Nineteen Letters
Page 35
We are still laughing as I brush the sand off her feet when we reach the back deck, before placing her down. ‘Mummy, I have shells,’ she calls out, running towards the sliding doors. I love that girl so much. I love both my girls.
After brushing my own sand off, I head into the house. I find Jem sitting at the kitchen table with my dad going through the memory book she made him. She does this every day. It’s an album full of pictures of his life. His parents, my mother, me, Jemma and Grace. It even contains pictures of the store and Samson. Every day she sits with him, retelling him stories of his life, things he’ll never be able to remember on his own.
His memory has almost totally gone now. There are no more good days, but he still seems happy, and I can’t ask for more than that. He lives with us now. Jem never left after that night she spent here with me. We’ve been back together, in every sense of the word, ever since. A month later, we brought my dad home. Jem wasn’t ready to go back to work, and she wanted him here, with us.
I hired a nurse to come in three times a day, to make things easier on her, but she still gave him all of her time. When she fell pregnant with Grace, we hired a full-time nurse. My father stays in the spare room downstairs, and I converted my office into a bedroom for his carer.
The bond that my wife has with my father is strong. Her memory has never fully returned, so she gets him.
I stand in the doorway and watch Grace climb onto my dad’s lap. It’s her favourite place to sit. They watch television together, and sometimes she reads to him. Well, she turns the pages and names all the pictures. Although he has no idea who she is most of the time, it’s plain to see how much he adores her. His face lights up every time she enters the room.
‘Morning, Pop.’ I lean down and plant a kiss on his head. He just looks up at me with confusion in his eyes, but he still smiles. He’s always smiling.
‘That’s me, Pa,’ Grace says, pointing to the picture in the album on the table.
‘It is,’ he replies, smiling down at her.
I make my way around the table to Jemma. Bella-Rose is lying at her feet. ‘Morning, babe.’
I bend down and brush my lips against hers, as my hand gently rubs over her very pregnant belly. Pregnancy suits her, I love seeing our baby growing inside her. We found out two weeks ago that she’s carrying our son. His impending birth will complete our family perfectly.
‘Morning, handsome,’ she replies, eyeing me up and down.
‘I’m just going to have a quick shower and wash the rest of this sand off, and then I’ll help you organise breakfast.’
‘Okay,’ she says, smiling up at me. That sparkle that was always present in her eyes when she looked at me has returned.
‘Hey, buddy,’ I say, patting Lucas on the shoulder as he waltzes through the front door.
‘Where’s my little munchkin?’ I should have known that would be his first question.
‘Oh, hello to you too,’ I say sarcastically, and he laughs. ‘She’s on the back deck with my dad, and Jemma’s parents.’ He heads in that direction, so I turn my attention to his wife. ‘Hi, Rach.’ I lean forward and kiss her cheek. ‘Jem’s in the kitchen.’
‘Okay. How are you, Brax?’
‘I’m fantastic.’
‘You look happy.’
‘I am.’
After Grace was born, Rachel’s career took a turn away from women’s fashion, when she started to design her own line of children’s clothes. They really took off, and are now in all the major retail stores throughout Australia. She’s happy, and doesn’t seem to regret giving up her dream job in New York.
Jem and I tried every trick in the book to get Rachel and Lucas together when she first moved back to Australia. But they were both so stubborn, every attempt failed. In the end we got desperate.
We invited them both over one afternoon and locked them in one of the spare rooms upstairs. We told them we weren’t going to let them out until they talked. It worked. They didn’t emerge until the following morning, and they’ve been together ever since.
Jemma and Rachel are talking babies as they prepare the food in the kitchen, so after placing a soft kiss on my wife’s cheek, I head out onto the deck.
I see that Lucas has already claimed Grace. They’re walking hand-in-hand down to the water, Bella-Rose is trotting closely behind. He’s going to make a wonderful father. He told me last week that he and Rachel are trying for a family of their own.
‘Let me fill up your wine glasses,’ I say to Jemma’s parents. Stephen ended up moving back in with Christine a few days after Jem moved back in with me.
Jemma still makes her Sunday roasts, but instead of it just being us, we have our entire family over. The earth’s axis finally aligned. Jem and I weren’t the only ones to get our happily ever after. Lucas and Rachel, Christine and Stephen … and in a way, even my dad. He’s out of the nursing home and surrounded by people who love him.
Jemma still wears the memory bracelet I gave her, and reads the letters often. I too have a letter. She gave it to me when we flew back to Kauai, in Hawaii, where we renewed our vows. She was three months’ pregnant with Grace at the time. Rachel and Lucas came with us.
The morning of the accident I promised I would take her back there during the Christmas break, and I’ve never broken a promise to her.
Jem read it out as part of her vows. It choked me up then, and still does to this day.
Dearest Braxton,
The nineteenth of January 1996 was the day I was given the greatest gift I would ever receive … you.
On the nineteenth of January 2015, exactly nineteen years to the day after we met, we became one.
Nineteen days later I was in an accident, and I almost lost it all.
When I woke from my coma I felt empty inside, and now I know why—I had no memory of you, our love, or anything we had shared. Up until that fateful day, you had been my heart, and the air that I breathed. Without that, my life had no meaning. I felt completely lost.
You fought for us when I didn’t have the will or strength to fight. You continued to love me, even when I didn’t love you back. You never gave up on me, or on us, and for that I will be forever grateful. You proved yet again that you are, and always will be, my forever boy. I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it, because you are my life.
The nineteen letters you sent became my lifeline. They helped remind me of everything we once shared, by giving me back pieces of our past. They gave my life meaning, a purpose, and the promise of a future. A future with you by my side. A second chance at life, and love. I will forever cherish what we once had, what we have now, and you … always.
What we have will never be forgotten.
Your forever girl,
Jemma
This renewed my faith in the number nineteen. It was our number, there was no denying it. Grace was even born a few minutes after midnight on the nineteenth of June. It was fate.
In the weeks and months that followed Jemma’s accident, not only did I have to struggle to go on without my best friend, my soul mate, I had to fight tooth and nail to rekindle that magic we once shared. I was lucky enough to get her to love me once, and incredibly fortunate to get her to fall in love with me for a second time.
Things are different this time around, but with a lot of love, persistence and understanding, we have succeeded in building a better us … a stronger us. We now know how fragile life can be. That’s why we live for every second, every minute, every hour and every day.
Love with your entire heart while you have the chance, because life is far too precious to waste on any uncertainty.
This was our second chance at love. Our happily ever after.
Nineteen letters was all it took for her to realise we were meant to be.
Jodi Perry was born in Sydney, Australia, and has lived there her whole life. Under the name J. L. Perry, her last four novels were all number-one bestsellers in ebook. Jodi travels annually to the UK and US to promote her bo
oks and to meet her many fans.
Nineteen Letters is the first novel to be published under the name Jodi Perry.
Jodi would love to hear from you
@JodiLPerryAuthor
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Copyright
Published in Australia and New Zealand in 2017
by Hachette Australia
(an imprint of Hachette Australia Pty Limited)
Level 17, 207 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000
www.hachette.com.au
Copyright © Jodi Perry 2017
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be stored or reproduced by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the National Library of Australia.
978 0 7336 3589 2
978 0 7336 3588 5 (ebook edition)
Cover design by Nada Backovic
Cover photograph courtesy of Shutterstock