"I know enough to know that good people make mistakes," she said setting the plate down in front of me. "And I also know that God's grace is dependent on us asking for forgiveness. Does God hold a grudge?"

"I don't know," I mumbled. "Did God find out about a secret fiancée during a huge party in front of hundreds of people?"

"Grace Miller!" Verity scolded as she slammed the palm of her hand down on the table. "It's sinful how full of pride you are! Mamm and Dat would be ashamed of your unwillingness to forgive!"

"It's okay, Verity," Adam said quietly. "I was kind of a jerk, and her anger isn't entirely undeserved."

I looked up at Adam surprised to hear him speak and even more surprised to hear him talk openly about what had happened at the reception.

"You told them?" I asked.

"I felt like I needed to confess my sins," he said sheepishly. "And I knew you wouldn't listen to me until you'd calmed down."

"So you thought you'd use my family as leverage?" I shot back.

"No, I thought I'd practice explaining what happened, and if they didn't forgive me, then I knew it would be unlikely that you would," he said.

"Well, it looks like it worked with them," I said icily. "Bravo."

"Knock it off, Grace," a tinny voice said from the other side of the table. I looked over to see Danny holding up the broken phone in one hand and signing at me with the other. "He's sorry he messed up. Can't you just accept his apology like you do with me when I mess up?"

"It's not that simple, little brother," I scoffed as I shot an irritated look at Adam. Now my family was on his side!

"Listen, I know you're mad at me, and I don't blame you at all," Adam said as he ran a hand through is hair and sighed. "I was caught between a rock and hard place, and I tried to take what I thought was the easy way out, but I totally misjudged the situation. And in my defense, I didn't know you'd be there!"

"Oh, wonderful," I said rolling my eyes. "So all of this is my fault because you were unable to prepare for my presence at the event?"

"God, Grace!" Adam shouted. "Can you please just cut me some slack and listen to what I have to say?"

"Fine," I said stubbornly crossing my arms over my chest and setting my jaw as I prepared to listen.

For the next half hour, Adam recounted the details of how he'd wound up standing next to his parents at the top of the stairs at the reception. As I listened, I realized that he, too, had been shouldering familial burden that he hadn't wanted to share with anyone else, and as he explained his reasoning it became clear that Adam and I were even more similar than I thought.

"So, you see? I didn't even know Veronica, and I told her that there was no way I was going to marry her," Adam finished. "I told her that there was someone else who'd stolen my heart, and I couldn't possibly betray that. Not even for my father."

I felt my heart pounding in my chest as Adam spoke. I understood what he was saying, but I wasn't ready to let go of the hurt yet.

"Grace, I'm sorry," he said looking at me expectantly. "Will you accept my apology?"

Adam looked at me expectantly.

"I'll accept your apology," I said. "We need you and your technology in order to make this plan work."

"Grace—" he began.

"Look, we don't have a lot of time and we need to get this show on the road," I said cutting him off before he could say another word.

"We need to plan for tomorrow's event," Verity said, trying to ease the awkwardness between us. "Let's talk about what we're going to do at the store."

Danny and Honor headed off to bed as the rest of us sat going over the details of the plan that Adam and Verity had worked up in my absence. It was a brilliant plan, but as I was well aware, even the most brilliant plans could go awry, but this time I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

"Okay, I need to get some sleep," I yawned as I looked at the clock and realized that we only had a few hours before we had to be up and on our way to the store. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Adam looking at me, but I ignored his pointed stare and went upstairs to get ready for bed. I could hear Verity talking with Adam downstairs before she, too, came upstairs.

"Don't you think you're being a little hard on him, Grace?" she said as she peeked into my room on her way to her own room.

"No, I don't," I said stubbornly. "He humiliated me in front of all those people and made me feel like a fool."

"And then he prostrated himself before you in front of your whole family to ask your forgiveness," she said. "I'd say it's just about even."

Tags: Claire Adams Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net