Saving Grace

Chatper 2

Paige's POV

About a month after I brought Grace home from the hospital I was having a hard time getting her to sleep. Up until that point she had been fine. Charlie and I tried everything we could think of to get her to go to sleep so that we could too, but nothing worked.

"Shh, don't cry baby. Don't cry, Momma's here," I cooed to my daughter.

I absentmindedly started humming a tune and she calmed down almost immediately. When I realized what song it was I stopped abruptly. Grace started to whimper again so I sat down in the rocking chair in the corner and started singing softly.

"Your hand fits in mine like it's made just for me, but bare this in mind it was meant to be. And I'm joining up the dots with the freckles on your cheeks and it all makes sense to me."

As Grace slowly drifted off to sleep I set her back in her crib, still singing. I plugged my iPod into the docking station in the room and put Little Things on repeat. She fell asleep to the sound of her father and uncles voices.

"I guess we should have realized that that would work," Charlie said from where she was sitting on the couch.

I shut Grace's door and walked over to where she was sitting. "It makes sense that her dad's voice would help put her to sleep."

"Have you thought more about going back to the diner?"

"Yeah, I'm not going to. My parents left me enough money, I didn't have a job in London and I got along just fine. I'll get a job eventually, but I want to wait until Grace is older."

"That makes sense."

Several months after our conversation of future employment, the two of us were pouring over photo albums that I had been making. Ever since Grace was born I had been taking thousands of pictures. I put them all into photo albums and big boxes. Some of the better ones I had framed.

"You should really do this for a living," Charlie said to me.

"You think so?" I asked, bouncing my four month old baby in my arms. She was starting to look more and more like Liam everyday.

"Yeah, grab some of your better prints and lets go down to the studio down the street."

"You're kidding right? I can't just walk in there. I need a proper portfolio!"

"Well then maybe they can help you make one."

"Alright, let's get out of here," I said starting to get Grace into her coat and little boots. About twenty minutes later the three of us walked into the studio.

"Hello," a middle aged woman said to us. "How can I help you?"

"Hi, my name is Paige Freeman. My friend," I gestured to Courtney who was standing several steps behind me, "told me that I should bring some of my work down here to show you, and ask about a possible job."

"As it turns out we are short a photographer. One of our best is out on maternaty leave until next year."

"Oh, that's great! I have some of my prints here with me if you would like to take a look," I said. "Charlie? Could you take Grace?"

"Sure," she said grabbing my daughter from me so that I could take the album that I brought with me out of my bag.

"Let me call my husband down, he always helps with new prospective photographers." She turned to the spiral staircase behind her and shouted "Howie? Come down here please! I'm Elaine by the way," she said turning back to me.

"It's nice to meet you Elaine," I said shaking her hand.

A man, who I assumed was Howie. came rushing down the stairs.

"Howie? This is Paige Freeman. She was inquiring about a position as a photographer here."

"Nice to meet you Paige," he said in a deep, soothing voice. "Do you have any of your work with you?"

"That's all mine," I said pointing at my photo album.

The two of them spent close to an hour pouring over the pages. There were black and white pictures of Grace sleeping, playing in the park, brightly colored pictures of flower beds and my favorite, non-Grace picture, of a young boy reaching for a bright red balloon caught in a tree. The balloon was the only thing with color in the picture.

"These are phanominal," Elaine said when they were done. She and her husband shared a look. "We would love it if you would come work for us."

"Are you serious? Oh my goodness thank you!"

"You're very welcome. Now your baby, how old is she?"

"Why?" I asked taking her back from Charlie.

"We just want to know if you're comfortable putting her in daycare or not?"

"Well I was thinking that I would have to be. She is four months, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"You could keep her here while you work if you would like," Howie offered. "We have a back room that was renovated as a nursery back when our childern were young."

"Really? That would be great, thank you. When do I start?"

"If you could start at eight o'clock tomorrow that would be great. We have a big modeling agency coming in and we need all hands on deck," Elaine joked.

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning then!" I waved goodbye as Courtney, Grace and I left the studio. I had a very good feeling about this job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not much happens until Grace and Nathaniel are about one and a half, so bare with me on this. I know it's kind of slow, but I have to set up the background. It'll get more interesting somewhere around chapter four.

VOTE!

COMMENT!

FAN!

<3