Second Chances at love

Car shopping

"Children are you set," Grace called out, "I do not have much free time on my hands and I will have less free time once the restaurant becomes operational, you have to learn to be more disciplined."

"Come on mother, I am disciplined but I can not say the same for Kris," Jake said descending the stairs hurriedly, "Well maybe it is because she is in her senior year." He continued to no one in particular because Grace had reclined into her thoughts.

Grace just stared on, she knew better than to support one child over the other but in all sincerity, Kris did take a lot of time to get ready for school and she usually woke up early.

"Ah, Jacob are you really disciplined?" Kris appeared fixing the straps of her shirt, she stared at him and squinted her eyes.

"Well then, might I regale mother with tales of your........" Before she concluded her speech Jake ran over and slapped his hand over her mouth (though not in a strong manner) effectively shutting her up.

She removed his hand from her mouth. "I guess not, so watch what you say about me."

She straightened her shirt once again looking him in the eye challengingly.

"Now what were you saying?"

"Oh nothing really, just telling mom how nice, caring and disciplined you are." He answered turning his face slightly to hide his grimace.

All through the bickering, Grace's mind was not present, it had been a long couple of days for her, after the ugly incident, she recoiled into her shell and made an excuse to stay home throughout the weekend and she was slowly forgetting the ordeal due to the help of her children.

Now it was time to reintroduce herself into the city, the conversation she had with Megan concerning Kade still played in her mind anytime she thought of his piercing green eyes or the warmth his nearness caused.

"He's bad news Gracie," Megan had started and Grace hadn't needed to hear the rest to get the picture. "He's a mega f**k boy, he's dangerous and affiliated with drug lords and Mafias, everyone is afraid of him, even the government, he owns half the clubs and buildings across town. I'm pretty sure he's not stalking you Grace but be sure to stay clear of that man."

"Mother, mother, mother." The call sounded distant and faint until they become loud enough to draw Grace out from her reverie.

She was sufficiently startled. "Yes, yes."

"We are ready to go, we've been trying to get your attention for a while now, are you okay?" Kris asked and touched her mother in a supportive manner, Jake had somehow become fascinated with the kitchen cabinets, he was terrible with emotions, so he preferred to hide his emotions and stay away from emotional scenes.

"I'm quite alright dearest, just thinking about what a field day I would have today at the restaurant, you know Friday is opening night." She lied, she embraced her daughter and even succeeded in pulling her son away from the cabinets.

"Alright then," Jake groaned, "will we be late?" He asked and squirmed free of his mother's grip, he was no longer considered a child and so he didn't enjoy hugs from his mother anymore, if anything they embarrassed him, he could understand Kris love for embraces because she was a girl but if any of his friends saw him like this with his mother, they would label him a mother's boy for the rest of his life.

Grace smiled widely and let go of her children, as they walked out of the building, she planned to get a car so that their commuting would be easier.

"Great, you show up now," Megan started, feigning annoyance, "I thought I'll be here alone all day."

"Oh, you don't have to sound bothered, there's not much work to be done anyway." Grace teased with a slight smile.

Her smile turned wider when she saw the paintings in the restaurant, it had always been a wish of her's to own a restaurant, maybe because she loved cooking and baking or maybe because nobody in her life ever believed in her enough to let her pursue her dreams.

Her mother had married her father out of necessity, she hadn't loved the man but he had been from a prominent family in Oxford and had been smitten with her mother enough to propose. She grew up as polished as one can be, her mother made sure that she was a true lady in every sense. When her father died her mother mishandled his wealth and though they never went bankrupt, they had to cut off some things, it never really bothered her, she liked the freedom it brought her and she'd asked her mother to let her manage the remaining properties but she'd refused though Grace had been able to work at an art gallery and it was there that she met John.

Her mother hated the slight decline in their social class and she had been all too glad to marry Grace off to John, when she learnt of the divorce she was disappointed in Grace and practically disowned her, it didn't faze Grace since her mother was never loving or affectionate but she still felt sad that her mother only treated her as a means to an end.

She put her thoughts away as Megan began her regular chatter of how the restaurant would be filled with customers and suddenly a light bulb lit up in her head.

"Megan dearest," she started suddenly, " Are there any car dealerships we can visit today? I would like to buy a car."

"Yes, of course, I always wondered why you hadn't bought one, which brand did you have in mind?"

Grace paused for a moment, she hadn't thought about the brand, all she knew was that she didn't want to try to catch a cab at night anymore and having a car with enough room would be great in transporting her children to school whenever they missed the school bus, which by the way was frequently.

"I'll buy one that fits, let's just go." Grace stated finally. Megan gave her a puzzled look but she nodded her head and followed Grace outside.

After a few minutes of an unpleasant ride in Megan's old car, they arrived at the dealership. Grace was not surprised when Megan started chatting with the seller, she smiled and walked off to the section of cars, she hoped to find a car that would fit like she told Megan. After circling the cars for a while, she finally settled for a silver Honda CRV, it was not too small, not too big and it also didn't look too expensive because Grace did not want to advertise the fact that she was a wealthy divorcée.

"I've found the one," Grace announced with a clap, "Megan what do you think?"

"Well, I think it suits you Grace, it is very you," Megan answered and went back to flirting with the seller.

"Oh, thank you." Grace accepted the compliment with a smile and just as she was about to start bargaining on the price, not that she had much work to do seeing that Megan had already laid the groundwork with her flirting, a dramatic gust of wind blew into the shop and in it came Kade and some other guys Grace couldn't care less about.

Her first instinct was to hide but then she had no reason to hide, she was not scared of him and she had not done anything wrong, so she continued staring at the car albeit more strongly, she prayed silently that he wouldn't see her but then whenever did those kinds of prayers get answered anyway.

As soon as Kade entered the store, he noticed Grace immediately and he noticed her shift her gaze and try to concentrate on the car beside her, so he did make the newbie nervous, he smiled to himself and took a few steps closer so that he could take a better look at her, she looked very decent, his eyes raked her from head to toe, she had her silvery black hair in a bun and he itched to go over to her and release the hair from its confinement so that it would sprawl around her shoulders like the first time they met. He didn't understand the strange pull he felt towards her but he recognised one thing and that was the discomfort in his jeans anytime he looked at Grace, he continued his assessment of her, she wore tight fitted jeans that accentuated her curves and backside and a fitted sweater with a V neckline, he knew that if she bent over, he would be able to see those ample breasts he knew were beneath the sweater, he shifted slightly to accommodate the growing discomfort in his jeans, he was slowly forgetting the reason he was here.

"Hi, Grace, fancy meeting you here." Kade greeted moving closer to Grace and mumbling profanities in his head for not being able to resist speaking to her, speaking was all he was going to do he assured himself, after all, he had a right to know how she was seeing that he just saved her a few days back.

Grace lifted her face and smiled politely. " Hi, Mr Kade, it's nice to see you too." She had wanted to ignore him but she knew that she could never pull off being rude and despite his reputation, he did save her some days ago.

"How have you been Grace." He surprised her and himself by placing his hand on her shoulder.

"I've been better." She said the truth and stepped away from his touch because her body had begun to react in a way that it shouldn't to just a simple gesture.

Kade was not equipped for this kind of conversation and seeing that he didn't have any other thing to say, he asked her a very reasonable question.

"You're here to buy a car or to watch your friend flirt with Mike?"

Grace's cheeks burned, she did not expect people to be so free of speech, she looked down to collect herself.

"I'm here to buy a car, I have already even chosen one, this one here." She replied and pointed to the car she had chosen.

"It's a very nice car." He said and left to speak with his mates.

Before Grace could react, Megan pulled her arm and started hammering her with questions.

"Kade isn't nice, but he was nice and polite to you just now, come on Grace spill it." She demanded incessantly.

Grace groaned inwardly and said, "He was just asking how I was, he saved me you know."

Megan went on talking but Grace tuned her out and vaguely caught a glimpse of Kade before he walked out of the store, he winked at her and she felt her heart hammer loudly against her chest, she snatched her eye from him and turned towards the seller, she just wanted to buy her car and get away, preferably from Megan because her constant bickering was becoming a problem.

"How much is the car?" She asked smiling like the polite person she was.

The man froze momentarily before replying" Mr Kade has paid for the car miss, you don't need to pay."

Grace saw red and she did something she never thought she would ever do, she swore in public and with a loud voice.

"Kade you motherfucker."