Read Online Seasoned with Grace by Nigeria Lockley - Free Book Online Page A

abortion doesn’t mean the Lord won’t bless you with a baby someday.”
    â€œWell, what is He waiting for? It wasn’t my choice to have an abortion. My mother and father convinced me that it would be best for me and for the father.”
    â€œWhat did the father think?”
    Grace paused as the waiter arrived with their food. Right now she did not need someone looking for a come up to overhear this story and leak it to the press. The waiter took his time placing their plates gently in front of them. Then he snapped open their cloth napkins and poured them each a fresh glass of water. Grace knew he must have recognized her or Junell and was delivering the best service he could in order to walk out with a handful of cash.
    â€œWhat would you ladies like to drink?”
    â€œI need something strong,” Grace said, peeling off her leather jacket. She looked at the list of cocktails, skipping over all the ones that ended with ini or had some type of fruit as an ingredient. “Gimme the Down in the Delta.”
    Junell looked at her over her drink menu with both of her eyebrows raised.
    â€œDon’t look at me like that, Junie. The strongest thing in it is gin. We both know I can handle a little bit of gin. She’ll stick with the water,” Grace said, turning back to the waiter. Grace snatched the drink menu from Junell and shoved it and her own menu in the waiter’s hands. “Thanks, love.” She patted him on the rear end, sending him away.
    â€œYou’re not off the hook, Grace. What did the father think?” Junell said, pressing, as she propped her elbows up on the table and rested her head on her hands—a sure sign that she wasn’t going to let this conversation go.
    â€œWe never really discussed it. He was being prepped to go into the ministry. We’d talked about getting married once I graduated from high school, but then I got pregnant, and his parents and my parents came down on me like a sledgehammer. The way they explained it, I would be responsible for ruining three lives.” Grace held up her thin fingers and counted off. “His, mine, and the baby’s. I didn’t want that.”
    â€œWhat do you want now?”
    â€œA drink.” Just as Grace made her declaration, the waiter arrived with her drink. Grace stirred the ice in the glass. “I mean, you know the rest of that story. I went from the clinic to being on my own, and that wasn’t the wisest choice. I was a sheep available for any wolf to devour.”
    Grace’s statement was incorrect. Junell didn’t know everything. She didn’t know the things that happened on a set to young girls with no chaperone. Mama June had always been there for her.
    â€œSo, what’s next? You usually follow up a drink with a man. You know, you can’t keep running around with every Tom, Rick, and Larry and expect to have a family.”
    â€œWait a minute. Who the heck is Rick? It’s Tom—”
    â€œSssh . . .” Junell put her fingers up to Grace’s lips like she was a five-year-old. “These lips are holy, and I’m not about to fix them to say some nonsense. You do know that the Bible says we’re going to have to give an account for every idle word we speak, right?”
    Grace twisted her mouth up to the side and sipped her Down in the Delta through a skinny red straw. There was no way a God who was supposed to be so complex would waste time counting her words.
    â€œListen, Grace, it says it right in Matthew twelve, thirty-six. Furthermore, He knows what you’re thinking anyhow. So, you better just get it together, girl. How are things going at the church?”
    Reclining farther in the square-backed chair, Grace took a long sip of her drink and let out an exaggerated sigh.
    â€œWho is he? That sigh is most often followed by a ‘Girl, you just don’t know’ story.”
    Horace’s eyes and sly grin penetrated