I’ll let her live a little.

“Okay, I found it, but it’s barely charged. Ugh.” Grace shouts to her mom as she races down the stairs, heading for the door. As she begins to open the door, she pauses, realizing she hadn’t properly said bye to her mother. “Sorry, Ma,” Grace exclaimed, as she kissed her mother on the cheek. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours; are you sure you don’t need me to bring you anything from the store?”

“Sure, if you guys stop anywhere, you can grab some paper towels, and tell Damien I said hello.”

“Huh, are you high? You want me to tell Damien that you said hello?”

Laughing, Tasha assured Grace, “No, I am not high, just thought I’d give the boy a chance unless he gives me a reason not to like him; it’s only fair right?”

“Thanks, Ma, see, that’s why I love you!” Grace runs out of the door to meet Damien in his Mustang as Tasha looks on...