“Well, thank you both,” Nessa said. “I have been hunched over a sewing machine all day, so I’m going for a long walk. See you later.”

She rounded the end of the house and stood at the edge of the path. Going left would take her to Jackson’s place, but showing up on his porch again so soon might seem awfully forward. Still, she would love to sit and talk to him some more. With a long sigh, she turned right and headed toward the waterfall.

The sound of water tumbling over the rocks brought back memories of all those times when she and her two cousins had run all the way from the house to the falls and jumped in without even a second thought. The race had decided who was the fastest, and the last one in was the loser. Pretty often Nessa, with her short legs, was the last one to dive into the cool creek water. She had never gotten to swim at home, unless the girls’ prayer group got to go on a retreat where there were only girls involved. Isaac believed that girls and boys swimming together in scanty bathing suits would cause all kinds of impure thoughts. Trouble, in a nutshell.

“Yeah, right,” Nessa muttered. “My one-piece bathing suit couldn’t be called scanty by any stretch of the word.”

Tex came around the curve in the path and shook himself, sending water flying everywhere. Nessa laughed and dropped to her knees to pet the dog. “I wish I could just jump in the water like you can. You don’t have to worry about a bathing suit or a towel.” She blushed at even the thought of skinny-dipping.

“Hey, do I hear voices?” Jackson yelled.

“It’s Nessa,” she called out. “Are you decent?”

“Enough for company.” Jackson’s laughter rang out. “Come on in, the water is great.”

She straightened up and started that way with Tex right beside her. “I didn’t wear my bathing suit, but”—she rounded the bend and caught sight of Jackson out there in the middle of the creek—“I will put my feet in.”

The dog took a running dive right into the water, paddling out to where Jackson was and then swimming in circles around him.

Lord have mercy! she thought as she plopped down on the grass, removed her shoes, and rolled up her jeans. His smile would make ice boil.

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Jackson swam over toward the bank, stood up when he could touch the bottom with his toes, and walked the rest of the way out of the water. Tex beat him to the grassy edge and gave Nessa a shower when he shook from head to toe.