Saving Grace Read Online Free Page A

who he was then. I mean, I’d seen him around the Y pool and at the Burger Barn and the mall, and I’dnoticed him because how could you not? But I didn’t even know his name then. He was so cute, tall with strong arms, and he had his hair long then too, thick and blond and almost touching his shoulders. So I just watched him for a while and didn’t say anything. Then he turned around and smiled at me, and it was just like in the movies—for a second I couldn’t breathe.
    He put out his cigarette on the end of the railing and then he pulled a pack of gum out of his pocket and offered me a piece.
    â€œThanks,” I said. I leaned against the railing, peeled off the paper wrapper, popped the gum in my mouth—it was spearmint—and hoped I didn’t look too much like a cow when I was chewing.
    Justin slid over on the stairs. “Have a seat,” he said.
    I sat down next to him. The step was so narrow our legs touched. I hoped he couldn’t feel mine shaking.
    â€œI’m Justin,” he said.
    â€œI’m Evie.”
    â€œYou here with anyone?”
    I knew he meant a guy. I shook my head. “Just my friend Jade. She’s inside.”
    â€œI’ve seen you around,” Justin said. “At the pool, right?”
    I nodded. “Uh-huh.” He’d noticed me. We just started talking then. About how it wasn’t fair that now you had to buy a punch pass to swim at the Y instead of just paying three bucks every time. And how the parking lot at the Dairy Queen up the hill was getting too crazy to hang out in.
    We talked for maybe an hour. It was getting cold, and Justin took off his sweatshirt and gave it to me to wear. It was so romantic. A while later we went inside to find something to eat. After, Justin said, “You wanna dance?” and we did. That’s how “When You Touch Me” got to be our song because it was playing on the radio.
    I had my head on Justin’s shoulder and I could smell his aftershave and Ithought, I could die right now and I’d be happy. Then later we went for a walk down the beach and found this spot beside a big rock, kind of back in the bushes. We sat on the blanket that Justin had brought and we started kissing, and soon Justin had his hand on my bare back. He was whispering in my ear how much he wanted me, and my insides were melting.
    I didn’t just put out like that, though, especially for someone I’d just met, but with Justin I knew it was different. We were already falling in love, you know, like love at first sight. I pulled back for a second. “We don’t have any...you know, protection,” I said.
    â€œI sort of do,” Justin said.
    â€œWhat do you mean, sort of?” I asked.
    â€œMy buddy, Cameron, him and his girlfriend, they’re in love and everything. I think they’ll probably even get married some day, but his parents are really religious and strict and all, and so he asked me to hold onto his—youknow—protection, because if they found it they’d freak.” He ran his finger down my cheek and across my lips. “I’ve never done anything like this before,” he said. “And if you don’t want to...”
    I thought my heart was going to burst right out of my chest, it was pounding so hard. “I want to,” I said.

Chapter Seven
    After that night, Justin and I were together all the time. We had to kind of keep things secret. I was fourteen and he was nearly seventeen. My dad would have gone ballistic. I couldn’t even tell Jade, which I hated because she was my best friend and I wouldn’t have even been at the party and met Justin if it hadn’t been for her. Justin said that assoon as I turned sixteen we could tell everyone, but then the condom broke.
    We were in Justin’s truck back in the woods off the road to the landfill. He sat up and I heard him say, “Oh crap.”
    â€œWhat is it?” I said,