Gracie Ann

I met Gracie McHammanton on July 9th 2007. She took my breath away man, she was the kind of girl who walked in a room and everyone's eyes were on her. The type of girl to leave someone speechless with the way she says "goodnight". I mean, I know there's no such thing as perfect, but I swear, she was perfect to me.

We met in Wisconsin, I lived in the small town Ackley. Never heard of it? Yeah, neither did the other half of the continent. It had a population of five hundred and forty eight, roughly. And of those five hundred and forty eight people, two were named Marjorie and Scott. Old folks yes, around sixty-five years old, but known around town. They had a farm, with horses and a barn. Oh, and they also had one of those old cliche red trucks. But none of those items mattered; because the most important thing they had was Ms. Gracie McHammanton, even if it was only for a summer. That's right, I met Gracie in the summer of 2007, predictable, classic love story, but our story is far from classic.

I remember the day I met Gracie like it happened yesterday, but it happened six years ago, almost seven. I was at the farmers market, nothing special just a normal Monday. I was definitely not dressed to impress, for one I had my straw hat on to block the damn sun that just kept beating down. I had some rolled up jeans, my dad gave me for work in the yard. A rip in the knee and patched with some random fabric my mom found in the crawl space. My chocolate brown cow boy boots, beat down to the core. Had em' since I was third teen. My feet don't grow. My shirt was probably the best feature of my outfit, an old white tank I found at the thrift store. A few yellow stains here and there but it showed off my muscles, so I guess it was worth it. Gracie always said how tan and ripped I was, whatever that meant, it made me feel good. Now, I'm not quite sure how I got Ms. Gracie's attention but I did. I was grabbing another peach, we were making peach cobbler tonight, me and my folks. I guess she was grabbing a peach too, because our hands suddenly found themselves on the same peach. I'd already been staring at her, but when she looked up, man it was priceless. Her pear green eyes met my plain brown ones. I noticed the freckles along her nose and around her eyes, in her cheek region. I also noticed the small dent above her forehead, but that didn't change just how perfect she was. I noticed how long her eyelashes were, a perfect tone of brown, barely touching the skin below her eyebrow. And how her eyebrows were alittle wacko, but just the right type of wacko. The type of wacko that makes your heart race, just another little detail I loved about that damn girl. She flashed her pearly white smile of hers at me, and apologized. Now, I'm usually pretty good with talking to girls, but with Gracie, man something was different. I got a rush of wind throughout my body, I couldn't breath, literally speechless. I stood there before I snapped out of it, tried playing it off, which let me tell ya, didn't work, and I ended up embarrassing myself more than I already had. Her voice was music to my ears. Her outgoing personality was inspiration to my soul. 

"Oh man I'm so sorry," she says and laughs towards the end of her apology. Her smile was the equivalence of seeing a new puppy for the first time. You just wanna take the puppy home and cuddle with it for hours, well that's exactly how it was with Gracie. 

I could feel my cheeks turn red, which I hated. Whenever I got embarrassed my cheeks always turned red, pretty noticeable if you ask me.

"No, you're good. I'm Stephen." I flash my not so straight, and not so white smile at her and put out my hand. But, let me tell you something about Gracie. She's the type of girl to go in for a hug when a handshakes appropriate. I felt her warm arms embrace me, and I felt right at home. I hugged back alittle tighter, our hug lasted about four seconds, but man, if that's what heaven feels like, even just four seconds, check me in. 

After she pulled away she looked up at me, now, imagine a 5'9 boy, looking down at a 4'11 girl. It was quite the sight to see. I probably looked like a giant compared to Gracie, but it was all worth it in the end. 

"Well hi, I'm Gracie Ann. Gracie Ann McHammanton, actually. But I go by Gracie." She giggles, her cheeks lifted, her dimples on both sides showing. 

"Well let me tell you Gracie Ann, you are just beautiful. Let me take you out to lunch sometime." Like I said, I'm usually good with this whole dating thing, but with Gracie, it was different.

"Hmm, not that easy boy, better show me you're worth my attention." She says in that sarcastic playful tone of hers, as she winks, and juggles the three peaches she's been holding. She then walks away, with her graceful walk of hers. Man, that girl, she gave me a real story to tell.

I raise my eyebrows a bit while she walks away, and not because of whats behind, but because I'm going to actually have to fight for this girl's attention? Ha! I'm thinkin' this'll be easy, I'll just use my charm. But let me just tell you, it was definitely not easy. That's another thing I loved most about Gracie Ann, she kept her circle small, and let people fight for her, because she knew she was worth it. 

 **** Hey guys! I hope you like Chapter 1 of my story! If you like it please feel free to add it to your Reading List and Vote for it! I need a total of 20 votes in order to publish Chapter 2 so don't forget to share it with your friends on Facebook and all that good stuff. Thanks :) ****