Rhythms of Grace (51 page)
Jesus with skin on.
He lifted me off the bed just a little, held me in his arms. I was crying now, both from the pain and from the pleasure. As he lowered me back to the bed and eased the pillow behind my head, something wet hit my face. He was crying too.
He pulled the blanket up to my neck. I knew he was moving easy to keep from hurting me, but I could see that he’d been hurt too. His breathing was shallow and ragged. Desperate. It was more than I could take.
I turned away from him.
He gently turned my head and leaned over me, close enough to kiss. But he didn’t. Instead he kissed me with his words.
“I’ve been waiting for you all my life. I can wait. However long it takes.”
The tears kept coming as I listened to him drag himself across the room. I wanted to stay silent, to just take everything in. He wouldn’t have blamed me if I did. But I couldn’t.
“I love you,” I said in a voice I didn’t recognize. A voice that brought him running right back to my side.
He kissed my fingertips. “I know. I love you too. Now get better so I can show you.”
Even though it hurt, I laughed.
Maybe we were going to be okay.
All of us.
Jennifer Leep, thanks for always believing in this story. It means so much.
Jessica Ferguson, thank you for “getting it” when nobody else did. You made me brave.
Claudia Mair Burney, thanks for loving this book and for loving me.
Isaiah, thanks for waiting to be born so I could finish this. You’re a big boy now, but you’ll always be my first book baby.
Fill, you didn’t let me give up, even when I tried. There are no words for how much I love you.
Michelle and Ashlie, thanks for all the days you helped with the kids so I could write this book and all the others. You are the best.
Shonie Bacon, Maurice Gray, Aisha Ford, Tanya Marie Lewis, Suzette Harrison, LaShaunda Hoffman, Yolanda Callegari Brooks, Amy Wallace, Jennifer Keithley, Staci Wilder, Nan Toback, Beth Ziarnek, Susan Downs, Susan May Warren, Tracy Bateman, Colleen Coble, Members of the Black Writers Alliance, thank you for reading this in its various forms over the years.
Wendy Lawton, thank you for being you.
Dr. Joseph Smith of Central State University, Olokikijulo! This bantu finally made it back to you.
Cat Hoort, thanks for all your support and marketing efforts (and for reading the book so fast!).
Nathan Henrion, thanks for all the laughs and insight into the sales side of publishing.
Cheryl Van Andel and the art department, thanks for another great cover.
Special thanks to Barb Barnes for her many reads of this book. Thanks for your hard work.
Jesus, my everything, who taught me so much during the writing of this book and all that came after. Thank You. You were right. About everything.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading
Rhythms of Grace
. I hope you enjoyed it. This book is very special to me because it is my true first novel, the first book I ever wrote. If you’ve read my other titles and enjoyed them, then you’d already enjoyed this story in a way, because it was during the writing of this book that I became the writer that I am. During the revisions of this book, I became the writer I hope to be.
Please visit
RevellBooks.com
for book club questions and other information about this book and the others to follow it. Visit my website at
http://www.MarilynnGriffith.com
as well, or drop me an email at [email protected].
Until next time, keep dancing to God’s glorious rhythms of grace.
Blessings,
Marilynn
Marilynn Griffith
is a freelance writer who lives in Florida with her husband and seven children. When she’s not helping with homework or tackling Mount Fold-Me, her ongoing laundry pile, she writes novels and speaks to youth, women, and writers.
Watch for the sequel
COMING
F
ALL 2009
