Easter Blessings by Lenora Worth

tense.”
    “Simon?”
    “Simon Cassidy, my boyfriend—back in Dallas.”
    Heath let that soak in. “Your grandmother never mentioned you had a boyfriend.”
    “She doesn’t like Simon. She thinks he’s too shallow and self-centered.”
    “Is he?”
    “Well, I didn’t think so at first. Granny met him when she came over to Dallas to visit me, and I brought him here a couple of times, but she’s never held him in very high esteem. After he made some derogatory remarks about White Hill being ‘Hicksville,’ I defended him to her. He’s always lived in the city, so he can’t know about life on a farm. But then I started seeing some of the things she’d already figured out. He is shallow and self-centered. So now I’m questioning my judgment.”
    “What happened? I mean, why did you take a leave of absence and come here?”
    She didn’t answer him for a minute, but then sheshrugged. “I got overwhelmed at work. I got a raise and big promotion. I guess I thought I’d finally made it. But you know that old saying, ‘Be careful what you ask for.”’
    Heath nodded. “I know it well. I guess we all experience that at one time or another.”
    She nodded. “Well, I’m experiencing that now. I’ve been burning the midnight oil for over a year now, but I’ve felt restless, the way you said you felt after your father died.”
    Heath placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans, then rocked back on his brogans. “Sometimes, when we finally have everything we think we want right there in front of us, it’s still not enough. In my case, I had a good steady job doing what I enjoyed, then I lost my father. It threw me, made me feel empty and…unsettled.”
    “That’s right.” She bobbed her head. “I had something good happen, yet I still felt empty inside. Why is that?”
    He took her by the arm again, then guided her up the path to the porch steps. All around them, spring was in bloom. The hot pink azaleas danced in the dusk along the porch railing, holding court over the bright orange and yellow day lilies just beginning to bloom in the rounded beds on each side of the house. Off in the woods, white-petaled dogwood trees sprung out like clusters of popcorn among the oaks and pines.
    Heath settled down on a step, then patted the spot beside him. He watched as Mariel reluctantly sank down against the sturdy railing. “I wish I knew the answer to your question. I believe we all start out searching for something, but we wind up finding something else entirely.”
    She reached out a hand to touch a vibrant red tulip blooming near the bottom step. “It’s as if I was constantly spinning, always rushing toward the next goal. I buzzed through college, then worked long, hard hours at my job. I think…after Simon and I had this latest fight, I startedwondering what I was trying to prove. Was I doing all of this because it made me happy, or was I just after the recognition, the salary, the image I wanted others to see? Simon said I was being silly, that I’d be crazy to walk away from my job, my lifestyle, in Dallas just to come home on a whim because my grandmother had requested it. And he said I’d be crazy to walk away from him, too. He implied I was lucky to have him.”
    This Simon fellow sounded like a real piece of work. Heath was beginning to see why she couldn’t trust him. “And what did you tell Simon?”
    “I told him to give me some time and some space. And I told him I was taking all of my vacation to come home to White Hill, instead of going to Cozumel with him.”
    Heath glanced over at her, then leaned close. “You stopped spinning.”
    She looked up, her hands tucked around her waist as she leaned forward. “Yes, I stopped spinning. And since I’ve been here, I’ve stopped feeling guilty, too. Granny needs me now. I’m glad I came.”
    “You said you came home. Do you consider White Hill your home?”
    Lowering her head, she said, “This place has been more of a home to me than any of