“I haven’t seen you here in a whole week. I thought you were mad at me,” he said.

She pushed her wet hair out of her face. “I’ve been here every evening.”

“But did you get in the water or just sit on the bank?” Jackson swam over to the falls and climbed up to the top.

She followed him and sat down beside him. “I swam, but I wore a bathing suit, not my clothes.”

“Well, it couldn’t be any cuter than what you’re wearing now,” he said.

“If that’s your best pickup line, it’s no wonder you’re still a bachelor,” she told him.

“It’s not a pickup line,” he protested, “it’s the truth. Why didn’t you wear your bathing suit tonight?”

“I didn’t plan on swimming. I was just coming to the falls to think for a while,” she said. “I cleaned out the hall closet today. I always thought my grandmother was perfect. That’s why I’m here.”

“Because Miz Lucy was perfect?” Jackson asked. “I’m sorry to burst your bubble, darlin’, but nobody on this earth is perfect.”

“Don’t I know it,” she sighed. “Did you ever think that someone was?”

“Yep. I always thought Uncle D. J. was the greatest man on earth, but I found out different when I moved in with him,” Jackson answered. “He had his faults, and so did Miz Lucy.”

“I’m finding that out. When the court settled the issue of the will, I just knew I could find it—whatever it is—here in Blossom, because this is where I was happiest when I was a little girl. I’m beginning to think that whatever it is, it’s just an elusive dream anyway.”

Jackson nodded. “I feel you, but I’m five years ahead of you. I haven’t found ‘it’”—he put air quotes around the last word—“but I’m content, and I keep hoping that it, whatever it is, will find me if I sit still long enough. I read once that happiness, or it—whatever you want to call it—isn’t a destination, it’s the journey. What makes you think you won’t find it here in Blossom?”

“Finding out that Nanny Lucy wasn’t perfect has really, really burst my bubble. How can I find what I’m looking for when all these years I was wrong about this place?” she asked.