Full of Grace by Misty Provencher Read Free Book Online Page A

mistake.  She’d taken it as a huge insult, shaking her head so hard, her face was a blur behind her hair.
    “But you are knocked up.  What’s done is done.” I say.  “I’ve got some money set aside.  You can live here and go to college at night, when I get home from work.  We don’t have to get married.  We can just live together until you graduate college and get a job.  I’ll do whatever you need.”
    “Oh, no guilt, right?” she says.
    “Nope, no guilt.  I’m just trying to have a baby here.”
    She’s sniffling again.  “Way to make me feel worse.”
    “Why not just give it a shot?”
    “Your fairy tale?”
    “Sure.”
    “Because it won’t work out and then I’ll be stuck.”
    “What if it does work out and nobody’s stuck?”
    “It won’t.  Besides, you’d only be doing it because you think you’re stuck now .”
    “I’m not stuck,” I say.  I jab her belly lightly.  “That’s my baby in there.”
    She hops off the window sill and tosses her hands in the air.
    “Nobody has to be stuck!”  she shouts.  “This conversation shouldn’t even be happening!  I was going to get us all unstuck at eight o’clock this morning, if you would’ve gotten me up on time!  You’re making this so hard!”
    “I don’t think you really want to get rid of it,”  I tell her and she sighs.
    “Could you just give me my pants back, Landon?”
    “No,” I smile at her, “I can’t.  I burnt them.”
     
    ***
     
    She’s furious.  She repeats what I said twice, but yelling, before she starts flailing at me.  She’s not really hurting me, but I get away from the window, in case she gets lucky and retreat to the hallway. She slams the bedroom door in my face.
    I figured I’d give her pants back to her when she started making sense, but in the meantime, it would be best to keep her here with me, talking.  Except that she’s not talking.  She’s destroying my room again.
    When she emerges, her hair’s even messier than before and she’s wearing a pair of my sweats, folded down at the waist and up on the legs. She looks around for her purse, but that’s gone too, hidden away in my fridge.
    “You didn’t burn my purse,” she says, after checking under the couch.  I shrug.
    “You’re so suspicious.  But I’m pretty sure I did,” I say. 
    She lunges at me, full-on.  Even snarling, she’s gorgeous, but she’s also as vicious as a teased lion.  I manage to get out of my chair and grab her before she pops out my eyeballs, but she’s tricky.  She tries to knee me.  Luckily, she misses.  I back her up to the edge of the couch and drop her down on the cushions.  I’m careful as I pin her beneath me, so she can’t move.  She curses and screams and throws her head from side to side as she does it.  She tries to bite me.  It takes a few minutes for the fight to drain out of her.
    “You calm now?” I ask.  She snaps her teeth at me.
    “GET OFF ME!”
    “Stop trying to bite me!”
    “NO!” she shouts and then she spits.  She gets me a good one too.  I feel the gob hit my cheek and my anger surges up against my will.
    “This is my baby too!” I growl at her.
    “It’s my body!  My choice!”
    “Well, then we’re going to stay like this until you can see my side,” I say.  She starts struggling again, but I just hold her down.  Honestly, I could do it with one hand.  I twist my head and wipe her spit off on the shoulder of my own shirt.
    “You can’t keep me here!” she shouts.  I look down at our bodies, hers carefully trapped beneath mine, and I chuckle.  That pisses her off.
    “Looks like I can,” I say.  And then, just to tweak her some more, since she’s already spit on me and nearly took out my nuts with her kneecap, I add, “What are you going to do about it, Sher?  Giggle?”
    She doesn’t. 
    She spits on me again.
    “That’s enough of that,” I say and I dive down on her, sealing my lips to her neck.  I suck her skin into my