Loving Preston

By Maria Pryor Herndon

After her abusive, drug addicted husband threatens her in a fit of rage, Sharon Harris flees Chicago with her toddler son and heads for Huntsville, Alabama, where she plans to begin a new life. Although she possesses nothing other than a change of clothes and a package of diapers for her son, Sharon still feels hopeful for the first time in three years.

As she draws closer to her destination, Sharon encounters a stranger walking alongside the highway to Huntsville. Preston Brooks, whose car has broken down, is an attractive African American fellow Huntsville resident who is kind, saved, and very married. After she offers him a ride to the next exit and they part ways, Sharon cannot help but wonder why she has never met a man like Preston. Soon, Sharon settles into a new existence in Huntsville and only sees Preston at church. Despite their occasional meetings, Sharon secretly harbors feelings for him. But when she offers to tutor his grandson and an unexpected chain of events unfolds, everything changes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Oct 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665709422

Maria Pryor Herndon

Maria Pryor Herndon taught secondary and college mathematics for forty-eight years. Today, she avidly reads diverse literature, tutors mathematics students, and enjoys time with her four grandchildren. Born and educated in Chicago, Maria currently resides in Sacramento, California. Loving Preston is her third book.

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Copyright © 2021 Maria Pryor Herndon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

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without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,

organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products

of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-6657-0941-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0942-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021914092

Archway Publishing rev. date: 06/09/2022

Contents

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

- A Word From the Author

Dedication

TO: MY ONLY SISTER, FRANCES Marquetta Underwood, and my nephews GS Michael Underwood (retired) and William Bill Underwood for their encouragement and kind words regarding my previous two novellas; and to my sister-friends, Donna Walker who told me to write more, and Valeria T., and finally to my precious grandchildren: Leah, Talita Lita, Leiloni and Liam Will, their father, my younger son, Philip, and finally my oldest son, Samuel. I will love all you forever!!!

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One

SHARON WAS RUNNING! HER HUSBAND, Steven, in a fit of rage, had threatened her with death! Leave me and you’re dead! he had screamed at her in a drunken stupor! She had never seen him this angry, so angry, that he had actually been frothing at the mouth! She had been terrified! At that moment, she had felt that her husband was a complete stranger, someone who really was capable of killing her! So, she had run!

She had grabbed up her son, Mark, and his favorite toy, thrown the few items of clothing that she could get into his diaper bag, fled her 3-bedroom house, run to her car, and driven to her parent’s house. But, unfortunately, that had been the first place her husband had looked for her!

It had been a hot muggy summer day in Chicago, and her parents had left their front door open to catch a breeze. Her husband had nearly ripped the screen door off its hinges when he had stormed in! Her father had confronted him in the doorway, but he had not been a match for an ex-prizefighter! Only the threat of calling the police had caused her husband to stop punching her father and run!

Sharon had known then, that she would have to leave Chicago, the only place that she had ever lived! She would have to leave her home, her church, her friends, and her job at one of the best high schools in the city.

Her parents had sadly agreed that perhaps it had been best that she go. Her mother had suggested that she go South where some of her relatives lived, either to Leeds or Huntsville, Alabama. So, she had made a call to her cousin Winston, in Huntsville where she had decided that she might be safe.

Early the very next morning, with tears blurring her vision, she had hugged her parents and had set out for Louisville, Kentucky, because that was as far as she had felt that she could drive in one day. With no change of clothes for herself, and only one change of clothes, and a package of diapers for her son, she had praised God that she’d had a bank account that her husband couldn’t access.

As she had watched Chicago shrinking, smaller and smaller in her rear-view mirror, her eyes had gotten drier and drier, and her hopes for a better life had grown larger and larger.

My hopes, Sharon had thought to herself. She had sighed, realizing that she had not felt hopeful in a very long time, fearful, yes, hopeful, no.

The only success she’d ever had, had been in school. Initially, her teachers had considered her to be a slow-learner. She had often thought to herself, that perhaps she had been, because she’d had to think long and hard about answering questions or making decisions. She had been over-weight and shy with few friends; therefore, she hadn’t liked making mistakes, because that had usually brought laughter and ridicule, from her classmates.

When she had gotten to college and declared mathematics as her major, the ridicule hadn’t stopped, it had worsened. This time her professor had been the cause. She had often found herself to be only one of two, or at most three black students in her college mathematics classes, and usually the only female.

She’d had to take the required Calculus 1 – 3 and Differential Equations, and another 5 or so courses after that, in order to graduate with a degree in teaching mathematics. One of her professors, in particular, had seemed to hate her; but thankfully, he hadn’t been able to fail her, because she had worked extremely hard. She’d studied both evenings and weekends. It had been physically and emotionally exhausting; but when she’d seen the pride in her parent’s eyes at graduation, she’d known that it had all been worth it!

She had always loved mathematics, because she had learned early, that if she followed the rules, she could get the correct answer. Unfortunately, life wasn’t like that! People didn’t often follow the rules.

Shaking her head, she brought her thoughts back to her son. He had been full of questions. Though he had sensed something had been wrong, he had seemed content that they were together. He had quietly played with his toy and napped in the backseat while she drove. Six hours later, having only stopped once for a bathroom and snack break, she had arrived at a hotel in Louisville, Kentucky where she had booked a room off of the highway for one night.

After they had checked-in and entered the motel room, she had felt that she could finally breathe. It was as if the tension of the last three years could finally be released. She had turned on the