Finding Gracie's Rainbow

Finding Gracie’s
Rainbow

Book One of the HEA Series

Smashwords
Edition

Deborah A. Price

Copyright 2011 Deborah A.
Price

DEDICATION

Life isn’t about waiting for
the storm to pass. . .

It is about learning how to
dance in the rain.

I would like to dedicate this book in
memory of my mother, Betty Jean Shinault Cobb, who encouraged us
never to give up when we have a dream.

Characters and occurrences
are fictional
.

Chapter 1

The calculator was busy
spitting out numbers in red ink while the bills were being added
together. Gracie stared at the numbers trying to figure out which
bill wouldn't get paid that week. She laid her head down on the
table trying not to feel the anger and frustration she had felt
ever since she had taken that phone call from her ex-husband. As he
had for the past year, he wasn't going to be able to pay his child
support. It was getting to be a regular phone call, and she was
beginning to hate the sound of the phone ringing.

She lifted up her head and
tried to smile when her daughter danced into the room.

“
Do you believe in
romance, Mom?” The little girl asked as Gracie wanted to laugh at
the word. The question was asked by a tiny eight-year-old girl with
huge brown eyes and strawberry blonde hair that was put up in
pigtails.

“
Why?” Gracie hugged her
after Bea had danced the rest of the way to where she was sitting.
“Have you been watching
Cinderella
again?”

Bea nodded her head
glancing up at her mother’s swollen eyes.

“
It’s alright, Bea.”
Gracie stood as she grabbed the stack of bills and stashed them
into a drawer before she started to fix supper. “How was your visit
to Granny’s?”

“
It was alright.” Bea was
watching her mother as she talked. “Aunt Kim was there with
Sammie.”

“
And just how is my
sister?” Gracie looked into the pantry and pulled out the last box
of macaroni and cheese.

“
She and Granny talked in
the kitchen while Sammie watched
Cinderella
with me.” Bea took the
two plates her mother handed her while she talked. “Aunt Kim was
upset about something.”

Gracie laughed. “Aunt Kim
is always upset about something.” She saw the look that Bea gave
her, “What Bea?”

“
Your name was mentioned.”
Bea sat down and stared at the macaroni and cheese in front of
her.

“
Don’t worry about it,
Princess.” Gracie held her hand while they said grace. They both
pushed the food around of their plates. They were both sick of
eating macaroni. “How was Sammie?”

“
She says she's dating
Prince Charming.” Bea rolled her eyes toward the ceiling before she
excused herself from the table. “It’s just a fairy tale. There
isn't a such thing as ‘Prince Charming’.”

Gracie stared at her
daughter and frowned. “Bea, you're a little young to believe
that.”

“
Then where is my father?”
Bea had tears falling down her face. “Aunt Kim says. .
.”

“
Aunt Kim talks too much.”
Gracie stood and looked down at Bea.

“
Is it my fault?” She
looked back up at her mother with the question burning in her
eyes.

“
No, and don’t ever think
that it is.” Gracie hugged her tightly to her, wiping the tears
with the cloth she held in her hands. She glanced at the clock.
“Time for bed, young lady, you have school tomorrow.”

Bea looked at her sadly
before she walked to her bedroom. The little girl couldn't remember
her father, and Gracie never mentioned him. Gracie would always
look sad and then angry whenever Bea asked questions about
him.

Gracie walked into the
bedroom with a half-hearted smile on her face to tuck her daughter
into the bed and listen as she said her prayers. “Good night, Bea.
I love you.”

“
I love you, too, Momma.”
Bea cuddled with the little teddy bear she had ever since she was
an infant and pretended to fall asleep as her mother turned off the
light and shut her door.

Gracie walked back to the
drawer where she had stashed all the bills. She placed them on the
table and stared at them. She had no more corners to cut.
Everything had to be paid, and Bea had to have food. She felt the
anger start to sting her eyes as she remembered the conversation
with Bea’s father earlier.

“
Mark, it's been over a
year since you’ve paid any amount of child support, and I really
need that money.” She had listened as he had come up with every
excuse he could. “Whatever, Mark, but Bea has got to eat, and I've
cut everything I could. She’s your daughter, too.” She had hung up
the phone and started looking at the classified ads in the paper.
There was no choice; there was going to have to be a second
job.

Gracie stood and walked to
the bathroom where she took a good hard look at herself. “Well,
Gracie, this is a fine example you're setting for your daughter.”
The blue eyes looked back at her, not showing any emotion as she
talked out loud to herself. Bea had looked so serious when she had
asked her about romance and told her that there was no ‘Prince
Charming’.

Gracie brushed the
strawberry-blond hair that looked like her daughter’s, except it
was curly as she thought. She had started dating Mark in her
freshman year of high school. Back then she had believed in fairy
tales and in Prince Charming. They had married a week after she had
graduated and found out that she was pregnant six months after
that. They had moved in with his parents in Pennsylvania, and he
had never let her do anything but write to her parents. Mark’s
parents had helped her get home, and he'd managed to find her
forcing her to move back in with him. The night that Bea was born,
he had come home drunk and beaten Gracie until she couldn't stand.
He had apologized on their way to the hospital where he just
dropped her off and left her. He had called her mother and left,
never returning.

Gracie was still
remembering as she walked to her bedroom. Her mother had seen the
bruises on her daughter the minute she had walked into the hospital
room. Gracie had cried as her mother had held her tight. That was
the last time she had even thought about fairy tales. She laid down
on the bed and sobbed, crying herself to sleep.

Bea heard her and walked
into her mother’s room, sliding underneath the covers to lie down
beside her.

~

Gracie dropped Bea off at
school and headed to work. Work would always take her mind off the
bills that were piling up at her apartment. It would keep her busy
enough not to think of anything. She was the office manager at
Salem Publishing Plus, and there were always problems. Usually, one
thing after another. She laughed as she sat down behind her desk.
Why was she able to solve everybody else’s problems but her
own?

There was a knock on her
door, and Gracie looked up to see her sister. “Kim?”

“
In person,” her sister
shut the office door and studied her, shaking her head before she
spoke. “You look like crap.”

Gracie raised her eyes.
“Thanks. Did you come here to give me grief?”

“
No, I came to have lunch
with you.” Kim looked at her then. “I went down to the cafeteria,
but Addison said that you haven’t been down there since Christmas.”
To her eyes, Gracie had gotten smaller and the blue eyes looked too
big for her face. “You aren't eating.”

Gracie stood and walked to
the windows that faced the pond at the back of the building. “I
haven’t got the time to eat.” Gracie caught herself starting to
lie. “Let me rephrase that. I haven’t got the money to
eat.”

“
Honesty. I like that.”
Kim watched her. “Why don't you have the money to eat?”

“
I guess you want me to be
honest, Rev.?” Gracie turned towards her. “Fine. I'm
broke.”

“
That’s not a reason to
avoid me. You used to tell me everything, but in the last several
months, I've barely seen you.” Kim stood and watched as Gracie
started to turn towards the desk.

“
All the money that I have
is going to groceries so that I can make sure that Bea eats. My
rent is late, and now they're threatening to cut off my
electricity.” Gracie stared at the wall hard trying to force back
the tears that she felt stinging her eyes.

“
Oh, my God.” Kim was
shocked as she watched Gracie sit down. “What happened?” She
started to pull her mousy brown hair into a ponytail.

“
Mark hasn't paid any
child support for over a year.” She put her face in her hands. “I
thought I could handle it.”

Kim walked around to where
Gracie was sitting. “I don’t know whether I should sympathize with
you or be angry that you didn’t think enough of me to talk about
your problems.”

Gracie looked up and
narrowed her eyes. “I should be angry with you.”

“
Why is that?” Her sister
glanced down at her.

“
Bea was listening when
you were talking to Mom yesterday.” Grace saw the color drain out
of her sister’s face. “I didn't have enough on my plate without Bea
asking me if it was her fault that Mark left me.” Gracie stood. “My
lunch hour is over.” She hugged Kim before she opened the door. “I
can figure this out by myself so there’s no need for you to talk
about it to Mom.”

~

Kim stared at her brother
after she talked to him about Gracie. “She told me not to go to
Mom; she didn’t say anything about coming to you.”

Steven walked towards her
as he picked up a picture and then placed it back down. “That’s
Gracie, always trying to solve things on her own.” He finished
walking to her. “Do you still have that extra key to her
apartment?”

“
I haven’t thought about
that, but, yes. I do.” Kim watched as her sister-in-law walked into
the room from the kitchen. “I don’t guess Gracie has talked to you
either.” Stephen had married Gracie’s best friend.

“
About what?” Paige had
been fixing supper while Kim had talked to Steven.

Steven sat down on the
couch counting money as Kim watched him. “Gracie is in trouble.”
Steven handed Kim the money. “Go shopping tomorrow and fill up her
pantry and fridge.” He stood and pulled his keys out of his pocket.
“I'm going to find Mark.”

Paige looked over at Kim.
“Why is he going to look for Mark and what kind of trouble is
Gracie in?” She listened while Kim told her everything that she had
told Steven.

“
It sounds like she closed
herself off from everybody.” Paige looked at the door. “I’ve called
her a couple of times, but she’s always too busy to
talk.”

“
She hasn’t been eating
either.” That bothered Kim more than anything else. “She’s given
everything that she has to Bea. I don’t know how much more she can
give.”

“
Where is Bea?” Paige
asked after she looked at the same picture that Steven had picked
up before. It was one with Gracie holding Bea right after they had
come home from the hospital.

“
She's at Mom’s house.”
Kim answered as Paige picked up the phone. “I promised her that I
wouldn’t talk to Mom about this.”

“
You’re not.” Paige
invited her mother-in-law over and asked that she bring Bea with
her. She called and left a message with Gracie’s secretary. “I
always fix too much food for just Steven and me.” She smiled at
Kim.

Kim hugged her before she
left, “Good luck.” She frowned before she walked out to her car as
she wondered how Gracie had withdrawn from them without any of them
noticing.

~

Paige opened the door after
she heard the knock and stared at Gracie with concern.

“
That good, Paige?” Gracie
tried to smile at the look that was on her friend’s
face.

“
I’m sorry. You just look
different.” Paige hugged her.

“
There’s been a lot of
stress at work.” Gracie wasn’t aware that Kim had talked to them
before she caught the look that Paige had shot at her when she
spoke. “Kim’s been over here- hasn’t she?”