I turned her way and shook my head in disbelief. “Would it kill you to choose me, Mama?” Would that honestly be the end of the world for you to put your daughter first?” I barked her way before storming out of the house.

“Grace, wait!” Finn said, chasing after me. I tossed off the high heels and hurried into the town square, which was packed with people and live music. Finn stayed right beside me, and as he caught up, he grabbed my arm and yanked me back, making me stumble.

“We have to talk,” he told me.

“I have nothing to say to you,” I snapped.

He grumbled and shook his head. “We need to discuss everything. Grace, I know it’s probably hard to believe but, I still love you. I’m so confused and—”

“Finley, I swear if you do not take your hands off me, I will murder you,” I shouted, making a few people turn our way. My heart rate kept climbing with each second. He was making me physically ill. The way he could stand there with his hands on my body and confess his love for me made me want to vomit.

It was so ridiculous—the whole concept of it.

He was just wasting his time speaking words of love, because I no longer believed in love.

“You’re acting outrageous, Grace. Stop yelling in public,” someone said behind me. “Keep your voice down.” I looked up and saw Mama speaking my way, and her word choices stunned me.

“Mama, for the love of God, just butt out of my life!”

“Do not use the Lord’s name in vain, Gracelyn Mae,” Mama ordered me, but I rolled my eyes.

“What does it matter, Mama? He’s not even real.”

“What is getting in your head? Or should I say who?” she asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ve been seen around a lot with Jackson Emery, Grace,” Finn stated. “Your mom called me because she’s been worried about you.”

I huffed. “She’s worried about me being seen around with Jackson, but she wasn’t worried about my husband being a cheater.”

“Are you sleeping with him?” Mama asked.

“Excuse me?” My jaw dropped at her question.

“She wouldn’t,” Finn said, defending me, which irritated me more than ever. “She’s too…well, she’s Grace.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked him, my chest burning.

“What I mean is you’re you. You would never do anything that would be…wrong. You’d never cheat on me.”

“Said the cheater.”

“I’m just saying, you’re not…I don’t know… You’re just you. You’re not a rebel or anything. You just don’t have it in you to do such a thing. You never act out. You were always the safe choice.”

I hated him. I hated him because it was clear he was calling me tame, boring, basic. I hated him because he was right, too.

I was loyal to others, and I always had been. I never acted out, no matter how tempted I was, because I feared how it would affect others’ lives. I worried how people would label me. I was afraid of how others would view me if I did certain things they deemed ungraceful.

I lived my whole life quietly, staying in line in order to live the life Mama taught me I was supposed to live.

I did it all right, too.

I was faithful, honest, kind, and well-behaved.

Yet at the end of the day, when all was said and done, none of it mattered. He still chose her even though I was everything I thought he’d ever wanted. He still fell into her bed even though I was the “safe choice.”

“I’m never going to speak to you again. Do you understand that, Finley James? Never,” I told him repeatedly.

“Please, Grace. Stop talking,” Mama scolded me. “Now, let’s go inside to discuss this in a private setting. You’re acting immature.”

Immature?

She hadn’t even seen immature, but I was tired that afternoon. I was tired of being told what to do, how to act, what to be. I couldn’t even think of the last time I made a choice that was mine and mine alone.

Yet she had the nerve to call me immature.

So, that’s exactly what I became.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” I said, hurrying to the stage where a band was playing. I cut right in. “Sorry, Josh, I’ll get the microphone back to you in just a second,” I said, using my deep Southern belle charm voice as I grabbed the microphone from the stand. “It’s just that I wanted to clear up some of the rumors circulating around town lately about Finley’s and my relationship.”

“Gracelyn Mae, get off that stage right now!” Mama barked from the wing of the stage.

I gestured toward her. “If y’all didn’t notice, the Queen of Chester showed up tonight. Let’s give my mama, Loretta Harris, a big round of applause. Isn’t she a beauty?” Everyone started clapping for Mama, and she gave her big Southern fake smile and waved.

Then she hissed toward me, and said, “Give me the microphone.”

“Sorry, Queen,” I stated, slightly bowing toward her. “You can have the microphone in a second, but first Princess Grace is going to say a few words if that’s okay.” I turned back to the group of individuals staring my way, and I took a deep breath. “First and foremost, it feels good to be back in Chester. This place is the best home I’ve ever had and—”

Before I could finish speaking, the microphone went out, and I turned to see Mama holding the unplugged cord in her hand. She looked pleased that she cut me off, and that only made me angrier.

I dropped the mic. “It seems we are having some technical difficulties, so I’m just going to need y’all to stay really quiet for a second as I give you all the great news! It turns out that we’re expecting a child!” I exclaimed, and I listened to the gasps in the area, and my eyes zoomed in on Finn. “But by ‘we’ I don’t mean Finley and me. That’s not the ‘we’ he has anymore. His ‘we’ is now him and Autumn Langston, my best friend. You all know her. Bible study teaching Autumn, the woman who’s been screwing my husband for the past few months.” When I spotted Autumn in the crowd, she was frozen. “They are expecting their first child, so if we could all just give them a big round of applause.” The space stayed quiet, and I began slow clapping. I was the only one clapping at all. I then stared straight into Finn’s eyes and took a deep breath. “Congratulations on the pregnancy, Finley James.” I blinked once and fought the tears that were trying to come. “I know it’s what you always wanted.”

With that, I stormed off the stage, and Mama had a horrified look in her eyes. “Grace…I didn’t know…” she told me, but I didn’t care.

“Don’t you have a son you should be consoling during this hard time?” I asked her. “I’m sure Finn could truly use your support.”

I brushed past her, and past everyone who was now whispering about me and the nightmare that was my life. I just kept walking faster and faster until I found myself standing in front of Jackson’s cabin door, banging on it repeatedly. I had finally done something outside of my good girl nature. I hadn’t done the right thing, Lord knows I was wrong, but still, somehow it felt oh-so-good.

18

Jackson

Grace was out of breath as I opened my front door. She’d been pounding on the wood like a madwoman, and when caught sight of her, she even looked the part.

“Hi,” she said, her breaths heaving in and out.

“Hi,” I replied.

“Can I come in?”

I stepped to the side, allowing her access.

She began to pace the living room, and I could almost feel how crazed her mind had to be. Her steps were quick and erratic, her mind spinning fast.

“What is it?” I asked her.

“I need you to sleep with me,” she blurted out.

“What?”

“I said I need you to—”

“No, I heard you.”

“Then why did you say what?”

“Because even though I heard you, it just seemed so damn ridiculous.” I raised an eyebrow. “Are you drunk?”

“Nope, and I’m thinking straight for the first time in a while.”

“And thinking straight means wanting to sleep with me?”

“Yes.”

I kept my eyebrow raised. “Are you drunk?” I repeated, and she began to blush.

“No, Jackson. Come on, I’m serious.”

I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms. “Who pissed you off?”

She kept pacing. “It doesn’t matter. All I need to know is if you’ll have sex with me or not.”

“Princess—”

“I’m not a princess!” she snapped, pausing her steps. She looked my way, and her stare was heavy as she released a weighted sigh. “I’m tired of this. I’m tired of being the princess, the good girl, the girl next door. I’ve been that all my life, and it’s gotten me nowhere. It’s gotten me nothing.”

“So the next step, obviously, is sleeping with me,” I joked. She walked over and stood in front of me.

“Yes.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because you’re the exact opposite of good.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

A smirked lifted the corner of her mouth. “I knew you would.”

“Grace, you don’t want to do this…” I warned as she moved closer.

“Yes, I do.”

“People in town say I’m dangerous, and they aren’t wrong. I’m unstable sometimes, lashing out without warning.”