Saving Grace Deleted Scene

When I first wrote Saving Grace back in 2013, I started it in a slightly different spot than where it starts now. The scene was deleted during various editing stages, for various reasons. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share it here, where you could see my original beginning, before you actually get to read the story itself.

**By the way, just two more weeks until it releases, and next week I'm planning to give some sneak peeks of chapters that are still in the book itself, just to give you a taste for it! 

   Leah’s breath came out in a whoosh. Her abdominal muscles tightened, starting from her back and then reaching around to her front. The baby gave a kick, as if to say she didn’t appreciate being squeezed that way.
   “Just a little bit longer and we’ll get you out of there.” Leah rubbed the spot where the foot had bumped. “Trust me. Neither one of us is comfortable right now.”
   John looked over at her and she gave him a smile of reassurance.
   “They’re getting closer together.” He looked more concerned than she was. It was so cute.
   “And that’s why we’re on the way to the hospital.”

​   He nodded and turned his attention back to the road. She took his hand and gave it a squeeze. He squeezed back and she knew that even though he was worried, he was just as excited as she was. They had been married for three years, and this baby seemed to be the one thing their life had been missing before. She gently massaged her belly as the small life inside her wiggled again.
   “I wish your Mama were still around to see this. She’d be thrilled to pieces to be a Grandma.” His voice cracked a bit.
   She nodded. “All of our parents would be excited to be grandparents. Your Dad would have loved it.”
   “They’re sure to be watching from Heaven right now. Just looking down and grinning.”
   She smiled at that thought. Pain wrapped around her middle again, squeezing and contracting. She shifted, arching her back away from the seat. There was no comfortable position. The seatbelt strap cut into her at an awkward angle. She popped it loose to readjust it.
   Ding. Ding. Ding.
   The car warned her that she wasn’t supposed to be out of her seatbelt.
   “What are you doing?”
   “I just need to get it adjusted.” She tugged the belt around her again, trying to reach around her large stomach to push it back in. Good thing this baby was coming now. If her belly had gotten any larger, she wouldn’t have been able to fit anywhere much longer.
   “We’ll be there in a few minutes. Please put it back on.” His hand hovered over her.
   “I’m working on it. Tell you what. Next time, you can carry the baby and I’ll be the one with a normal sized belly to have to fit into a seatbelt.” She tugged at the strap again. Almost had it. “Why do you think babies always choose to come in the middle of the night? Less traffic?”
   An intersection ahead. He slowed, but the light changed to green. Onward, as fast as they could go.
   “That’s definitely a theory.”
   A motorcycle zipped through the intersection, running his red light.
   No time to think.
   No time to slow again.
   John braced his arm across Leah as she struggled to get the buckle to lock back into position.
   Too late.
   He swerved to the left as hard as he could, and the world turned over.