The Secret of Joy (34 page)

“That’s right, I’m Rebecca,” she said with a smile and a tickle on Rex’s smiley face T-shirt. Rex dashed over to his little table, upon which was half a Lego tower, and he began stacking the brightly colored blocks.

“That’s your nephew,” Joy said. “I’ll start using the words
aunt
and
sister
in relation to you, and he’ll just pick it up naturally.”

Rebecca looked over at Rex,
her
nephew, and again felt that surge of emotion for him. She felt it for everyone in the house, including her father, whose heart—a piece of it, anyway—had been captured and hung on the hallway wall.

“And you’ve got yourself a brother-in-law,” Harry said, coming into the room. He poured a glass of wine for himself and raised it Rebecca. “I don’t want to get too heavy into a discussion while Rex is still up, but I’ve been thinking about everything, too, Joy. If you want to turn down the money, I’ll understand. We don’t have the money now and we can’t miss what we don’t have. This is your history and your past, and maybe I’ve been trying to get you to think and act in a way that would make life easier for me. That’s not fair. So I want you to take me out of the equation about the money. You do what seems right to you.”

Joy jumped up and hugged him. “I already told Rebecca I’ll accept the money. I’m going to give my mother half. I think that’s fair.” She paused, then said. “Do you?”

Harry wrapped his arms around her. “Yeah. More than fair. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she said.

All this love was making Rebecca miss a certain tall, blond, and handsome man. “I think that’s my cue to go. Thanks for dinner, Joy. And thanks for … everything.”

Joy walked her to the door and held it open. “Oh, and I’ll take that box of letters. I’m not so sure I’ll read them right away. But I’ll be ready to one of these days.”

Hear that, Dad?
Rebecca said silently. She felt something ease inside her chest, something she hadn’t realized was still there until the dull heaviness of it was gone. She touched her hand to her heart and smiled. “I’ll bring them by tomorrow.”

“Or, I could get them when I come pick you up the day after tomorrow to show you the farm I’ll be working at starting next Monday.” Joy’s brown eyes lit up. “I’ve signed on for two mornings a week while Rex is in preschool. I’ll be grooming the Beltie bulls and starting on something of an internship program.”

“Congratulations!” Rebecca said, thinking she’d finally have a good use for her cowboy boots.

“Not that I’m parking the Love Bus for good or anything. I’ll be doing a tour a month for the Bitter Exes. Unfortunately, that club is going to keep me in business. Pick you up at nine, nine fifteen?”

Rebecca thought of Ellie and Maggie and Lucy and Darren. Exes, but not bitter. Just some wonderful people trying to make sense of something that involved the heart and the head—and every other body part. Just like
everyone
. “Nine-ish
the day after tomorrow is perfect,” she said, then headed down the impatiens-lined path. As she was about to get into her car, Joy called her name.

“Welcome to the family, Rebecca.”

Rebecca smiled. “You too.”

Rebecca went straight to Theo’s, but the house was dark. She sat on his porch steps for at least an hour, but he never did come home.

“I’m free and clear,” she said to the stars. “So where is he?”

Please don’t let me be too late
, she prayed to the universe.
Please, please, please
.

She sat there for another twenty minutes, feeling like a stalker, then walked over to Mama’s, where he often took his grandmother for the Early Bird special, even though it was past ten and Mama’s was closed. Arlene sometimes stayed open late for her regulars. But Mama’s was dark, too.

When her doorbell rang the next morning, Rebecca rushed to answer it, then realized it wouldn’t be Theo. He wouldn’t come to her. He’d made that clear.

She opened the door to find Joy and her mother standing there. Rebecca gasped; the two of them on her doorstep was just so unexpected. Pia Jayhawk smiled as if she understood and extended both hands, and when Rebecca put out her own, Pia clasped them. For a split second, Rebecca saw Pia as she must have been twenty-six years ago, alone and pregnant on
the beach in her fingerless gloves and shredded layered tank tops, clutching the rock that had started it all. But it was truly momentary; when Rebecca blinked she saw a beautiful and strong woman who’d raised a child alone.

Joy, who looked happier and lighter than Rebecca had ever seen her, said, “Rebecca, this is my mother, Pia Jayhawk Montenegro. Mom, this is Daniel Strand’s daughter, Rebecca.”

“Hello, Rebecca,” Pia said, her voice full of warmth. “It’s very nice to meet you. I know we met at Joy’s the other weekend, and believe it or not, my first thought when I came upon you looking at the painting of Daniel was that you were his daughter. But then I said to myself, ‘Don’t be silly, Pia, what would Daniel Strand’s Rebecca be doing in Joy’s house?’ I mean, what was the likelihood of that, even though I saw the way you were looking at the painting of him. But between that and the way you were watching me—and the strong resemblance, of course—I truly wondered.”

Rebecca smiled. “I had a feeling you knew, but I wasn’t sure.” She opened the door wider. “Would you like to come in and have some coffee?”

“Actually, we’re running a bit late for my appointment for my dress fitting for my vows renewal,” Pia said. “But when Joy told me everything late last night, I wanted to stop by and see you first thing. Just to tell you how very glad I am that you came into Joy’s life. It’s something I’ve always hoped for.”

“My father, too,” Rebecca said. “I hope that’s all right to say.”

Pia nodded. “Of course it is. Joy shared his final letter with me. I was glad to know that. Very glad.”

“Good,” Rebecca said, letting out a deep breath. “This is all so new for all of us.”

“Maybe you can meet us for lunch in town later,” Joy said.

Rebecca beamed. “I would love to.”

After a very lovely lunch with Pia and Joy (they’d talked about the upcoming vows-renewal ceremony, the second-honeymoon plans, and current events—there had seemed to be an unspoken understanding that they had all the time in the world for discussing the one big thing they all
did
have in common), Rebecca picked up the makings of Theo’s favorite dinner—he loved a good tuna steak—and rushed home to doll herself up. Her grand plan was to arrive unannounced at his door with her bag of groceries and an apology and an “I love you.”

Because she did. Of all the things she knew for sure, she knew that most of all.

Not that she had any idea if he’d be home tonight. Or if he was with one of those women he’d mentioned he saw from time to time. Or if she’d ruined things between them.

She put on her red wrap dress and black T-strap heels and a light spritz of Chanel N
^o
19, then grabbed her bag of groceries, promised Charlie a doggie bag, and headed out the door.

Straight into Theo Granger’s chest. He stood on the porch, looking gorgeous as always, his dark brown eyes intense on her.

Second gasp of the day.

“I was just going to see you,” she said, clutching the brown paper bag.

“And here I am. My busybody neighbor, Mrs. Finnegrew, told me that a young lady was sitting on my porch for hours last night. You?”

“Me.”

“That’s a long time to sit on a porch. You must have had something important to tell me.”

“I did. I do. I’m free and clear, Theo.” She gasped for the third time.
That
was what she knew most of all. She was free and clear.

He smiled that smile that had taken her breath the very first time she saw him. “I’m very glad to hear that, Rebecca.”

“And since I’m going to buy this place, I was wondering if I could hire you to build a small deck.”

“On the house.” He took the bag of groceries and set it down on the little rocking chair, then picked her up in his arms and kissed her in the glow of the pink and red setting sun.

R
EADING
G
ROUP
G
UIDE

• • •

THE SECRET OF JOY

MELISSA SENATE

B
OOK
S
UMMARY

In Melissa Senate’s sweet and sentimental eighth novel, twenty-eight-year-old Rebecca Strand is about to lose her father and be left alone in the world without a family. But her father makes a confession on his deathbed—that he had a secret affair twenty-six years ago and Rebecca has a half sister named Joy that neither she nor anyone else has ever known about. Shocked by her father’s infidelity and secrecy, Rebecca is determined to find her sister and make up for Daniel Strand’s abandonment of his second daughter. She leaves New York City, her job, and her boyfriend behind and heads to Maine to track down the only family she has left. But when Joy doesn’t exactly welcome her with open arms, Rebecca must look within herself to discover
the meaning of the word
sister
, and to figure out what she wants out of life and where her future lies.

Q
UESTIONS AND
T
OPICS FOR
D
ISCUSSION

1. Is sharing the same DNA enough in and of itself to make someone family, or do words like
family
and
sister
hold meaning that goes much deeper than genetics?

2. Rebecca makes a lot of major decisions without really thinking about them—going to Maine, getting a dog, renting a house, giving up half her inheritance. Why do you think she is able to make these decisions so easily and confidently, even while acknowledging that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing?

3. On page 121, Maggie suggests that Rebecca’s father told her about Joy to let her know that she’s not alone in the world, that she doesn’t have to marry Michael “just to have someone.” Do you agree with that idea? Do you think Rebecca’s father was worried that she felt like she needed to marry Michael to keep from being alone?

4. Rebecca gives a lot of thought to faithfulness in relationships as she struggles to understand how her father could have cheated. Is her relationship with Theo really cheating? Does not being married make it any less wrong?

5. How do you feel about Marianne’s attitude toward her husband’s infidelity? On page 211, she talks about the woman her husband had his second affair with, saying, “He was carrying on a sexual affair, and she thought she was having a love affair.” Can you really differentiate between the two? Is one type of affair more forgivable than the other?

6. It seems clear to everyone but Ellie that Tim is a total jerk. Why do you think she clings to her marriage so strongly when it’s obvious that she’d be better off without him?

7. Why do you think Joy keeps the painting of her father hanging in her house when she seems so opposed to talking about him and acknowledging his role in her life?

8. Rebecca feels a lot of guilt and sympathy for her father’s abandonment of Pia and Joy, but she doesn’t seem to be very angry with Pia for getting involved with a married man. Were Pia and Daniel equally wrong in their situation, having both known all the details? Or is Daniel more at fault because he was the one who was already married?

9. Why do you think Daniel Strand never tried to contact Pia or Joy, even after his wife died? How do you feel about what Rebecca decides to do with her inheritance? Would you have done the same thing?

10. Is Michael being selfish in telling Rebecca that her inheritance is their future, their down payment on a home, their kids’ education? Do you think he is more concerned about securing his own future than he is about helping Rebecca make the right decision for herself?

11. Had Daniel told his wife about the affair when it happened, Rebecca’s life could have been completely different. Should she be at all grateful to her father for preserving her happy and stable childhood? What do you think would have been the right thing for him to do?

A C
ONVERSATION WITH
M
ELISSA
S
ENATE

How did you come up with the idea for
The Secret of Joy
?

My own life provided the inspiration (truth
is
stranger than fiction). Out of the blue several years ago, I received an email with the subject header
: I think you might be my half sister.
Whoa. I’ve had no contact with my biological father or any member of his family since I was eight years old, but I’ve always known I had a half brother, who was born when I was seven. And now here the half brother was, making contact. You can imagine the soul-searching, the questions I asked myself: Who is this person to me? A total stranger or a family member? What does the word
family
mean, exactly? How do I feel about it all? I had so many questions and no answers. And that’s one of the gifts of being a novelist; I could pose that question on paper, create a fictional scenario (using real life as a basis), a fictional character, and have her help me find the answers. And to make things more interesting for myself, I flipped everything: a half sister instead of a half brother. And I made the main character the one who grew up with the mutual father—that was very revealing for me
.

You’ve written about sisters before, but in different capacities. Do you have a sister of your own? How did your experience of growing up either with or without siblings shape your understanding of what it means to be and have a sister?

Sisterhood
is such a powerful word, such a powerful concept. That shared upbringing, that shared female experience. I love exploring the ways in which sisters can be raised in the same home by the same parents, yet have such different experiences
, be
so different. I do indeed have a sister of my own, two years older, and though we haven’t lived in the same state since I was sixteen, I’ve always felt very close to her. In
The Secret of Joy,
there are two sisters with DNA and a father (barely, for one) in common, but nothing else to bind them together—no shared upbringing. How do they forge a relationship? Especially if one isn’t interested? There is so much to delve into!