No amount of research could’ve prepared me for what it would feel like to stand here. To be close enough to touch her. And I swear I can smell the lemon and lavender soap she fell in love with in Paris. I want to know if she still uses it. I want to know if she’s found an American substitute, or if down-to-earth, practical Shay pays to have fancy Parisian soaps shipped to her in Jackson Harbor.

I sent her a box of it for her twenty-fifth birthday, and the store contacted me a month later letting me know it had been returned. Would I like to send it to another address?

I didn’t bother. Message received.

“How’s the dissertation coming?” I ask her now. It’s hard to free myself from the tangle of memories when she smells like my favorites.

“Whoa!” Levi says, making a face.

Carter shakes his head and stage-whispers, “We aren’t allowed to ask that question until after she defends.”

Shay rolls her eyes at her brothers. “It’s fine. I just don’t like to be harassed about it, and for a while there, these guys thought I’d finish faster if they just asked more.” She gives a pointed look to each of her brothers, as if daring them to deny it. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“You’re planning to defend this spring?” I ask. I want her attention so badly that I feel like a fiend, but her curt nod tells me the desire to catch up doesn’t go both ways. If I were wise, I’d let it go, but I can’t.

“Easton, it’s so good to see you! I always knew fate would lead you back home,” Mrs. Jackson says, forcing me to turn away from my study of the woman I’ve missed so damn much.

I open my arms and wrap my surrogate mother in a hug. Her hair is shorter than she used to wear it. Carter tells me that’s because she lost it fighting cancer, and when it grew back, she decided she liked it short. “It’s good to see you, Mrs. Jackson.”

“Please, you can call me Kathleen now.”

“That’s sweet of you, Mrs. Jackson.”

She chuckles and pulls back, rubbing my arm. “I was so sorry to hear about your mother passing.”

I nod. “Me too. Thank you.”

She looks around. “Where’s Abigail this morning?”

“She’s back in L.A. with her nanny. I have a lot of business to take care of on this trip, and I didn’t want to overwhelm her with everything else going on.”