Something Real

Thanks to her black mother and her Irish father, Ruth "Penny" Borum is the color of a new penny -- copper-skinned and freckled, with naturally reddish hair. Big-boned and notoriously sassy, Ruth is nonetheless the organist and a member in good standing of Antioch, Virginia's most prominent black church -- or at least she was until she dragged the popular Reverend Jonas Borum into an ugly divorce.Having lost everything in the divorce -- everything but weight, attitude and the fiendish desire to continue playing the organ every Sunday next to her scowling ex -- Ruth scrapes by on what she can make as a hairdresser at Diana's, a tiny two-seat salon. Alone at night, in her basement apartment, she indulges in ice cream and argues with the Almighty. Did He have to take everything away? And when is He going to give something back?The Good Lord must have a sense of humor. That's the only conclusion Ruth can reach when He makes her fall head over heels in love...with a white man. Ruth's never looked at a white man before, but if you're going to look, why not look at Dewey Baxter? A big guy -- just Ruth's size -- with solid farm-boy muscles and a handsome face, Dewey's even cuter when he's with Tee and Dee, his darling children.But getting to Dewey, Tee and Dee is trickier than Ruth could ever have imagined. Her friends are appalled to see her chasing after a white man, and Antioch, her spiritual home since birth, is ready to throw her out on her ear. Still, with the help of jump rope rhymes, a homeless man who hears God's voice in a mason jar, and two children who want a Mama as much as she wants them, Ruth's determined to prove anything is possible. Even love between two people whocouldn't be more mismatched.