A Chance of a Lifetime Read Free Page A

the one cutting the size tags out of my old clothes and sewing them into my new, bigger ones.” Her hearty laugh emphasized the roundness of her face, filled with lines and haloed by gray hair and as beautiful as a face could be.
    Gratitude surged in Bennie, tightening her chest. Her mother might have run off before Bennie saw her fifth birthday, and her father might have died before her tenth. She might have lost her husband, J’Myel, in the war, but she’d always had her grandmother. Mama’s love was boundless and forgiving and warmed a girl’s heart.
    “Did you get all your shopping done?” Mama asked as she pulled the leftovers from the refrigerator, then gathered a knife, a cutting board, and a large cast-iron pot. Bennie had once given her a much lighter stainless pot, and Mama had proclaimed it just what she needed before putting it away and continuing to use her cast-iron, even when picking up a full pan required a grunt of effort.
    “I bought a few things,” Bennie replied as she wiped down the oilcloth that covered the kitchen table, then began setting it for dinner.
    “I finished my Christmas shopping in July.”
    “Braggart.”
    “If you’d use the Internet, you could’ve finished yours already, too.”
    Bennie rolled her eyes, careful not to let Mama see. When the neighbor kid had shown her grandmother how to get online, Bennie had thought it would be a passing curiosity. Then the first purchase had arrived and proven her wrong. Since then, the UPS and FedEx drivers had become Mama’s newest BFFs.
    “Aw, you know me. I like to do my shopping in person. I want to touch stuff, see it, smell it.”
    Mama made a dismissive gesture with the knife. “I touch it, see it, and smell it when it gets here, and if I don’t like it, I send it right back for something else.”
    Bennie wasn’t an avid shopper, not like her friend Jessy, but she enjoyed the experience, especially when the Christmas decorations were up but the holiday was still far enough off that people weren’t yet frantic. It reminded her of her childhood, of trips to Tulsa for the parade, of driving around the neighborhoods looking at extravagant lighting displays and visiting Santa Claus at Utica Square.
    It reminded her of different times—not better, just innocent. She hadn’t known about death and loss then. Yes, her mother had abandoned her, but her father and Mama had filled that void. Back when Christmas was still magical, she hadn’t known her father would die. She’d never dreamed that her two best friends in the entire world would grow so far apart. She’d certainly never guessed that she would marry one of them, then lose him before their second anniversary, or that the other wouldn’t even call her to say he was sorry.
    Moisture seeped into her eyes. She could handle thinking about J’Myel or Calvin one at a time, but having them both on her mind saddened her. Them losing their bond still seemed impossible, as unlikely as Bennie deciding she no longer loved Mama. It just couldn’t happen.
    But it had.
    And she’d been oh, so sorry ever since.
    Forcing the thoughts and the loss away, she poured two glasses of iced tea, heavily sweetened the way Mama had taught her to like it, then went to her room to slip out of her boots and into a disreputable pair of loafers. Her toes wiggled in relief, her arches reveling in comfort, after a whole day in the heels. She would put herself through a lot to look good in public, but at home, comfort reigned.
    By the time she returned to the kitchen, sleet was spitting against the windows, not much, the sort that said Mother Nature hadn’t decided whether she was just playing with them or intended to give them a storm. Every tropic-loving cell in her body hoped for the former while every realistic one prepared to accept the worst.
    Mama had filled two steaming bowls with roasted beef, potatoes, carrots, and celery and placed a loaf of warm bread between them on the table. They joined