My Story BEFORE The Story ~

Dear Diary,

Hi! I’m Grace Summers, Watermelon Queen Extraordinaire—well at least that’s what Mrs. Baron likes to call me. BUT anyways…I’m writing to you today for two reasons. The first is so my Gramps will get off my back about starting a journal, and the other is to help me figure out how I ended up in this mess in the first place.

Okay, okay…mess probably isn’t the best word to use, I probably should go with this instead: to figure out how I ended up being the watermelon queen and being stuck with Beau Baron for the foreseeable future. (Don’t let his good looks fool you, he’s so not nice!) On second thought, maybe I should have used the word nightmare and been a smidge more specific, the watermelon part, that’s good stuff. The Beau Baron part…not so much!

Anyway, moving on…

I’m a twin…scratch that…I used to be before the accident. Growing up my brother Luke and I were inseparable. We did everything together. It started at a very early age according to my mom. So much so, Mom said we even took our first steps on the same day. Luke went a few minutes before me, but that’s it. He toddled right over to Daddy, clapped and then he turned around looking at me expectantly, like he knew I could do it too. That’s the way we rolled through life though, we both did something or neither one of us did.

As the story goes, Mom said he looked at me and sprouted off some long sentence in baby gibberish, and then clapped again. I stood up and toddled towards Daddy and Luke apparently to great applause from everyone in the room. Mom said after that, we only had two speeds…fast and faster!

Our togetherness didn’t stop there though. We made forts in the back yard, rode our bikes down the lane, and had the best time jumping on Mom and Dad’s bed. Sunday night drives to get ice-cream were always the best. Dad would turn the music up and sing loudly to Mom while Luke and I covered our ears in mock outrage about how off key and embarrassing Dad was. Sometimes the Baron boys would join us too. That made Dad sing louder and even more off key (if that was even possible).

And because our moms were best friends we basically grew up together with the Baron boys. My mom and Mrs. Baron were inseparable. Sunday lunches…playdates…even the grocery store, we did it all together. It wasn’t too bad, I learned to share Luke with Beau from an early age. Luke would make sure to include me though. It was like I had two built in best friends and sometimes protectors. Not that I needed the boys to do that—just ask Beau. There was this one time, before I learned to deal with sharing my brother, that I might have gotten a little jealous…if you ask me, Beau was being rude though, so I may have given him a tiny, little, barely even there, kick in the shin. He got a bruise and I got a time out.

I promise I’ve grown out of my shin kicking days. But honestly, growing up with Luke and even Beau made life easier. I always had a built in friend and when Beau would tag along I had two of them—until middle school happened. Boys and middle school, that’s all I’m going to say about that. I’ll save it for my next entry.

Summers were especially busy because we worked on the Baron’s watermelon farm. It was hard work, but so much fun. I loved my time driving the tractor or turning vines. Luke and I would pack our lunch and spend the entire day there helping out wherever we were needed while Mom and Mrs. Baron would work in the house making watermelon salsa and visit. I’m sure they both loved having us all outside so they could talk for hours about anything and everything. Honestly, though those were some of the best memories I have of me and Luke. Life was simple. Our biggest worries were scraped knees and what flavor of ice-cream to get.

Even as we got older and Luke started to drift towards sports and hanging out with Beau more, he still found time for me. I went to every single one of his and Beau’s baseball games—they were on the same team, that’s the only reason why I was there rooting Beau on too. Like I mentioned earlier, middle school was the start of the end of our little trio. Beau had changed towards me, and not for the better I might add.

But even today, I don’t hate those memories. They all have Luke in them. Gramps says the hurt will get better in time, and I am trying. Really, I am. I have so much to be thankful for. It’s just hard sometimes. Especially when there’s a certain boy who seems to be bent on making my life miserable!
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My Story Title:   LOVING GRACE

My Story Genre:  YA Contemporary Romance

My Story Released:   March 20, 2018 ~ Happy Anniversary, Loving Grace!

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The Author of My Story:    April Smith

April grew up spending summers working on her best friend’s family watermelon farm, and was one of those watermelon queens she writes about. She has a Master’s Degree in the Art of Teaching, and when she’s not writing, April finds herself in front of the classroom teaching.

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  Get Connected:

• Website 
• You can also find author (April Smith) on: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter

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WHERE you can purchase Loving Grace:

• AMAZON LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Loving-Grace-April-Smith/dp/1620206196/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1551193369&sr=8-1&keywords=loving+grace
• BARNES & NOBLE LINK: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/loving-grace-april-smith/1127941019?ean=9781620206195

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The author will be honored to gift a winner a signed copy of LOVING GRACE

Be sure to leave a comment with an email address where you can be reached should you win.

DRAWING TO BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING ~ March 13, 2019.