A Truly Exceptional Love

By Rebecca Matthews

Joy Brown, a college freshman makes a remarkable discovery on the first day of class. A chivalrous young men with a deep, baritone voice that sends shivers up her spine, and prickles her skin. His sapphire eyes caused her heart to flutter like butterfly wings, her palms to sweat, and her mouth to forget how to form words. In time, their relationship grew into a love so overwhelming they could not live without each other. That is, untill Uncle Sam stepped in and sent the handsome heart throb half a world away to a place called Viet Nam. Six months after entering the service his letters suddenly stopped. Joy waited and worried for a year, and when no word came and his best friend was always at hand with a comforting word, a picnic to lighten her spirits, and eventually, a profession of love and marriage proposal. Believing the love of her life would never return, she married a man she could never give her whole heart. 

In Aug. 1964 an explosion while walking through a rice paddy in the sweltering jungles of Viet Name, mortally wounded her Irish over, Shawn. Given up for dead, the medical staff were shocked when after three months in a coma, he awoke, with only one complication. He had no memory of who he was, where he was from, or anything about his life prior to entering the military. Three more months of learning how to walk, talk, feed and dress himself followed before returning to the Army's last known address for him. There he found no wife, only a woman's parents who told him their daughter had tricked him into marrying her but she was off living a raucous life of drugs, sex and alcohol. A face was always before him while in a coma, but it didn't match any of the pictures he saw in his 'wife's' parents' home. Who was the mystery woman who had given him the motivation to fight for his life until he won it back from the edge of the grave.

Finding no one and nowhere he belonged, he began roaming the country working odd jobs. One fateful night at a casino in Vegas, he has a nondescript conversation with a waitress, and suddenly his memory returns with reading her name on her badge--Joy. He hitchhikes back to the town where his "wife" lived and hunted for Joy, but he didn't remember her last name. His memory cleared enough to remember a childhood friend named Craig. He found his way to Craig's childhood home and lo and behold, when he knocks on the door in the middle of the day, who opens the door but the woman whose face kept him alive when he should have died. It was Joy! But she was now the wife of his former best friend, and a mother. 

Unable to ignore that uncontrollable animal magnetism that always ignited whenever they were near each other, they rekindled their love that afternoon while her infant daughter slept. Her pseudo marriage was not the same having discovered the love of her life was still alive. 

Jealousy can eat at a man like a cancer. Knowing his nemesis was still alive, he refused his wife's pleas for a divorce. He would not set her free to be with his former friend, when he had wanted her since Shawn first introduced them. Finally, jealousy eroded reasoning, and on a dark, stormy night, after drinking himself senseless, he was killed in a tragic automobile accident. 

Eventually he could divorce his phantom wife who was living the high life in parts unknown, and marry the love of his life. The two lovebirds could be together at last. For over four decades they loved and lived, raised three daughters, worked at careers they loved, and died hand in hand. The only way they could have accepted Death at all. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rebecca Matthews
• Release date: Feb 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386795803

Rebecca Matthews

                                                                                                                                Author Bio Rebecca is a retired R.N. who has yearned to be an author since she was an adolescent. Her first novella, A Gentleman’s Game was published in print and digital in May of 2015.  Since then she has had two more novels published by Liquid Silver Publishing, Revenge is Sweet  and Linger Longer Lodge, and a new novel is forthcoming on February 3, 2017, titled Queen of My Heart from DreamBig Publishing.  She also has several indie novels from Kindle including Blackwater Creek, When Hope is Gone, Come and Be My Love, and now Two Broken Hearts. Her books cover a wide variety of themes, locales, and characters. Several of her novels are contemporary, but she has had a lifelong fascination with the South, specifically the Civil War, the people not the politics, and loves to use it for a backdrop for her romance novels, as well as Louisiana Bayou and the area around the Jewel of the South, Savannah. Her stories take you from East Coast to West, and the Smoky Mountains to the Gulf Coast, made up of characters you will remember long after the final page is read. She lives in sunny Florida with her husband of over thirty years and their cat and dog. She feels blessed to have spent thirty years working in a career she loves, and then to have realized her lifelong dream of becoming a writer. For more information or to leave a comment, good or bad, please visit her website at: https://www.RebeccaMatthewsAuthor.com.Thank you for reading her novels and keep coming back for more.

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to my loving husband who has taken over my role in our home as chief cook, dishwasher, housekeeper, errand boy, and caretaker of our animals. His support has allowed me the extensive amount of time and attention it takes to write and promote these books. Any success I enjoy therefore, is credited to him. Thank you, Joe.

A Truly Exceptional Love

Chapter One     

It was a beautiful, clear fall morning in central Kansas as freshman Joy Brown was rushing to Sociology class. The kind of day that brings with it back to school, plaid shirts, backpacks, new beaus, and tense excitement. The campus of Prairie Dunes Junior College was a picture perfect setting for the students who were rushing to and fro on this first day of class, searching out their classrooms, the library, the student union, and most importantly the cafeteria. Surrounding Joy was a plethora of orange, gold, red, and green as the leaves twittered in the trees in the gentle autumn breeze, and a carpet of them beneath her that had already fallen. The kind of day where it feels good to be alive. The kind of day when anything can happen.

It was her first day as a college freshman, and everything was exciting and a little overwhelming, including the mountain of textbooks, notebooks, and other paraphernalia she had to carry. Having made a pit stop, she fell behind her cohesive group of fellow nursing students from the hospital dorm where they all lived. Normally, they moved as one unit, not usually leaving a straggler behind. No one wanted to be late the first day of class, however.

With her arms overloaded with precariously placed books, she attempted to reposition the teetering load to keep them from falling before picking up speed to catch up to her friends. Instead, she only made matters worse, and within seconds, bundle she carried became an avalanche of papers and textbooks cascading to the ground.

Oh great! Now I am going to be late for class. Squatted down, she was busy trying to pick up her scattered textbooks while her purse repeatedly fell off her shoulder jerking her arm causing her to drop them all again. Oblivious to everything else, she was startled when a deep, powerful, sultry voice came out of nowhere.

Would you like some help with that?

Well, thank you, I... When Joy looked up, any thought of saying anything further was swept from her mind. As if punched in the gut, she was suddenly breathless and speechless. All she could do was gape slack-jawed, wide-eyed, and awestruck by a pair of the most amazing sapphire blue eyes she had ever seen, set in a square-jawed, handsome face topped by thick, wavy hair as shiny as a raven’s wing glistening in the bright September sun. She had seen attractive guys before, but this was something more than just his outward appearance that knocked her breathless...and senseless.

Something as powerful as a tidal wave swept over her at the sight and sound of this magnificent young man, who chivalrously stopped to help her in her moment of distress. Instinctively, she knew that she would never be the same after this chance meeting. In a moment, her world, and her life, had changed forever due to the kindness of a stranger, and those few words of his baritone voice. Suddenly  every fiber of her body tingled and she didn’t want the moment to end.

Trying to calm her racing heart and her trembling hands, she tried to remember what the heck she had been doing prior to seeing the face of her knight in shining armor. Mesmerized by the sight of him, she froze in mid-action. She would swear later that there were no audible sounds around them; no chatter of fellow students as they criss-crossed the campus, no birds were chirping, no traffic sounds, nothing. There was only silence as she took in every minute detail of this amazing person who was so close she could feel the warmth of his breath. It was as if she and this amazing specimen of a man were alone in a bubble in the midst of a bustling campus full of students dashing here and there. There were in a magical cocoon of just the two of them.

The impact he had over her was unbelievably powerful, and in one gaze from those incredibly beautiful, sparkling, intense eyes, volumes were spoken without having to utter a word. The energy, the excitement, the sensuality that passed through the space between them was unbelievable, magical.

The sight of him left her heart fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings and a mouth too dry to speak. What was happening to her? Her blood felt like molten lava coursing through her veins and the pounding of her heart was deafening in her own ears. It was as if all the molecules in her body were banging against each other clinking and clanging together, knocked off balance and scrambling to try to right themselves once again. He had disarmed her completely.

As perfect as a god, he had her under his charismatic spell and she wanted to stay here forever, never leaving his sight or straying farther than arm’s length away. She could not believe that men like him actually existed in the real world, or that such intense feelings could be commanded with just a glance, and a simple question. This was an Adonis, and she was just a simple, country girl innocently heading to class when this life-altering encounter left her breathless, speechless, and forever changed. This was the rarest and scariest moment of her life thus far.

Coming back to her senses, somewhat, she realized she was still sitting on her haunches staring at him dumbfounded, while he had squatted down beside her gathering her belongings. She feared she must look anything but fetching, mouth gaping open, face burning beneath the intensity of his gaze, and the nearness of his perfect body. When he had gathered the last of the tumbled texts, he flashed an amazing smile, and she felt her insides become soft and gooey like melted caramel.

Thank...thank you. She finally stammered. Her mouth felt stuffed with cotton.

Not a problem. I’m Shawn. Still dazed, she did not immediately respond in kind, so he gently prompted her. And you are?

Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Joy, Joy Brown.

They both stood up, and Shawn handed the remainder of her books and papers back over to her.  

There you go. Good as new. He lingered a fraction of a moment longer. She wondered if he was searching for something more to say. Well, see you around. By the way, the last name’s Kilpatrick.

Thank you very much again, Shawn. See ya. With a final wave of his hand, and brief flash of that amazing smile, he turned and headed toward the parking lot. Her class was in the opposite direction so she had no choice but to turn her back on the gorgeous Good Samaritan and race to class that was already in progress by the time she arrived. She could not feel the ground beneath her feet as she dashed to class, trying not to dump her load of school supplies again as she hurried. It felt as if she were walking on air. She was weightless. Had she sprouted wings? Her heart was rejoicing so loudly she was sure others walking nearby must be able to hear the joyful song it sang. In one instant, one, unique, chance encounter, her heart became the possession of the young man named Shawn Kilpatrick.

The professor was already speaking when she tried to enter the classroom as unobtrusively as possible, but the squeak of the heavy classroom door sounded like a cannon blast. The man at the front of the room stopped lecturing in order to direct the attention of the whole room to Joy, thoroughly embarrassing her. So much for going unnoticed. She could feel her face burning scarlet as his infuriated stare burned through her. Slinking to her seat, like a scalded dog, she wished he would just resume his lecture, and stop focusing his attention and that of the entire classroom, on her.

Well. How nice of you to finally join us. In the future, however, could you try to remember that class begins at ten o’clock, not at ten after? His words, dripping with sarcasm, were wasted on Joy. Her focus was still on the sidewalk across campus where a kind Prince Charming had stopped what he was doing and assisted her in her hour of need. So she really didn’t care what old prune-faced Professor Gruber said. All she could hear was Shawn’s deep voice and how it resonated through her soul from the tips of her toes to the roots of her hair, utterly captivating her.

No one gets an ‘A’ in my class, the Professor droned on, and a collective groan emanated from the room. What a jerk! Joy left the cynical words of the man at the front of the room behind as her thoughts meandered back to meeting the man of her dreams just moments before. What an incredible find!

After her serendipitous meeting with a man too superb to be real, she was convinced she must have imagined him. Unable to keep her mind focused on the boring academic topic at hand, her mind wandered back to Shawn. Daydreaming as the professor’s voice unpleasantly droned on and on, her mind replayed every second of their brief encounter; I have never felt anything like this before. I...I can’t explain it, but I feel as if I was a hollow shell before, lost and  incomplete, but since meeting Shawn, now I am what and who I need to be—happy and whole. I was meant to be his. I just know it! He is the only man I will ever love.

After class, she was bubbling over with the news of her chance meeting with this gorgeous hunk. As the tight-knit group of nursing students from her dorm all piled into the only car anyone in their group owned, she was about to burst with her good news.

You won’t believe what happened today!

You were late for Sociology. Lisa answered drolly.

"No. Well, yes, but that is not what I mean. I met the most gorgeous man in the world today. He stopped and helped me pick up my books when I dropped them rushing to class. Oh, guys, he has the most startling, blue eyes I have ever seen. It felt like they looked right through me, and his smile...Oh my God, it made me melt into a puddle right there on the sidewalk. The real treat was the sound of his deep and sexy voice, almost a low growl, and it gave me shivers from my head down to my toes." Joy could feel her face flush with the excitement oozing from every pore as her words tumbled over each other, impatient to be heard. Her exuberance spilled over onto her classmates and bosom buddies in the small coupe.

Sweetheart, piped up pragmatic Patty, living up to her nickname, "you know there are over two thousand kids at this school. The chance of you seeing him again are next to nil. Glad you got a thrill today, but don’t go hitching your wagon to that star. Besides, anyone that gorgeous has got to be spoken for anyway, don’t you think?"

Joy’s shoulders slumped forward dejectedly, her smile vanished, and her elation dissipated like a burst balloon. Leave it to Patty to rain on my parade.

Yes, you are probably right, but don’t you ever get tired of being right all the time? She woefully stuck out her tongue. The other girls laughed, and Joy finally forced her lips to smile, although she did not feel like smiling. Anyway, I’ve got studying to do. See you guys. Her roommate was not in their room, so defying the rules just like everyone else; she heated up some soup in her electric popcorn popper for her supper, and began to study.

Keeping her mind focused on her studies was impossible. The image of Shawn’s face in front of her kept pushing aside thoughts of anything else. What an incredible feeling! When he turned and walked away, it felt as if someone had reached in and pulled out, well...pulled out her heart, leaving a raw, gaping hole where it had been. The desire to be near him again and feast her eyes on his handsome face was a physical ache deep inside her. 

Patty was right, of course. I’m sure he must have a girlfriend, fiancé, or wife even; but if he did, why was he so ready to assist me? Is he just that chivalrous?

The group of girls from the nursing program was inseparable most of the time. Patty was the only one with a car, so she chauffeured them to and from class, and anywhere else that the majority wanted to go, at her convenience of course. Otherwise, they walked or took the city bus.

It had been nearly two weeks since Joy met Shawn, and the truth of Patty’s prophetic words echoed in her ears. Joy began to believe she had imagined him because she had not spotted him even once since then. This particular afternoon, Patty had a dentist appointment so she was unable to drive the girls back to the dorm. The timing really stank because the sky opened up and a downpour began that lasted all afternoon. What a miserable time to have to walk the nine blocks back to the dorm. Normally it was no big deal, but with this deluge, it seemed much farther.

With every step water sloshed into Joy’s shoes, her soaked pant legs clung to her making progress slow and clumsy. Her umbrella kept only the top of her head dry, and rainwater rushed in at her from every direction while thunder boomed and flashes of bright lightning struck all around her. With each volley of thunder and flash of millions of volts of electricity, Joy flinched, afraid that she may be h human lightning rod.

Then, in her peripheral vision, she noticed an old pick up slow down and keep pace with her for a few steps. Fear began to grip her and she wondered what to do. She could not run away. Who could it be? She glimpsed the window lower a few inches, and a familiar voice call out to her.

Joy? I thought that was you. Want a lift before you drown? She glanced over quickly as recognition of that unique voice dawned. It’s me, Shawn. That deep, sexy voice was unmistakable. I can’t stop here long and hold up traffic. Come on, hop in.

Thanks! Relief flooded through her as rain flooded through her shoes, and she quickly sloshed over to his car, gratefully clambering inside. Shaking off some of the water, she turned to face those magnificent eyes and smile into the face she had longed to see more than any other.

I don’t know how you do it but you manage to appear at exactly the right moment I need rescuing. Are you real, or are you my Guardian Angel, or something? She grinned, hoping she did not sound too juvenile or airheaded. He chuckled slightly.

Nope. I’m definitely not an angel. I’m just as human as the next guy. Just lucky I guess. Where were you going?

Oh, yea, that would help to know, wouldn’t it? I live at the dorm at Grace Hospital School of Nursing over on 8th Ave.

Oh, so you’re a nursing student?

Will be when I get through with these college courses. Some of them are killers. As he drove, she studied his profile, memorizing every detail of his magnificent face to the accompaniment of the rain pounding on the metal roof and the rhythmic swishing of the windshield wipers.

What are you studying?

Law Enforcement. Being a cop is all I’ve wanted to do ever since I was a little kid. What other career would an Irishman choose anyway? He joked, smiling broadly at his own ethnic stereotype.

I know what you mean. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a nurse. I think they are both great professions. Both of us will be public servants when we are through. She colored slightly at uniting them in any context.

Remembering Patty’s words about the impossibility that he was unattached, a thought came to her how to use subtly to find out whether Shawn was attached to anyone or not.

I hope your girlfriend doesn’t mind you having another girl in the car with you.

"There is no one to