Read The Presence of Grace (Love and Loss #2) for Free Online

That means making sure they go first.”
    I could see him thinking hard about what I was saying, and finally he spoke. “Ruby can open a door just as good as I can.”
    I dropped a hand on his shoulder and knelt down in front of him, placing the blanket and books on the floor next to me. “I don’t hold the door open for women because I think they can’t. I hold doors for women because I respect them and they deserve to be treated well, Jax. Miss Richards deserves your respect, son. All women deserve your respect, but especially Miss Richards. So next time, you let her go first. All right?”
    “Okay,” he agreed quietly.
    “Okay.” I let him go with a ruffle of his hair, which made him groan. I picked everything up off the floor and took back up beside Grace. “Sorry about that,” I said.
    “Don’t be,” she said softly. We walked quietly next to each other while Jax ran ahead, leading the way.
    “They go here,” Jax said, pointing to a bookshelf. I held the books out to him one by one and watched as he found their spots, examining each book carefully to determine its place.
    “Okay, kid, lead the way to the classroom.” Jax ran ahead again and I chuckled.
    “Most kids his age would have just put the books anywhere on the shelf. Did you see him organizing the books by author? Alphabetically? It’s not typical of a second grader.”
    “He’s always been really detailed,” I say casually. I hadn’t ever really thought about why Jaxy was the way he was.
    “It’s just another one of those things that makes him special.”
    We walked Grace to her classroom and I watched as she placed the blanket in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet. “Can we walk you out to your car?” I asked, not feeling comfortable leaving her in an almost abandoned building on a Friday evening. The lights throughout the building had been turned off, with only a few left on for necessity.
    “Oh, that’s not necessary. I have just a few things to finish up before I head home for the weekend. The last thing I want to have to do is come back from spring break with work waiting for me,” she said, laughing lightly.
    “Wanna know what we’re doing this weekend?” Jaxy asked her.
    “What?”
    “We’re going to Disney World!”
    “No, way,” she exclaimed, matching his enthusiasm. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”
    “You haven’t gone? Why not? It’s only, like, an hour from here.”
    She shrugged. “Disney isn’t really a place you go alone. I’ll go someday.”
    “You could come with us! Auntie Evie and Uncle Nate are coming. Daddy too. You wouldn’t be by yourself if you came with us.”
    She laughed. “That’s really sweet, Jax, but you don’t need your teacher coming with you to Disney.”
    “Dad? Can’t she come with us?”
    I shrugged. “Sure.” I smiled at her, knowing I wasn’t making it easy for her to refuse. But the truth was, I didn’t want her to refuse. For a variety of reasons. The idea of spending an entire day with Evie and Nate was a little overwhelming; I wasn’t particularly looking forward to being the third wheel all day. But also, even more so, I wanted to spend time with Grace. More than I’d wanted to spend time with any other woman since Olivia. I wasn’t 100 percent sure of how I felt about Grace, but it wasn’t just friendly and it wasn’t the way I’d felt about his first grade teacher, Mrs. Walden.
    I liked Grace. I liked the way she looked, the way she moved, and I liked the way she smiled at my son under the shade of a tree. She was good . I could feel it.
    “Devon,” she whispered, shooting me an annoyed yet amused look. I shrugged again.
    “Come to Disney with us. It’ll be fun.” She looked completely conflicted, which made me happy. She wanted to come with us, but obviously didn’t think it was appropriate. I selfishly didn’t care whether or not it was appropriate. I just wanted to spend more time with her. “If it makes you feel better, you can drive