The Color of a Promise (The Color of Heaven Series Book 11) (25 page)

Eventually, the conversation turned to the latest developments with the crash investigation, and Meg explained that it would be awhile before they could publish their official accident report, and Harrison’s trial would take time in court as well.

Meg laid her hand on my knee under the table. “It was satisfying to discover the cause of the crash, no doubt about it,” she said, “but at the same time, I never feel much like celebrating, because nothing can bring back all those poor people who died, and nothing can take away the pain of the families—not even a lifetime sentence for Reg Harrison.” She picked up her coffee cup and took a sip. “On that note…” She regarded her parents, directly across the table. “You’re probably going to shoot me for this, but I think…I might want to make a career change.”

Her father frowned.

“What kind of change?” her mother asked, setting down her dessert fork and looking surprised.

I glanced at my father, who sat at the head of the table, and shrugged, because I had no idea what she was about to say.

Meg set down her cup. “Of course I’m going to finish this accident case and file the report, but after that…” She paused and cleared her throat. “I think I might want to leave my job at the NTSB.”

A hush fell over the room. Even I was dumbfounded because this was the first I’d heard of it. Meg had told me about her desire to take more vacation time, and I’d seen firsthand the stress and anxiety she suffered because of her work, but she had never talked about leaving her job.

Yet, I was not surprised.

“But you’ve worked so hard to get where you are,” her father said. “And college wasn’t cheap. What are you thinking about doing, baby? Something in the engineering field, I hope?”

Meg looked down at her dessert plate and poked at her apple crisp where the ice cream was melting. “I don’t know,” she said. “You’ll probably think I’m nuts, but I might like to go back to school. Maybe study architecture. I’ve always wanted to build houses. I think I’d be really good at it.”

Something in me lurched at her confession, and I leaned back, staring at her profile with fascination as I rested my arm along the back of her chair.

Her father sat back as well and nodded at her. “I’m sure you would be
very
good at it, dear. You’re always good at whatever you set your mind to. So if that’s what you want to do, then you should go for it. Life’s too short. Do what makes you happy. We’ll support you any way we can.”

She smiled at him. “I haven’t made my mind up for sure yet,” she said. “It’s a big decision. But thanks for understanding.”

Mr. Andrews raised his glass. “To new beginnings.”

We all toasted to that, and talked about the Chicago Bears while we finished our desserts.

Later, after Meg and Katelyn helped my mother tidy up in the kitchen, I found Meg in the hallway, pulled her close, and whispered in her ear. “Would you like to steal a few minutes to be alone? Take a walk with me?”

“I’d love that,” she replied.

A few minutes later, we left our families on the back deck while the children played in the yard, and snuck out the front door.

“It’s the weirdest thing,” Meg said as we walked hand in hand up the street. “I’ve been having these intense feelings of
déjà vu
all day long, ever since we got here.”

I felt a strange buzzing in my ears, maybe because of my sudden pounding pulse. “Does that happen to you often?”

“No,” she said. “I mean, sometimes… But not like this.”

I squeezed her hand. “What feels familiar? Anything specific?”

“I don’t know. I can’t really put my finger on it. But there’s something about this neighborhood. I feel like I’ve been here before, or maybe I dreamed about it.”

We walked leisurely, and she stopped to smell some fall roses at a neighbor’s gate.

“I always kind of enjoy being hit with a spell of
déjà vu
,” I told her. “It makes me curious.”

“Yes,” she replied. “It’s one of those mysteries in life. It feels kind of magical.”

We continued walking until we arrived at a groomed path that led to the wooded area behind Millicent’s old house. I turned onto it.

“We used to play here,” I said, “when we were kids. We built a stone bridge across the creek and started to build a fort. Or a ‘clubhouse,’ as Millicent preferred to call it. We earned the supplies by doing chores for her father.”

“You
started
a clubhouse… Did you ever finish it?” Meg asked as we walked deeper into the shady forest.

“No, we didn’t have the chance. We only got the first wall constructed before Millicent left for Arizona and never came back.”

A mourning dove cooed in the trees, somewhere in the distance, and I heard the familiar sound of rushing water in the creek.

When we came to it, Meg was first to make her way gingerly across the stone bridge, leaping from one moss-covered rock to another to avoid getting splashed by the rushing water.

“It still works,” she said happily, spreading her arms wide as she reached the other side. “Come on!”

Mesmerized by how joyful she was, I followed. When I reached her—not having regained my balance yet—she pulled me close and kissed me hard.

“I think you’re my dream girl,” I said.

She smiled, grabbed hold of my hand and led me deeper into the woods, in the direction of the clubhouse we had begun a lifetime ago.

We?

Stop it, Jack.

Working to stay grounded in the present, I paused and looked around. Suddenly I grew concerned that I wouldn’t remember where we’d begun construction, because nothing looked familiar. On top of that, I had no idea if there would be anything left of it. All we’d managed to build all those years ago was one wall, with planks nailed horizontally to a couple of tree trunks. Someone might have come along and scavenged the wood in the past thirty years, or completed the structure, for all I knew.

Oddly, Meg led the way. All I could do was hold her hand and follow.

o0o

“Is that it?” she asked as we spotted something in the distance.

We both stopped, and I wasn’t sure. Everything looked different. All the trees were taller.

Meg started walking again and reached it first. Surprisingly, the planks were still level after all these years, though they were covered in a film of greenish mold and they were cracked in places where the trees had shifted and grown.

“Yes, this is it.” I stepped over a giant root in the ground and my insides stirred with nostalgia. I was only thirteen years old when I hammered those nails. At the time, I’d had no idea where life would take me, or what tragedy would befall the Davenport family.

Meg wandered curiously around the structure, running her fingers lightly along the old wood. “It’s sad that you didn’t get to finish it.”

I nodded and swallowed hard.

Meg craned her neck to look up at the treetops. All I could do was follow her. I was captivated by her beauty, and felt myself falling more and more in love with her with every passing second.

“It would have made a great clubhouse,” she said, moving around to the inside of the four trees and looking down at the ground. “Were you planning to build a floor?”

“We never really decided,” I said.

She looked down at the ground and back up at the treetops overhead, then held out her hand. “Come and sit down with me.”

I joined her. Soon we were lying on our backs, staring up at the sky beyond the branches that swayed in the wind. Meg crossed her legs at the ankles and folded her hands together on her belly. I found myself looking at her, instead of the sky.

“Are you really going to quit your job?” I asked her.

She turned her head to look at me. “I don’t know. I’d like to. I think it’s time for a change. Change is good.” She looked up at the trees again. “I’m imagining that I would like to buy some land on a beach somewhere and build a bunch of cottages, a place where families could go to enjoy themselves and make happy memories.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” I said, feeling very relaxed.

Meg took a deep breath and let it out. “I just want to do something that makes me feel good. I want to help people make the most of their lives and find the kind of joy we all need to feel. Is that crazy?”

She turned to look at me again and I would have said anything in that moment to make her happy, because nothing else seemed to matter but the rapture I felt in her presence. I wanted to prolong it, hold on to it forever.

“We could start with this place,” I said. “I once promised Millicent that we would finish it together. But would
you
finish it with me?”

Meg smiled. “I would
love
to finish this clubhouse with you. But I’ll have to insist on a floor, and a good solid roof.”

I grinned. “I will bow to your expertise as an accomplished structural engineer.”

Meg looked up at the sky again. “What is it about this place that makes me feel so at home? I feel unbelievably happy right now, and I don’t know why. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy. Not once in my life. I feel so grateful to be alive and to be here with you.”

I rolled to the side and leaned on one elbow, stroked her cheek with the pad of my thumb. “I feel grateful, too. I’m glad I met you, Meg.”

She pulled me down for a kiss, and when our lips met, there was no doubt in my mind that I would marry this woman as soon as possible. She was the only one for me. I knew it with every inch of my being.

And one day soon—one day
very
soon—I would tell her why I believed she felt so happy here.

Would she believe it?

As I drew back from the kiss and gazed into her lovely eyes, so full of newfound passion and optimism for the future, I knew somehow, in the depths of my soul, that she would.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for taking the time to read Jack’s and Meg’s story, which is book 11 in my
Color of Heaven Series
. If you’re interested in reading Katelyn’s story and learning how she became involved with Jack and Aaron—and how Jack ended up jilted by Katelyn and estranged from his brother—I encourage you to read book 10 in the series:
THE COLOR OF FOREVER
.
Up next is a holiday novella entitled
THE COLOR OF A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
. Like all the books in this series, it’s based on the theme of real-life magic and miracles that have the power to change people’s lives. It’s a stand-alone title, and I hope you will check that one out as well.

For more information about the other novels in this series, please read on, or visit my website at
www.juliannemaclean.com
. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter. My subscribers are always first to know about upcoming releases, and I also offer a monthly autographed book giveaway on my website to the members of my newsletter list.

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Thank you again for reading
THE COLOR OF A PROMISE
, and if you enjoyed the novel, please consider leaving a review at
Goodreads
or your favorite online ebook retailer to help others discover this series.

As always, happy reading, and lots of love,

Julianne

Other Books in the Color of Heaven Series

THE COLOR OF HEAVEN

A deeply emotional tale about Sophie Duncan, a successful columnist whose world falls apart after her daughter’s unexpected illness and her husband’s shocking affair. When it seems nothing else could possibly go wrong, her car skids off an icy road and plunges into a frozen lake. There, in the cold dark depths of the water, a profound and extraordinary experience unlocks the surprising secrets from Sophie’s past, and teaches her what it means to truly live…and love.

Full of surprising twists and turns and a near-death experience that will leave you breathless, this story is not to be missed.