Betting on Grace Read Online Free PDF

hard to maintain around his mother
and father. It was hard enough to have parents with such volatile
personalities, but through the years, Grant had somehow managed. That included
remaining calm when his father would break out the belt, or a fly swatter, or
whatever was close at hand, for absolutely no reason other than he felt like
it.
    In his father’s defense, Darrell always had an excuse
for the punishment. Sadly, it was just usually not Grant’s fault — and Grant
wasn’t trying to duck any responsibility, either. He had been a fairly good
kid, staying out of trouble, making good grades, going to school every day.
None of it seemed to matter when Darrell flew off the handle, though. Luckily,
for them all, that hadn’t happened in nearly fifteen years. At least the
physical aspect of the abuse, anyway.
    “Why’d you call me, Dad?” Grant asked seriously,
lassoing the last of his patience and yanking it close. He already knew the
answer, but he desperately hoped he was wrong.
    “I’ve got a favor to ask,” Darrell stated, this time
actually taking the opportunity to look at Grant.
    “Which is?”
    “I need to borrow some money.”
    Grant sighed. They’d had this conversation repeatedly
over the years, and it generally ended up in a heated argument. That was the
last thing Grant wanted, so he opted to deflect. “Have you talked to Morgan?”
Grant asked, referring to his sister.
    Morgan, older than him by three years, had packed up
her shit and moved out as soon as she’d turned eighteen, foregoing her high
school diploma to do so, which had been about four years before Grant had been given
the same freedom. He’d finished high school, but college had been a pipe dream,
which was why he’d settled for heading out on his own in hopes that he could
come up with a plan that would allow him to end up a little better off than his
parents.
    Not Morgan.
    She’d up and married some loser and moved to Arkansas
but had since divorced that sorry bastard. Unfortunately, Morgan had merely
traded one fuckup for another, and she was married again, this time living in
Kansas with two kids in tow.
    “Nope. She told me never to call her again. Again .”
    Yep. That sounded like Morgan.
    Great. And now Darrell had had another falling out
with her, which explained the phone call Grant had received just that morning.
If Morgan was in a tizzy, Grant’s parents usually turned to him. Again ,
as his father had said. It seemed that every other week, Morgan and their
father were going at it for one reason or another. Grant did his best to stay
out of as many of their squabbles as he possibly could.
    Grant pulled his hat off his head and thrust his
fingers through the mess that was his hair. He’d crawled out of bed half an
hour late that morning, and instead of running through the shower and then
grabbing breakfast, he’d tugged on clean clothes and run out the door. Now he
was starving and in desperate need of a shower. Not to mention, he was in a
shitty fucking mood because of it all.
    “So, you gonna loan me money or what?”
    Had he not been so pissed, Grant would’ve found his
father’s use of the word “loan” slightly amusing. The man had never paid Grant
back a dime in his life, and he suspected he never would. Which was why he
replied, “Sorry, I don’t have any money to loan.”
    Not that it was far from the truth. Grant had a little
in his savings account, but not nearly as much as he had hoped to have at this
point in his life. Considering his lack of bills thanks to living on the ranch,
he would’ve expected to have significantly more. So not the case.
    “I didn’t fucking call you over here to listen to you
bullshit me, Grant. I asked to borrow some goddamned money. You know I’m good
for it.”
    Right.
    Arguing with Darrell had never gotten him anywhere,
and Grant wasn’t going to give in to the taunting today. As it was, he was in a
crap-tastic mood, and the last thing he needed was to have a run-in