The Color of Joy (22 page)

“Good to hear.” He listened to my heart with his stethoscope and nodded approvingly. “Can you tell me your name?”

“It’s not written in my chart?” I asked teasingly. “And you said
I
was the one with memory problems.
Sheesh.”

“Your sense of humor’s intact,” he said with a grin. “Name, please?”

“Jenn Nichols.”

“Do you remember your birthday?”

“March 28, which makes me an Aries.”

“Very good.” He wrapped a blood pressure cuff around my arm, squeezed the ball a few times and took a reading. “BP looks good. Can you wiggle your fingers for me? Now your toes? Very good. And who’s that person right there?” He pointed to Jake.

“That’s my husband, Jake.”

“Excellent.” He wrote a few things down in my chart and moved around the foot of the bed. “Your head will be a bit sore for a while but we’ll give you some pain medication to ease that. We’ll be keeping you here for at least four or five days to make sure you’re doing okay on all fronts, but so far everything looks terrific, Jenn. You were a superstar on the table. Seriously. Everything went perfectly.”

“I like being a superstar,” I replied. “Especially when I’m having brain surgery.”

Dr. Phillips chuckled. “I suspect you’ll be back on your feet in no time. Well done.” He patted my foot under the sheet and left the room.

Jake squeezed my hand. “Sylvie and your mom should be here soon. They went home to shower a little while ago and I just sent them a text to let them know you’re awake.”

I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry for all this, Jake. I wanted everything to be smooth and easy.”

“When is life ever smooth and easy?” he asked. “I’m just glad you made it through okay and we have the future to look forward to. I still feel like the luckiest man alive to be married to you, and no matter what happens from this day forward, we’ll get through it, like we always have. I’m not worried.”

I nodded in agreement and he kissed the inside of my wrist, drew small circles with his forefinger over the delicate blue veins.

“You know it’s funny,” I said. “When I invited Sylvie to live with me while you were gone, I thought I was going to be the one helping her out, but it turned out to be the opposite. I was the one who needed help, and she took good care of me, even when I was impossible.”

“She’s come a long way,” Jake replied. “I think she’s going to be okay. She seems stronger these days.”

“I sure hope so.”

“Not to change the subject…” Jake said as he bent down and reached for something in his backpack on the floor. “But I was thinking…”

Slowly he withdrew a newly framed photograph of the seaside cottage in Maine where we’d spent our honeymoon.

“You fixed it,” I said.

“Actually, Sylvie did. And when I get back for good in the spring and you’re feeling better,” he said, “let’s think about taking some time, driving out east and renting this house again. I checked and it’s still available. We could take the sailboat out and maybe…if you’re keen…we can try and make another baby.”

Joy rose up within me. “That sounds like a dream, but don’t forget I’m being charged for kidnapping.”

“We’re going to get you a really good lawyer, babe. We all know you weren’t in your right mind. The doctors know it. Even Riley James knows it.”

I swallowed hard over a lump in my throat and fought back tears. “But do you really want to have a baby with me, Jake? You’re not just suggesting it for me?”

He laid a hand on my cheek. “Of course I want it. I might not have before, but clearly I was delusional because I’ve been so happy all this time, thinking about our future, as parents. I was dreaming about diapers and little league and helping with homework the whole time I was away.”

His words were a soothing balm on my heart. “I’m so sorry I lost our baby,” I said, “and for keeping that from you. I just didn’t know how to tell you, and I was so confused all the time.”

“It’s not your fault,” he replied. “You weren’t yourself and I sure didn’t make it easy for you, but you’re better now. We’ll try again.”

I smiled as he climbed onto the bed and pulled me into his arms. “You know…” I said, running my finger over his chin, “I’ve always been an optimist and I’ve always believed that anything was possible, but now I believe it more than ever because of what happened to me. I don’t want to waste any time. Life is so precious.”

“We have to make every day count,” Jake agreed. “We know that better than anyone, don’t we?”

I nodded and together we gazed at the picture of the place where we’d spent our first days together as man and wife.

“Whenever I look at this,” Jake said, “I feel happy, because it reminds me that I married the right woman. I’m glad I found you, Jenn, and that we’re together, and somehow I know that we’re blessed. We must be, because look what we just went through. And we’re okay.”

I rolled to face him and rested my head on his shoulder. “We’re more than okay, Jake. And even though my head hurts and I might get charged for kidnapping, I swear I’ve never been happier in my life.”

I touched my lips to his—to make sure he knew how much I meant it.

Riley James

Sometimes I find it astounding when I look back on my life and remember the person I was in my youth—how angry and unhappy I was. I’m still not sure what caused everything to change. Was it just maturity, or was it life experience—the very worst kind that can knock sense into a man, like a wooden plank to the head?

Or maybe it was love. The day I met Lois was the day I truly began to see how far I could go, how high I could reach to become a better man. I was both bewildered and inspired by the admiration I saw in her eyes. All I wanted to do was live up to the greatness—and the goodness—she perceived in me. I never wanted to disappoint her.

We are that way with our children now, which is the opposite of how I was raised by my father. In his eyes, I was a failure at everything I tried and would never amount to anything. Unfortunately I believed him. Until I met Lois.

Together, as parents, we express our love to our children and admire their accomplishments with joy and enthusiasm, even the small ones like first steps and first words. Trudy is in second grade now, reading ahead of her level, and we make sure she knows how proud we both are. I never hold back when I tell her how amazing I think she is, and she responds with an ambitious spark in her eye like nothing I’ve ever seen.

I’m also proud to relate that Danny is a polite, well-behaved young man, interested in building things like his father. He has a passion for big machines like excavators and cranes. We’re encouraging him to enjoy that, though it’s anyone’s guess what he’ll want to be as he matures. He also loves airplanes and he’s good at math, so when it comes to his dreams and what makes him happy, we’re working to keep as many doors open as possible.

As for our baby, Leah, she’s still learning what her thumbs can do, so the future is wide open for her.

I’ve had no dreams or spiritual encounters with my sister Leah since the day our baby was taken from the hospital nursery, but I can’t help but believe she’s out there somewhere, watching over all of us.

When I think of Jenn Nichols in that airport restroom dreaming of a doctor taking care of her, or when I recall how I tripped and fell that night, as if someone had stuck a foot out in front of me, how can I
not
believe? I confess, I never had much faith in Heaven before, but now I’m a true believer because clearly, there has to be some sort of magic in the universe when incredible things unfold as they do.

Every once in a while I think of my late sister with gratitude, and when I’m alone, I thank her out loud. I don’t know if she can hear me, but I like to believe she can.

As far as Jenn Nichols is concerned, I’m pleased to report that the charges against her were eventually dropped. Miller—a decent man at heart—realized he had no case, at least not one that a prosecutor could win, especially since Lois and I were so sympathetic toward Jenn. We had no desire to see her convicted. Hadn’t the poor woman been through enough?

If you’re wondering if we sued the hospital—yes, we most certainly did and it was an easy win. They settled out of court and we have enough money now to put all three of our children through college and never worry about grocery bills again.

Nevertheless, I still work in construction because I find it satisfying…building things. When I come home at the end of the day, tired from a hard day’s labor and needing a shower, I look around and know that I have everything I could ever dream of—a beautiful wife who loves me, three children I hold dearer to my heart than anything in this world, and a strength inside me that grew from struggles and lessons learned through terrible mistakes and the worst of hardships and regrets. But I pulled myself out of that pit. I survived it.

What can I say? I love my life. I’ve never been happier. Thank God I never gave up.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for taking the time to read THE COLOR OF JOY. If you are new to my
Color of Heaven Series
and have begun with this book, I hope you’ll consider starting at the beginning with book one, THE COLOR OF HEAVEN. At the time this book is being published, book one is free for a limited time as an ebook at most major online retailers.

You might also enjoy book seven, THE COLOR OF THE SEASON, which tells the story of Riley’s brother-in-law Josh when he was shot in the line of duty. Riley plays a significant role in that story as well.

As for what’s coming next, it will be Sylvie’s story, THE COLOR OF TIME. It picks up shortly after she graduates from her dental hygienist program and returns to the east coast to confront certain life changing events from her past. Everyone keeps telling her she can’t change the past, but is that really true? Can we not achieve new outcomes if we believe anything and everything is possible?

I don’t have a release date for THE COLOR OF TIME yet as my publishing schedule is complicated this year. There are no pre-order buttons available at the moment, but it will be published either in April 2015 or July 2015. If you want to be notified about its release, please sign up for my
email newsletter on my website
. I’ll be sending a notification to my subscribers as soon as I have the date nailed down. I wouldn’t want you to miss it!

Another option, if you read on a Kindle, is to visit my
author page on Amazon
and “follow” me there.

Lastly, if you’re a fan of Scottish Highlanders or the
Outlander
series, keep an eye out for my Highlander Trilogy which will be reissued by St. Martin’s Press as an ebook boxed set in March 2015. Following this, I’ll have a long-awaited new release for you in that series. RETURN OF THE HIGHLANDER is coming out on June 10, 2015. It is available now for pre-order. You can find more information about RETURN OF THE HIGHLANDER on my
website book page
.

Once again, thank you for reading this novel and if you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review at your favorite online retailer to help others discover this series.

Best wishes and as always, happy reading!

—Julianne

1. Jenn describes herself as positive and optimistic, and she works hard to help her sister Sylvie adopt this attitude and improve her life. Discuss the relationship between the two sisters. How does it change from the beginning of the novel to the end? Also consider point of view and discuss how this plays into our perception of Sylvie and Jenn at different points in the novel.

2. Consider the theme of forgiveness in the novel in terms of each characters’ experiences.

3. In chapter twenty-seven, after losing her baby, Jenn says this to Sylvie:

“…I don’t want him to think he has to carry me emotionally. He went through that before with his first wife…”

…I knew [depression] could happen to anyone. I just didn’t believe it would ever happen to me. I’d always been incredibly rational and self-disciplined. I remained calm in a crisis when everyone else around me was in a panic—because I was in control of my mind and therefore my emotions. I almost never let them get the better of me.

Discuss Jenn’s thoughts here and what these statements say about her character at this point in the novel. Do you feel she is truly strong or—even without the brain tumor—do you believe she is in denial about how strong she is? If so, how and why?

4. From the moment we are introduced to Jenn in Chapter Eleven, who did you believe was responsible for the abduction of Riley and Lois’s baby—Jenn or Sylvie? Or someone else entirely? Did your suspicions change as the story unfolded? If so, how and why?

5. Do you think, if Holly hadn’t called Riley in the bar, that he would have taken the drink?

6. Compare the husbands of Lois and Jenn. How are they similar? In what ways are they different? What are the similarities that make them sympathetic characters in this novel?

7. In Chapters Forty-two and Forty-three, leading up to the moment Jenn has her seizure in the restroom, do you believe she thought the baby was her own?

8. Discuss how Jenn’s and Sylvie’s mother interacted with both daughters in terms of providing emotional support. What could she have done differently?