Time for Grace Read Online Free PDF Page B

way she used to.
    “Miriam’s more than willing to rent to you.” He named a low figure she found hard to believe and then continued, “Suppose we go see Grace then run out to take a look at the place.”
    She felt a moment’s panic. She should take time to think about this. She’d gone along with Scott and look what had happened. But then again had she not married him, she wouldn’t have Grace and she wouldn’t wish her baby away no matter what. “This is all happening awfully fast,” she told Kip.
    Kip grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “I’d guess that’s because the Lord’s hand is in it.” He picked up a menu and waggled his eyebrows. “So, have you had a real Philly cheese steak yet?”
     
    Two hours later Kip pulled to a stop in a driveway next to a big rambling white clapboard farmhouse. It had a wrap-around porch, colonial mullioned windows and a towering tree on the front lawn. The porch was lined with small white lights and a blow-up snow globe depicting the nativity sat on the lawn below it.
    Everywhere Sarah looked she was reminded that Christmas was on the way. She sighed. This certainly wasn’t the way she’d pictured Christmas this year. She was supposed to have been able to sit in front of her Christmas tree and tell her healthy newborn the Christmas story for the first time. She’d even decided to leave her tree up longer if Grace came late.
    Shaking her head, Sarah got out to look around the quiet, festive looking neighborhood. Then she glanced back up at Kip’s sister’s farmhouse. “This is almost like a peek back in time. It’s wonderful.”
    “Miriam’s is the only really old, really big house on the street. All the others are smaller bungalows or Cape Cods built in the early fifties. The people who used to own this house owned all the land around here. That’s why the garage has an apartment. It used to be a carriage house back in the day. Apparently an employee lived up there. I rented it for a few years in my early twenties. Like I said, it isn’t much but…”
    “Are you bad-mouthing your first bachelor pad?” a disembodied female voice said from the direction of the front porch.
    “Mir, what are you doing out here?” Kip asked.
    “I have Justine and Bill’s kids overnight, remember? I just got them settled. I don’t want them to find out their Pied-Piper uncle is here or they’ll never get to sleep.”
    “Oh. I forgot how late it is. They’re in bed already.”
    As Miriam came toward them, Sarah took a few moments to contemplate Kip. She had been able to hear disappointment in his voice because he’d missed seeing his sister’s children. She wondered if he loved kids as much as he seemed to, why he wasn’t married with a bunch of his own. He was certainly good-looking enough to attract all manner of female attention. He’d certainly grabbed hers and she wasn’t looking for complications after losing Scott and being left to care for Grace alone.
    Kip gestured toward the small woman who now stood in front of them. “Sarah, this is my oldest sister, Miriam Castor. Mir, this is Sarah Bates.”
    When Miriam stepped out of the shadows into the patch of driveway lit by a decorative lamppost, Sarah was a bit surprised. She looked nothing like Kip. Her red hair blazed like fire in the bright lamplight and her redhead’s complexion glowed. Plus his big sister was tiny. Shorter even than Sarah who was only five foot four inches tall herself. Miriam was also quite a bit older than Kip. Not only did brother and sister not look like siblings, they didn’t look as if they were even from the same family.
    “Sarah, welcome,” Miriam said, reaching out to take Sarah’s hands in hers. “It’s wonderful to meet you. Let’s go take a look and you can tell me what you think of the place.”
    They followed Kip’s sister up a sturdy set of wooden stairs on the outside of the clapboard garage and stepped inside the apartment. Sarah walked behind Miriam across a