Sierra Jensen Collection, Vol 2

by Robin Jones Gunn

  “Now!” the lady with the birdseed called out.

  Doug and Tracy were showered with thousands of tiny bits of birdseed that their cheering friends tossed in the air. Tracy lifted her long skirt slightly as she slid into the Rolls’s backseat. Doug held the long train for her and then ducked his way in beside her. The chauffeur shut the door and walked calmly around to the driver’s side as if he did this every day.

  “’Bye. Have fun! See you,” everyone called out.

  “Where are they going on their honeymoon?” Sierra asked.

  “Maui,” said Tawni. “Didn’t you know? They’re going to Bob and Marti’s condo.”

  “Sierra,” Jeremy said. “I started to tell you something right before the ceremony.”

  “Oh, yes.” She had forgotten.

  Jeremy gave Tawni a smile, and taking Sierra’s elbow, he led her away from the crowd to an open spot on the church lawn.

  “It’s about my brother,” Jeremy said. “I think you should write to him.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, it’s just that he’s…”

  “Is he okay? I mean, he isn’t in trouble or dying or anything, is he?”

  “No, Paul is doing great. Really great, actually. Better than ever. I honestly think you’ve had a lot to do with that.”

  “Me? How?”

  “I know you’ve been praying for him. But it’s more than that. Here. I don’t know how to tell you any other way.”

  Jeremy pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. Sierra immediately recognized the bold, dark letters of Paul’s distinctive handwriting.

  “Right here,” Jeremy said, pointing to the last paragraph. “He’s talking about going on these walks in the highlands of Scotland where my grandmother lives, and then he says…well, you read it.”

  Sierra took the letter and read aloud: “You’ll probably laugh, but the face I keep seeing in the clouds above this ‘bonnie’ land is Sierra’s. Last June, in Portland, I thought I could pat her on the head and send her out of my mind. But look. She’s followed me here. She told me God has put His mark on my life. Do you think that’s true? What does it mean? What does God want me to do with my life?”

  Stunned, Sierra looked at Jeremy and said the first thing that came to her mind. “These are Paul’s private thoughts. I don’t think he meant for you to show them to me.”

  “Maybe not, but don’t you see? He needs some encouragement right now, and I think it should come from you.”

  Something deep within Sierra spoke to her again. Not a voice or a thought. Clearer than a feeling.

  Wait

  In that moment, it didn’t matter to Sierra that she was the youngest or the only one without a boyfriend. It didn’t even matter that she was wearing Christy’s dress. She was finally beginning to recognize her true identity. Bob’s quote from Augustine came back to her: “For He alone who made thee in His image can satisfy thee.”

  Reverently, Sierra folded the piece of paper. The gold band on right hand caught the light as she handed Paul’s letter back to Jeremy.

  “This may sound overly simple,” Sierra said, “but I believe God will meet Paul right where he is. And God’s the only One who can answer questions like these.”

  Jeremy looked at her for a moment, his handsome face expressionless. Then he said, “I think Paul would like to get a letter from you.”

  “Maybe he would,” Sierra said. Then, with a smile and a pat on Jeremy’s broad shoulder, she added, “Tell him to write me first.”

  With a swish, she turned and headed back to join the others. Sierra felt full of hope and confidence in God. She knew who she was. And she knew Whose she was.

  Whatever mysterious plan God had for her life, it would be an interesting one. As Christy had said earlier, God writes a different story for each person. Sierra decided hers might not be a bestseller or even a thriller. It certainly wasn’t a romance. But it was turning into a fine mystery. And she could live with that.

  FOLLOW SIERRA’S JOURNEY

  Happenstance… or God’s Great Plan?

  She’s the bold, free-spirited type. She’s cute, she’s fun, and she’s following God. She’s Sierra Jensen, Christy Miller’s good friend, ready for her junior year of high school! All twelve books in the popular Sierra Jensen series come together in four volumes to reveal the ups and downs of Sierra’s incredible God-led journey!

  Volume One: In Only You, Sierra, she’s nervous to be the “new girl” after her family moves to Portland and wonders if meeting Paul in London was only by chance. Just when everything important seems to elude her, all it takes is one weekend In Your Dreams to prove otherwise. But even a vacation doesn’t keep her troubles away in Don’t You Wish. Available Now!

  Volume Two: Paul’s voice lives in her memory, but now it’s loud, clear, and right behind her in Close Your Eyes. With summer fast approaching, it is Without a Doubt bound to be Sierra’s best yet. In With This Ring, she can’t help but ponder the meaning of first kisses and lifetime commitments. Available Now!

  Volume Three: An exciting trip to Europe challenges Sierra to Open Your Heart to loving others without expectations. At the start of her senior year, only Time Will Tell the truth about Sierra’s friendships. And in Now Picture This, she wonders if her relationship with Paul is as picture perfect as she thinks!

  Available July 2006!

  Volume Four: In this final volume, Sierra Jensen’s only just beginning the roller coaster of adventures leading up to college. Join her in this exciting, challenging time of faith and fun!

  Available August 2006!

  www.ChristyMillerAndFriends.com

  About the Author

  Robin Jones Gunn grew up in Orange County, California, where both her parents were teachers. She has one older sister and one younger brother. The three Jones kids graduated from Santa Ana High School and spent their summers on the beach with a bunch of “God-Lover” friends. Robin didn’t meet her “Todd” until after she had gone to Biola University for two years and spent a summer traveling around Europe.

  As her passion for ministering to teenagers grew, Robin assisted more with the youth group at her church. It was on a bike ride for middle schoolers that Robin met Ross. After they married, they spent the next two decades working together in youth ministry. God blessed them with a son and then a daughter.

  When her children were young, Robin would rise at 3 a.m. when the house was quiet, make a pot of tea, and write pages and pages about Christy and Todd. She then read those pages to the girls in the youth group, and they gave her advice on what needed to be changed. The writing process took two years and ten rejections before her first novel, Summer Promise, was accepted for publication. Since its release in 1988, Summer Promise along with the rest of the Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen series have sold over 2.5 million copies and can be found in a dozen translations all over the world.

  For the past twelve years, Robin has lived near Portland, Oregon, which has given her lots of insight into what Sierra’s life might be like in the Great Northwest. Now that her children are grown and Robin’s husband has a new career as a counselor, she continues to travel and tell stories about best friends and God-Lovers. Her popular Glenbrooke series tracks the love stories of some of Christy Miller’s friends.

  Robin’s bestselling Sisterchick novels hatched a whole trend of lighthearted books about friendship and midlife adventures. Who knows what stories she’ll write next?

  You are warmly invited to visit Robin’s websites at: www.robingunn.com, www.christymillerandfriends.com, and www.sisterchicks.com. ozen translations all over the world.

  Now that her children are grown and Robin’s husband has a new career as a counselor, Robin continues to travel and tell stories about best friends and God-Lovers. Her popular Glenbrooke series tracks the love stories of some of Christy Miller’s friends. Her books Gentle Passages and The Fine China Plate are dearly appreciated by mothers everywhere. Robin’s bestselling Sisterchicks novels hatch
ed a whole trend of lighthearted books about friendship and midlife adventures. Who knows what stories she’ll write next?

  You are warmly invited to visit Robin’s websites at: www.robingunn.com and www.sisterchicks.com. And to all the Peculiar Treasures everywhere, Robin sends you an invisible Philippians 1:7 coconut and says, “I hold you in my heart.”

  Excerpt from Secrets,

  Book One in Robin Jones Gunn’s Glenbrooke Series

  JESSICA MORGAN GRIPPED her car’s steering wheel and read the road sign aloud as she cruised past it. “Glenbrooke, three miles.”

  The summer breeze whipped through her open window and danced with the ends of her shoulder-length, honey-blond hair.

  “This is it,” Jessica murmured as the Oregon road brought her to the brink of her new life. For months she had planned this step into independence. Then yesterday, on the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, she had hit the road with the back seat of her used station wagon full of boxes and her heart full of dreams.

  She had driven ten hours yesterday before stopping at a hotel in Redding, California. After buying Chinese food, she ate it while sitting cross-legged on the bed watching the end of an old black-and-white movie. Jessica fell asleep dreaming of new beginnings and rose at 6:30, ready to drive another nine hours on her birthday.

  I’m almost there, she thought. I’m really doing this! Look at all these trees. This is beautiful. I’m going to love it here!

  The country road meandered through a grove of quivering willows. As she passed them, the trees appeared to wave at her, welcoming her to their corner of the world. The late afternoon sun shot between the trees like a strobe light, striking the side of her car at rapid intervals and creating stripes. Light appeared, then shadow, light, then shadow.

  As Jessica drove out of the grouping of trees, the road twisted to the right. She veered the car to round the curve. Suddenly the bright sunlight struck her eyes, momentarily blinding her. Swerving to the right to avoid a truck, she felt her front tire catch the gravel on the side of the road. Before she realized what was happening, she had lost control of the car. In one terrifying instant, Jessica felt the car skid through the gravel and tilt over on its side. Her seat belt held her fast as Jessica screamed and clutched the steering wheel. The car tumbled over an embankment, then came to a jolting halt in a ditch about twenty feet below the road. The world seemed to stop.

  Jessica tried to cry out, but no sound came from her lips. Stunned, she lay motionless on her side. She quickly blinked as if to dismiss a bizarre daydream that she could snap out of. Her hair covered half her face. She felt a hot, moist trickle coursing down her chin and an acidic taste filling her mouth. I’m bleeding!

  Peering through her disheveled hair, Jessica tried to focus her eyes. When her vision began to clear, she could make out the image of the windshield, now shattered, and the mangled steering wheel bent down and pinning her left leg in place.

  Suddenly her breath came back, and with her breath came the pain. Every part of her body ached, and a ring of white dots began to spin wildly before her eyes, whether she opened or closed them. Jessica was afraid to move, afraid to try any part of her body and find it unwilling to cooperate.

  This didn’t happen! It couldn’t have. It was too fast Wake up, Jess!

  Through all the cotton that seemed to fill her head, Jessica heard a remote crackle of a walkie talkie and a male voice in the distance saying, “I’ve located the car. I’m checking now for survivors. Over.”

  I’m here! Down here! Help! Jessica called out in her head. The only sound that escaped her lips was a raspy, “Ahhgg!” That’s when she realized her tongue was bleeding and her upper lip was beginning to swell.

  “Hello in there,” a male voice said calmly. The man leaned in through the open driver’s window, which was now above Jessica on her left side. “Can you hear me?”

  “Yeath,” Jessica managed to say, her tongue swelling and her jaw beginning to quiver. She felt cold and shivered uncontrollably.

  “Don’t try to move,” the deep voice said. “I’ve called for help. We’ll get you out of there. It’s going to take a few minutes, now, so don’t move, okay?”

  Jessica couldn’t see the man’s face, but his voice soothed her. She heard scraping metal above her, and then a large, steady hand touched her neck and felt for her pulse.

  “You had your seat belt on. Good girl,” he said. The walkie talkie crackled again, this time right above her.

  “Yeah, Mary,” the man said. “We have one female, mid-twenties, I’d say. Condition is stable. I’ll wait for the ambulance before I move her. Over.”

  Jessica felt his hand once more, this time across her cheek as he brushed back her hair. “How ya’ doin’? I’m Kyle. What’s your name?”

  “Jethica,” she said, her tongue now throbbing. From the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of dark hair and a tanned face.

  “I saw your car just as it began to roll. Must have been pretty scary for you.”

  Jessica responded with a nod and realized she could move her neck painlessly. She slowly turned her head and looked up into her rescuer’s face. Jessica smiled with surprise and pleasure when she saw his green eyes, straight nose, windblown dark hair, and the hint of a five o’clock shadow across his no-nonsense jaw. With her smile came a stabbing throb in her top lip and the sensation of blood trickling down her chin.

  “So, you can move a little, huh?” Kyle said. “Let’s try your left arm. Good! That’s great. How do your legs feel?”

  Jessica tried to answer that the right one felt okay, but the left one was immobile. Her words came out slurred. She wasn’t sure exactly what she said. Her jaw was really quivering now, and she felt helpless.

  “Just relax,” Kyle said. “As soon as the guys arrive with the ambulance, we’ll get you all patched up. I’m going to put some pressure on your lip now. Try breathing slowly and evenly like this.” Kyle leaned toward her. His face was about six inches from hers. He began to breathe in slowly through his nose and exhale slowly through his mouth. The distinct smell of cinnamon chewing gum was on his breath, which she found strangely comforting.

  Jessica heard the distant wail of an approaching siren. Within minutes she was in the middle of a flurry of activity. Some of the men began to stabilize the car while several others cut off the door to have more room to reach her. Soon a team of steady hands undid Jessica’s seat belt, removed the steering wheel, and eased her body onto a long board. They taped her forehead to the board so she couldn’t move her head, and one of the men wrapped her in a blanket. They lifted the stretcher and with sure-footed steps walked up the embankment and carried her to the ambulance.

  Jessica felt as if her eyelids weighed a hundred pounds. They clamped shut as her throbbing head filled with questions.

  Why? Why me? Why now, right on the edge of my new beginning?

  With a jolt, the men released the wheeled legs on the stretcher and slid Jessica into the back of the ambulance. One of them reached for her arm from underneath the blanket, and running a rough thumb over the back of her left hand, he asked her to make a fist.

  Another paramedic spoke calmly, a few inches from her head, “Can you open your eyes for me? That’s good. Now can you tell me where it hurts the most?”

  “My leg,” Jessica said.

  “It’s her left one.” Jessica recognized Kyle’s strong voice. His hand reached over and pressed against her upper lip once more.

  The siren started up, and the ambulance lurched out onto the road and sped toward the Glenbrooke hospital.

  As the stretcher jostled in the ambulance, the paramedic holding Jessica’s left hand said, “Keep your fist. This is going to pinch a little bit.” And with that an IV needle poked through the bulging vein on the top of her hand.

  “Ouch,” she said weakly.

  She felt a soft cloth on her chin and lips and opened her eyes all the way. Kyle smiled at her. With one hand he pressed against her lip, and with the other he wip
ed the drying blood from her cheek and chin.

  “Can you open your mouth a little? I need to put this against your tongue,” he said, placing a swab of cotton between her tongue and cheek. “The bleeding looks like it’s about to stop in there. Now if we can only get your lip to cooperate, you’ll be in good shape. We’ll be at the hospital in a few minutes. You doing okay?”

  Jessica tried to nod her head, but the tape across her forehead held her firmly in place. She forced a crooked, puffy-cheeked smile beneath the pressure of his hand on her lip.

  Jessica felt ridiculous, trying to flirt in her condition. Here was the most handsome, gentle man she had ever laid eyes on, and she was a helpless mess.

  He’s probably married and has six kids. These guys are trained to be nice to accident victims.

  The full impact of her situation hit Jessica. She was a victim. None of this was supposed to happen. She was supposed to enter Glenbrooke quietly and begin her new life uneventfully. Yes, even secretly. Now how would she answer the prying questions she was sure to receive at the hospital?

  As tears began to form in her eyes, she remembered that today was her birthday. Never in her life had she felt so completely and painfully alone.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE SIERRA JENSEN COLLECTION, VOLUME 2

  published by Multnomah Books

  A division of Random House, Inc.

  © 2006 by Robin’s Ink, LLC

  Compilation of:

  Close Your Eyes © 1996 by Robin’s Ink, LLC

  Without a Doubt © 1997 by Robin’s Ink, LLC

  The C. S. Lewis quotation is taken from C. S. Lewis, The World’s Last Night and Other Essays