“How can it heal me when this is the place that broke me to begin with? I guess the only way to answer that question is to give it a try.” April sighed. “Am I coming back to mend the break or to make peace with the fact that it will never heal?”

More than a dozen years ago, when she was eighteen, she’d driven away in the same car that she’d come back to Blossom in that day. The vehicle had not had as many dings in it back then, and the upholstery had been in good shape. But the car, like the owner, had been through some rough times over the years. She’d driven away with high hopes of making it big and returning to Blossom to rub Nanny Lucy’s nose in her success. All she’d done was prove her grandmother right. God only knew she wasn’t in any better shape these days than the ripped seats in her vehicle.

She could get another job and start over like she’d done so many times, but that would just start the vicious cycle all over again. She would work awhile, get involved with a sorry excuse of a man, let him take advantage of her, and lose everything. It was like alcoholism or an addiction to gambling. Each time she would tell herself she was going to get it right this time, and yet she never did. Then, after the last time around, when she was down and out, she’d seen a quote on a plaque in a convenience store: “What you call rock bottom, I call rebirth.”

If it hadn’t cost almost ten dollars, she would have bought it and laid it on her dashboard. After that, every time she thought of the plaque, she wished she had purchased it.

She opened the car door, but since the air conditioner had quit years ago, there was no difference between the inside and outside air. “You told me when I left the day after high school graduation that you hoped I would have regrets about my decision. Well, you were right, and I do, Nanny Lucy. I just hope that this is the beginning of my rebirth process. This time around I will learn to love myself and get off this roller coaster of destruction.”

The last guy she’d let into her life had yelled, “You are the problem, not me!” as he stormed out of her apartment. That probably hadn’t been true in his case, but the words had stuck in her head, and she’d realized that until she learned to love and accept herself, she was never going to be at peace.

Flynn pulled his big, shiny black truck in on one side of her car, and Nessa parked her dark-blue SUV on the other.