Read Online Shattered Grace (Fallen from Grace) by K Anne Raines - Free Book Online Page A

weren’t kidding about making sure I saw you this morning.”
    “ I’m a man of my word.”
    “ It would seem so,” she said.
    Zeke dropped into an empty seat next to hers and leaned over, tapping her on the hand. “Do you have plans later?”
    Grace pasted on a smile, but internally, she groaned. Not wanting to be reminded of the meeting with the attorney later, she wished there was a way out of it. “Actually, I do. Why?”
    “ I don’t have to work tonight and thought you might want to get a coffee or something.”
    “ I’m sorry, I can’t. Maybe some other time?”
    “ Sure,” he said. “Another time. I better get to work… two rows that way.” He tipped his head in the direction of his desk, then gave her a wink before he made his way that way. Grace snickered a little and watched as he walked to his seat.
    Any normal girl would be falling all over themselves for Zeke. After her moonlit rendezvous with Darius, however, Grace’s mind’s eye was too focused on him. She probably would never see him again, but knowing that didn’t stop her thoughts from wandering back to Darius. Nor did her fears.
    Since she was a little girl, Grace had been no stranger to the destruction that the death of love leaves behind. After her dad had left, Grace heard her mother’s crying through the thin walls of her bedroom night after night. When silence finally fell, she’d sneak to her mother’s door and peek through the crack. Each time, her mother had her father’s pillow clutched to her chest.
    Grace swore then that she’d never let that happen to her, never let someone steal her heart and then destroy it. This sudden attraction to Darius brought back those memories and frightened her. His whole bad-boy allure made her want to send reason packing. But that would just be stupid.
    Grace leaned back into her uncomfortable wooden seat and sighed, knowing she should probably be hoping that the redhead was his girlfriend so she could avoid the train wreck of possible heartbreak altogether. In spite of her effort, her mind kept flashing back to the first time she saw Darius, standing nonchalantly under the awning. The way the moonlight intensified his allure, and the easiness with which he leaned against the brick of the building, only left her wanting to relax into him. Her imagination went a step further as she pictured herself doing just that.
    The computer screen glowed in front of her unfocused eyes as she was jolted back to reality by the loud bell that signaled the end of the period. Looking back at the blank screen, the cursor blinked tauntingly at her. She let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, then grabbed her things and headed for her locker. It wasn’t a shocker to find Zeke outside the classroom, waiting for her to come out.
    “ Hey,” he said, as she walked up to him.
    Grace avoided his eyes as she spun the combination on her locker and released a small, exasperated breath. “Hey, yourself.”
    He hitched his backpack over one shoulder and leaned his other arm against the bank of lockers as he looked down at her. “Are you sure nothing is wrong?”
    She nodded. “Yeah.” She shook her head. “No.” Her final answer was a very breathy “I don’t know,” accompanied by an exaggerated shrug of the shoulders.
    Zeke cocked an eyebrow. “Oh.”
    Grace laughed, knowing he was completely stumped in that male kind of way, not exactly sure how to respond. “I’m fine, really. I just have a stupid meeting at two that I really don’t want to go to, and I didn’t get jack done in class.”
    “ Well,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “I reckon you picked the perfect class to be a slacker in then.” His grin went slightly sideways.
    “ You reckon? Did you seriously just say that?” she asked, arm still in the locker as she looked up at him.
    Zeke laughed. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
    Grace laughed too. “For the record, I’m not a slacker. I told you, I have a lot on