Grace Alive (A Christian Romance)

Part 6

Chapter 5

I went to work the next day with puffy eyes from crying. I hate that. Every time I cry my face off, I look like Rocky. Luckily, the store was super duper slow. As I waited for someone to show up at this crappy store, I flipped through a magazine. My attitude was getting worse and worse today. I didn’t say anything to my parents before I left this afternoon. My dad was studying, and my mom was preparing for the ladies event she was running on Friday.

Was God really angry at me for simply thinking about that guy? I started going down that path. You know the one that is a big, dark, sucking hole. Yeah. That one. I was fighting back tears by the time the bell above the door rang. And guess what. In walked Branson. He was only toting one kid again this time—the little baby. He bounced her up and down in his arms, singing a silly song about a rabbit.

“Hi, Zoe! Oh, Bree Bree, do you remember Zoe?” he said in a baby voice as he blew kisses on his little girl’s neck. She giggled and clapped her hands.

“Dadada,” she babbled, drool dripping down her chin. It dropped onto Branson’s black shirt that accented his well-toned chest. Ah! I’m doing it again! I mentally blocked out his good looks. But dang that was hard.

“Oh!” Branson wiped the drool from his shirt. He flashed me a smile as he walked toward the milk section and grabbed a gallon. That man sure liked his milk. He came to the register and set Bree on the counter. She reached for these weird fuzzy things that were sitting there. I don’t know what they are, but they are fuzzy and have eyeballs that wiggle. She started putting them in her mouth when Branson grabbed them. She looked at him and then grabbed at his shirt. “Daddda,” she said over and over. She was so cute! Oh my word!

“Where are your other kids today?” I asked warmly, ringing up his milk for him.

“They are at Mommy’s house,” he said, and I could hear a weird tone take over his voice. Mommy’s house? As in he’s divorced or…? I was trying to read this man, but it was hard.

“Yup. One of those guys.” He pointed to himself. “Thank God Jesus forgives!” he said with a laugh. He swooped his baby girl off the counter and swiped his card.

“Yeah…if you work for it,” I mumbled under my breath and finished ringing him up.

“Hey, I know this is really forward…but would you like to go to coffee sometime? Minus the munchkins?” he asked, and holy cow he had an awesome smile.

Say yes, and give him your number, a quiet voice said.I felt my heart race. My dad would not approve. God would not approve. But, I was already heading down the wrong path dad said, so…

“Yeah, that’d be awesome. I’ll give you my number.” I ripped off a piece of register tape and wrote my cell phone number on it. My heart was pounding.

“I’ll give you a call soon,” he said, and he galloped out of the store with Bree. What the heck did I just do? I slapped my hand over my mouth and let out a huge breath. I was going to die. Why did I give some sex-a-holic man my number! I was an idiot! He probably just knocked up ho’s and toted their kids around to attract other dumb girls like me!

I felt something in my stomach lurch. What if my parents found out about Branson? I would be put on display in front of the whole church and publically shamed. It’d happened before. One girl had gotten pregnant in the youth group outside of marriage, and my dad had put her up front and rebuked her in front of everyone. He thought he was saving her soul, but she’d never come back again.

I was hyperventilating.

Something had nudged me to give him my number. Like…a voice. Was that a voice? Or was that me? I’d heard, give him your number. Was I going crazy? It had sounded like God’s voice! Was that why I’d given it to Branson? Luckily it was closing time. I shut everything down and locked the door, still trying to figure out how in the world this was going to work out.