Tina Pinson – Excerpt – Part 2 of 2

Shannon here: Women’s fiction author, Tina Pinson shares an excerpt from her latest release, Then There Was Grace. Comment on any post dated Sept 6 – 7 to get your name in the drawing. Deadline: Sept 14th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Tina:

        The doorman opened the T side, to let a very pregnant woman, wearing a headscarf and pushing a stroller in which two young, twin, boys rode, enter the building.

Grace fell in behind the small entourage, trailing them to the elevator doors and onto the lift. The woman punched her button, and Grace followed suit. Setting down her case, she leaned her hip against the wall for balance as the car jerked slightly and started its ascent.

The boys in the baby buggy looked in her direction and smiled, making her think of home and the twin three-year-old girls who waited there for her to return. Faith and Hope.

“I-e.” The boy in the front seat gurgled something akin to a Hi, waved, and turned away shyly.

The boy in the copilot seat grinned wide, showing his teeth. The few there were. Grace returned his smile and turned her gaze to the mother.

“Your boys are beautiful. How old are they?”

The mother lifted her gaze from her shoes. A smile seemed to play at the edges of her lips but never formed. “They are two.” She fiddled with her scarf, pulling the ties and pushing them back on her shoulder.

“My girls are three.” Grace shifted her hips, catching the woman’s attention before she lowered it to the floor.

The woman’s brows furrowed with her frown before she managed a smile. “Are daughters here?” she asked, her words broken with accent. Her eyes filled with something that looked like concern then she blinked and it faded.

“Oh no, my girls are in Denver. I’m visiting. My brother is in the hospital.” Grace glanced at the floor buttons, watched the light leap a number, and swung her gaze back to the woman. “I’m going to the observation deck then meeting my sister at the restaurant for breakfast.”

Grace might have continued on talking if the elevator hadn’t drawn to a stop. The doors opened.

The woman maneuvered the stroller and pushed it through the threshold into the hall. She bowed her head slightly as she passed. “Allah has made a beautiful day for observing.”

“Yes,” Grace agreed. She waved at the boys until the doors closed then decided to call her husband, Adam. Her finger hesitated to push send when she considered she’d already called him and awakened him. But enthusiasm won out, it was too wonderful a day not to share it.

Adam didn’t answer, but she wouldn’t let that dim her mood. She left him a message and made plans to call him later.

She was passing the 80^th floor when Aimee called to tell her she was on her way. Oh well, she would wait.

“It is a beautiful day,” she told herself with a sigh. “And cold,” she decided standing on the observation deck a few moments later. She pulled her coat collar up her neck to her ears and stared out at the world around her. Here she was above the concrete, steel, and glass. Here she could see forever.

Well, a couple of states perhaps.

There was no congestion. That was far below her, the cars moved along like ants now.

God had made a glorious day. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and turning her face to the sun, let her worries slide away.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She stood there in the quiet for a moment then opened her eyes and pulled out her cell phone to check the time. When her sister, Aimee, arrived they could get on with enjoying the rest of the excursion together. Then they would have to go back to the world. Back to her brother, who lay in the hospital recuperating from a stem-cell transplant, and back to Denver, where Adam and her daughters waited.

Grace flipped open her phone and began to punch in Adam’s number, when a huge blast disrupted the stillness of morning. She grabbed for the bars of the railing surrounding the deck, dropping her cell as the floor on which she stood swayed.

“Earthquake,” one of the visitors on the floor yelled and moved himself and his family to the doors where they huddled until the quaking stopped.

The ground beneath her settled, Grace picked up her phone and listened. Save for the distant sounds from the traffic below, there was quiet. She looked at the world in the chasm between the buildings, it seemed to move along in its ordinary flow. There were no accidents, or emergency vehicles coming down the road with lights flashing.

Perhaps it was an earthquake, after all. She’d heard they sounded like approaching freight trains. If so, there could be another. Tall buildings and tremors didn’t mix for her, she wanted off this ride. Grabbing her case, she tugged the strap of her purse on her shoulder and headed for the door when the quiet was felled by another huge blast. The tower rocked left then tossed right. Grace managed to keep her balance, but now, unwilling to get in the elevator she looked for the stairs, noting several of the other observers already headed that way as she started to follow. She froze in her spot when the shrill blast of sirens sliced the morning air sending the chill clean to her bones.

About Tina: Tina Pinson resides in Mesa, Arizona with her husband of thirty plus years, Danny. They are blessed to have three sons, and seven grandchildren.

Tina started her first novel in elementary school. Her love of writing has caused her to seek creative outlets be it writing poetry, songs, or stories. She also loves to doodle and enjoys gardening.

It is her prayer that her stories, though fiction, will transport you to worlds beyond and touch your spirit and give you a closer insight to yourself and God.

In the Manor of the Ghost, Touched By Mercy, To Carry her Cross, and the first three installments of the Shadow Series When Shadows Fall, Shadowed Dreams and To Catch a Shadow are available through Desert Breeze Publishing and major retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Christianbooks.

In the Manor of the Ghost is now available in print.

Look for Christmas in Shades of Gray an offbeat contemporary Dickens type Christmas tale in December. This Shadowed Land (Shadow Series Book 4) the continuing story of Matthew and Rebekah on the Oregon Trail releases early 2014. Learn more and connect:  Tina’s Blog, Twitter:@Tina_Pinson, Facebook– https://www.facebook.com/TinaEPinsonAuthor, Pinterest http://pinterest.com/tinapinson/.

About the book – Then There Was Grace:

He was ready to live without Grace, until he lost her. He thought he didn’t deserve grace then it found him.

Bored, Adam is prepared to divorce Grace, his wife of seven years. Then Grace is killed leaving him to raise Faith and Hope. The twins have no idea why the world’s gone crazy. They just want their mother home and Adam isn’t sure what to tell them. How can he tell them the truth, when he’s not sure what the truth is? When he doesn’t want to believe it himself? Grace’s family and Adam’s brother come to help and Adam is apprehensive to open up to them. Their grace toward him only magnifies his loss. His guilt. If Grace would come home. He’d be a better husband. Father. Anything to stop the guilt ravaging his soul. But the more he uncovers about Grace, the more guilt rages. Adam is a man with no heart. A man with no faith. A man with no God. Then there was grace.

Purchase Links: http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/then-there-was-grace-epub/

Desert Breeze Bookstore:

When Shadows Fall

Touched By Mercy

In the Manor of the Ghost

Shadowed Dreams

To Catch A Shadow

To Carry Her Cross

 Come back  September 9th for Elizabeth Maddrey!