Grace Alive: a Christian Romance Read Online Free Page A

little girls he gave crayons and a place mat to
color on. I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes off him.
    “Earth to, Zoe. He’s probably taken. Let’s
just focus on getting you a good Christian guy who’s rich. But not
Jacob.”
    “Not. Jacob.” My eyes flashed. Stacy came
back over to us.
    “What can I get for you ladies today?”
    “I’ll take your sausage biscuits and gravy
bowl,” I said and handed her my menu.
    “I’ll do your blueberry pancakes,” Mia said.
Stacy took our menus and walked away.
    “Please tell me there is at least one decent
man left in the world for me,” I said. I felt a little hopeless
about this subject and was ready to change it.
    “There are plenty of good guys out there. You
just gotta find them.” We chatted awhile longer about girly stuff,
until our food came. Even Mia, who loved to talk, would be quiet
when she was eating. She kept glancing over at Branson and his
kids. I turned a few times. No girl ever came.
    “Maybe his wife ditched him for some fat rich
guy.” Mia raised an eyebrow.
    “Right. Who would leave that?” I said. I
still didn’t want to tell Mia I had already met Branson at my work.
We finished our meal and got ready to leave. I started to pass
Branson when he caught my attention.
    “Zoe, right?”
    “Yeah, that’s me,” I said a little
awkwardly.
    “I’m Branson, in case you forgot. It’s really
nice to see you.”
    “You too,” I said and saw Mia’s look. She was
going to give me an earful later.
    “Zoe! We helped you pick up cans! Remember,
Evie? Remember that?” one of the little girls said with a grin.
    “Yeah, you sure did! You did a good job too!”
I said.
    “It was nice seeing you again. I’ll probably
see you next time I run out of milk.” Branson laughed as he ruffled
CC’s hair. She hugged his arm.
    “Bye,” I said and then waved at his little
girls.
    “You know that guy?” Mia pulled me toward the
cashier to pay for our meal.
    “I met him at work. I knocked over a whole
stack of cans, and he and his little girls helped me pick them up,”
I explained as the cashier rang up my meal. I handed her my
card.
    “That’s so cute. His girls are adorable. His
wife is lucky.” Mia paid for her meal, and we headed out the
door.
    “Yeah, lucky,” I repeated as we left.

Chapter 4

    After Mia and I had our breakfast/lunch, I
got ready for work, my mind bouncing around with images of Branson.
It was like he was one of those popular songs that played in my
head over and over. I brushed my teeth, attempted to braid my hair
and gave up. Instead, I curled it really fast and hair sprayed the
heck out of it. When I was finished, I bounced down the stairs and
came into the kitchen to say goodbye to my mom. She was sorting
stacks of paper, or something like that. I don’t know what she was
doing, but that’s what it looked like to me.
    “Hey, sweetie, off to work?” she asked, and I
got a glimpse of her papers. They were flyers for different events
our church hosts. There are other people who can do stuff like that
for her at our church, but she likes to keep busy.
    “Yeah, I’m heading out right now. Are you
doing anything special today?” I leaned and kissed her cheek. My
mom shoved her papers in a neat little pile.
    “No, just organizing this stuff. My big
ladies meeting is coming up on Friday. Are you and Mia planning on
being there?” she asked. I knew she really, really wanted me to go.
Mom’s meetings are great and all, but they are more geared toward
50-year-olds. I usually go anyways just to support her. Mia only
goes because she gets a break from her crazy kids.
    “We are both planning on it. We talked about
it earlier at lunch.” I gave my mom one final kiss and headed out
the door. I drove to work with my worship music blasting. I love
worship music. I’ve even written a couple songs that I kept buried
on my computer. I don’t really want to be on the worship team. I
pulled into the parking lot of Little Bit of