Saving Gracie by Kristen Ethridge

After eighteen years of growing up with that, I left for college and never looked back.”
    The years peeled away as he spoke. In his mind, Jake saw every detail of that last showdown with his father before leaving for the University of Texas. “In my heart, I always wondered how we could be related. I’ve never been able to treat anyone—especially family—the way my father treated his only son. I don’t have that innate ruthless distrust. Anyway, there came a point when I wanted to remove myself from his presence and stop the doubts in my head about why we never got along. I needed a change of scenery to do that.”
    “So that’s why tomorrow is so important to you? You need to prove your father and those who listened to him wrong.” Gracie laid her knife and fork carefully at the top of the plate. “I understand the need to prove doubters wrong.”
    She reached her hand across the table, then covered Jake’s own and gave it a quick pat. The spontaneous gesture of solidarity surprised him. “I once had someone in my life who said I was important to him,” she said. “Then, little by little, David started to treat me as though who I was, where I came from and the people who made up my friends and family weren’t good enough for him. He thought I should have been grateful to him to become a part of his world and leave my own behind. It took a while, but I had to learn to stand up for myself and the things that made me the person I am.”
    Jake almost couldn’t believe Gracie’s story. What kind of man could tell a woman he cared about her, but she’d have to change in order to keep his affections? The cruelty inherent in that made Jake think back to a different relationship in his own life—the one with his father. He never knew exactly why his father treated him coldly, but from his earliest memories, he knew he didn’t measure up.
    Jake knew what it felt like to be rejected for who you were, and the knowledge that someone would try to crush Gracie’s fiery spirit and the dreams that her family and culture had shaped infuriated him. Jake had brought Gracie to see new properties today as an olive branch, an opportunity to do the right thing. But now, he wanted more. He wanted to protect Gracie from people who didn’t show her the proper respect—a mistake he’d made when he first showed up on her doorstep.
    Frustrated, he pushed back from the table, the shove to the chair having to substitute for the shove he’d like to give this David character.
    Learning this new facet of Gracie’s past made Jake see just why she wasn’t backing down in the present. Jake had once doubted Gracie and her motivations. Not anymore.
    Tomorrow, he hoped the board of directors of Peoples Property Group would say the same about him.

Chapter Six
    G racie shuffled through the collection of envelopes in her post office box. She saw letters from relatives in Mexico, a few bills, and some other correspondence—but not the one item she really hoped for.
    Another pound of weight settled on Gracie’s shoulders with each step she took back to the truck.
    “So?” Jake’s good-natured inquiry came as soon as Gracie opened the door.
    “The letter still hasn’t come.” She held on to the door handle and boosted herself inside. “I can’t move forward with leasing that new place until I know if I’ve been awarded the grant. Without it, I’m back at square one. I hate this.”
    She would give anything to lose this heaviness and stand up straight again.
    Jake pushed a button on the dashboard, silencing the stereo system. “What do you mean?”
    “At the beginning of the week, I was the proud owner of a small business that both made ends meet—albeit tightly—and made a difference. Now, all I can think about is how I don’t have enough money to continue my work.” She placed her elbow on the edge of the door and rested her chin in the cup of her hand, looking blankly at the ocean as they turned onto Gulfview Boulevard.