Rose Dawson walked into her Grandmama's room after asking if she could wear one of her necklaces. Her Grandmama was downstairs making dinner and she told her not to take too long and to come right back down after she found one she wanted to wear. Rose always liked looking through her grandmama's jewelry. Her grandpop hadalways bought her the nicest things and that included the nicest jewelry. Rose loved wearing them and her Grandmama didn't mind letting her wear them either. Rose opened the large cherry wood jewelry box and reached in, pulling out the silver chain with the blue heart stone at the end. Her grandmama didn't wear it that often, but Rose did like it a lot. It was very pretty, but her grandmama said it was very old. She had to be careful with it, but her Grandmama would never tell her she could never wear any of her pieces of jewelry. She stood in front of the large mirror atop of the dresser putting the necklace on over the top of her head, smiling as it came down, hanging over her neck. It was gorgeous, probably the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen in her entire life. Rose saw a book on the bed behind her reflected in the mirror and turned to look at it. It was a scrap book, photo album type book. Smiling, she crawled up on the book and opened it to look at the pages. She saw pictures of her grandmama and grandpop smiling back from the pages. She'd never seen these pictures before and had to wonder why. She'd never even seen this book. They were from a long time ago, from when they were younger than her mommy.

"Gabriella Rose Dawson, I thought I told you to come right back down after you found a necklace?" Rose heard her grandmama's voice coming from the stairs and she quickly shut the book, but she couldn't scoot off the bed fast enough and away from the book before her Grandmama came into the room and was caught red handed. Her grandmama's eyes narrowed in on her, but what she couldn't see was the smile hiding behind her grandmama's dark brown eyes. Rose's eyes were a hazel green color she had gotten from her father, something no one in this family had. Rose's mother had blue eyes like Rose's daddy, like Rose's grandpop. Rose's grandmama moved more into the room, closer to Rose sitting on the bed. "Were you looking at that book, Gabriella Rose?" Rose looked back at the book and then back at her grandmama, nodding slowly. "It looked so pretty, Grandmama. I couldn't help but look at it!" Rose's grandmama sat down on the bed, pulling rose up onto her lap. "Would you like to look at it with me?" Rose looked up into her Grandmama's face, smiling brightly and nodding her head, her long, dark braided pig tails moving with her head. "Yes, please. And will you tell me the story?" Rose's grandmama laughed. "The story? What makes you think there's a story?" she asked, pulling the photo album over onto her lap with the two of them. Rose looked up into her grandmama's dark pools of loving eyes. "Grandmama, your picture books always have stories!" Rose giggled and her grandmama opened the book. "Alright, my precious one," she said, kissing the top of her granddaughter's head. "I will tell you about the trip where your grandpop and I met."

Rose looked down at the first pictures in the book. Her grandmama always arranged pictures in her scrapbooks in her albums in the order of how events happened. "Where's Grandpop, Grandmama?" Her grandmama looked over the first page smiling down at Rose. "I didn't know your grandpop yet, Precious," she told her, shaking her head. "Look a little closer. Do you see my necklace in these photos?" Rose looked at all the photos on the page and then back up at her grandmama, shaking her own little head, her braids flipping back and forth. "Nope. You didn't always know Grandpop?" Her grandmama laughed at Rose, hugging the little girl tenderly. "Gracious me, little one, no. It was on this trip that I met your grandpop and he bought me both the Heart of the Ocean, but he gave me this necklace," Grandmama said, running her fingers over the T charm that hung from the simple chain around her neck. "It was something his father gave him when he was born and it was the only thing he had from either of his parents to remember them by." Rose nodded her head. "Because they died when he was a really young kid, younger than me." Her grandmama nodded her head softly. "That's right, Gabriella Rose. Did you want me to tell you the story now, precious one?"

Rose nodded, leaning back in her grandmama's arms. "Who's that funny looking man?" Rose didn't sense that her grandmama was holding back her own little giggle as she giggled looking down at a picture of her grandmama and a man who was a good foot taller than her. He had his arm wrapped around her shoulders and they seemed to be happy, well he did. She seemed to be thinking. She had been. Gabriella had been engaged to be married to the man. She was only 23 at the time and she wasn't even sure what she had wanted at the time, but when he had asked her to marry him, she didn't feel like no was the right answer. So yes was the one she had given him. They had decided to celebrate by going on a cruise together. But did she really want to go away with him? And was it the right decision? That was what she had been thinking in that picture. "His name was Noel, sweetie. Noel Jackman. Grandmama was actually going to marry him before she met Grandpop." Rose's eyes shot wide open and she turned her head to look back at her grandmama, mouth as wide as can be. "You were in love before Grandpop!" Grandmama, shook her head, smoothing down the hair on top of her grandbaby's head. "Just sit back and I'll tell you the story. Dinner won't be ready for a while. We have plenty of time, and when I'm all done, you'll understand a whole lot more why I love your grandpop." She kissed her granddaughter's forehead, hugging her gently before the little girl turned back forward, looking down at the photos again, listening as her grandmama began telling her the story of how she and her grandpop met on the cruise that changed both of their lives.