She followed him back to the front door anyway, holding onto it with one hand while she tried to figure out what to do with the other. “Tell your mother thanks for the soup.”

  “I will.” He watched her, his gaze so intent, Shannon wanted to close her eyes so she wouldn’t have to keep looking into his. “See you tomorrow,” he said, and took a step back. He turned and went down a few steps before twisting toward her again.

  “Hey, Shannon?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Maybe we could go to lunch tomorrow.”

  And while the thought of lunch with him terrified her, Shannon found herself saying, “Sure, I’d like that.”

  He waved and went down the rest of the steps in front of her great aunt’s house, leaving Shannon to wonder if she’d completely lost her mind. First she was holding hands with him—no, first she’d told him things she hadn’t told anyone. Not even Riley or Charlotte. Besides her parents, no one knew about the things she’d suffered at Richard’s hand.

  She’d been kicking herself all day for what she’d told him and how she’d acted, but she obviously hadn’t scared him off.

  Yet, her mind whispered, and she worked to silence it. Jeremiah—Doctor Jeremiah Yeates—had a crush on her and had for a while now. She could like him. She could hold his hand. She was worthy of his attention.

  And she really wanted some of that soup and bread too, so she went into the kitchen and served herself some. The negative self-talk disappeared, and Shannon sat in the living room while her great aunt slept down the hall. She allowed herself to entertain fantasies about Jeremiah, and the two of them falling madly in love and getting married.

  Then she pulled back on the reins and grounded herself in reality. So he was handsome, kind, and employed. She’d held his hand once, and it was a long way from that to saying I do.

  “So you’ll start with lunch tomorrow,” she said aloud to the house. Then she pulled out her phone and started texting Riley for the following day’s schedule so she could make sure she had an hour in the middle of the day to see Jeremiah.

  When she arrived at Your Tidal Forever the following morning, Riley already sat at her desk. She stood so fast, the chair went flying into the wall behind her. “There you are,” she said, a huge grin covering her face. “You’re dating Jeremiah Yeates?”

  Shannon glanced toward Charlotte’s office and the hallway that led further into the building. “Shout it, why don’t you?”

  “Oh, I didn’t shout it.” Riley came around the desk. “I’m so happy for you, Shannon. You haven’t been out with anyone in ages.”

  Shannon groaned and chose to ignore the underlying meaning behind Riley’s words. “Don’t remind me. I have no idea how to act on a date.” She shook her hair back and gathered it into a ponytail. “And I’m not dating him. We’re…friends.”

  “Friends?” Riley’s pitched up terribly high.

  “Yeah,” Shannon said. “I mean, he asked me to go to his big recognition dinner next week, and we’re going to lunch today, but that’s not dating.” Sudden fear struck her. “Is it?”

  Riley grinned at her in the most wolfish way. “It sure is, Shannon.”

  “Well, we haven’t even been to lunch yet,” she said, walking toward the hallway that led down to her desk. “So technically, we haven’t started dating yet.”

  “Mm hmm,” Riley said, clearly not believing anything Shannon said. Which was fine. Shannon hardly believed herself. She put her purse in her bottom drawer and locked it, then settled in front of her laptop to pull up Hope’s schedule for today.

  She had a new bride consultation at eleven that she’d need the prep work for, and Shannon spun in her chair to pull it from the filing cabinet behind her. She put together every bride consultation folder, and she’d done this one last week.

  Margaret Miller, who went by Maggie. She was marrying a man from the other side of the island, and their budget was small. But she wanted beach, and she wanted custom, and Shannon pulled a purple sticky note from the pad and wrote Hillary on it.

  Hope wanted her recommendation for who to assign each bride to, and Hillary had just finished a wedding two weeks ago and had room in her schedule for another bride.

  After placing that folder on the corner of her desk, she sorted through Hope’s emails, flagging the ones that required her boss’s attention. She answered any she could to keep them off Hope’s plate, and she flat-out deleted others.

  By the time Hope herself walked through the door, Shannon had her office open with a tray of individually wrapped fruit candies in a bowl, and the consultation folder on the round table where she met with potential new clients.

  “The meeting with the city small business owners was moved to one-thirty,” she said, placing a message about it on Hope’s desk. “And Maggie and her sister Libby will be here in an hour.” She nodded to the folder.

  “Thank you, Shannon,” Hope said, dropping her purse on her desk and looking at the message. “I’ll get Aiden over to that meeting. His shoot was moved to this evening, as the bride wanted sunset photos for her announcement.” She rolled her eyes and exhaled, as if the sunsets in Hawaii were too tacky for engagement announcements.

  Shannon paused, waiting for her next assignment. Hope usually fired them off quickly, and Shannon had learned not to leave her office until she sat down.

  “I’ll need a report on those flowers from the other night,” she said. “I want it broken down by cost in three options for Vivian.”

  “I’ve started on that and I’ll have it to you by the end of today,” Shannon said.

  Hope gave her a grateful smile. “And we need to call The Lion House and make sure they have room in their catering schedule for our company party.” She moved around to her chair, but didn’t sit.

  “Company party?” Shannon asked.

  “Yes.” Hope looked at her. “I’ve never done one, and I’d like to. I love all the people who work for me, and we need a way to recognize them, don’t you think?”

  “Sure,” Shannon said.

  “I’m thinking Fourth of July,” Hope said, finally lowering herself into her seat. “Obviously not the day of, as people will be busy with their families, and we always seem to have a zillion weddings the first week of July. But sometime in there. Look at the calendar, would you? Find a date. Get The Lion House to cater it. Put together a plan for the celebration.”

  Shannon froze, her brain trying to catch up to her ears. “Me? You want me to put together a plan for the celebration?”

  Hope smiled, and this time it was more motherly. “Yes, Shannon. You’re the best assistant I’ve ever had, and I trust you. You know what I like.”

  Shannon did know what Hope liked. More importantly, she knew what Hope did not like.

  “And besides,” Hope said. “I won’t be around forever, and Aiden and I don’t have kids….” She turned and glanced out the window, looking at something Shannon could only imagine. She sighed and looked at her desk. “And we’ve worked so hard on this place, and I’d hate to just see it disappear.”

  Shannon took a couple of quick steps forward and froze again. “And you think, I mean, you want…me to run it?”

  Hope shrugged one shoulder, a knowing smile on her face. “You’d do a great job.” She straightened, the moment clearly over. “But it’s probably years away. I just think it would be nice to have someone to help out a little more.” She turned to her computer, the conversation clearly over.

  “I’ll look at the calendar,” Shannon said, nodding and getting out of the office as quickly as she could. Back at her desk, she collapsed into her chair, her mind spinning in a dozen different directions.

  Hope wanted her to plan an event by herself. The company party—the first one Your Tidal Forever had ever done. During peak wedding season.

  So venue, food, entertainment. All the moving parts moved through Shannon’s mind, and she started typing them out into a to-do list on her laptop. She didn’t want to overlook one single detail.

  She answered Riley’s call when Maggie arrived, and she clicked down the hall to meet the sandy-haired woman. She showed her and Libby to Hope’s office, where her boss had absolutely everything ready and memorized.

  She didn’t normally take a lunch until much later, and Hope would be with Maggie and Libby for at least an hour. Shannon glanced at her desk, where her cell phone sat face-down. Could she call Jeremiah and see if he could go to lunch now?

  Probably not, she thought, her hope deflating. Hope often buzzed out to Shannon’s desk to ask for something, be it a pricing quote or a picture of one of their previous events or simply to get the bride-to-be a drink.

  So she settled back at her desk and tapped out a quick message to him instead. What time were you thinking you could go to lunch?

  Hope’s schedule for the day was wide open after Maggie and Libby left, and surely Shannon would have an hour she could sneak away for tacos with the handsome doctor.

  His text came back quickly and made her smile. My last client finishes as one. Anytime after that, and I’m yours.

  I’m yours.

  Shannon lifted her eyes from the words and stared at the wall across from her desk. Did she want Jeremiah Yeates to be hers? She’d liked the way his hand fit in hers. Liked the way he showed up at his parents’ house to do their yard work and take their neighbor homemade chicken noodle soup.

  She liked his easy-going demeanor and that he’d had a secret crush on her. She thought about how she’d seen him walking with that woman he worked with, and how she’d touched his arm, making a flare of jealousy come alive in Shannon’s heart.

  She definitely didn’t want him going out with someone else, holding someone else’s hand, or giving them flirtatious smiles in the line for coffee.

  So yes, after several minutes of over-analyzing, Shannon decided she wanted Doctor Jeremiah Yeates to be hers.

  She wasn’t sure how long she’d been thinking, but she startled when her phone buzzed and Hope asked, “Shannon, can you bring me the Robison wedding file, please?”

  Chapter Six

  The numbers on the clock had never moved so slowly. Jeremiah thought that surely God was playing a trick on him and actually making time go backward. Shannon had texted a couple of times, and they were planning to meet outside their buildings just after one.

  Jeremiah was seriously considering taking the rest of the day off completely. He didn’t have any kids coming in, though he did have paperwork and files to go over. So much paperwork. If he didn’t come back and use the afternoon to get caught up, he’d pay for it later.

  He honestly wasn’t sure he cared. Lunch with Shannon was a more exciting prospect, and the day was perfect for surfing. Finally deciding, when he took Taylor’s file back to Michelle, he said, “After Porter, I’m going to lunch and then I’ll be gone the rest of the day.”

  Janey and Flo looked at him too, though there wasn’t much surprise in their eyes. “All right,” Janey said at the same time as Michelle.

  “What’s my first appointment tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Kelli at nine-thirty,” Flo said without missing a beat. “And it’s my birthday and you promised there would be cake.” She smiled at him, and it warmed Jeremiah all the way through. He loved the ladies he worked with.

  “Oh, there will be cake.”

  “Am I taking Hercules tonight?” Janey asked, and Jeremiah switched his attention to her.

  “Can I take him instead?”

  “Sure. I don’t think my grandson can come tonight anyway.”

  “Great, thanks.” Jeremiah didn’t normally mind farming out Hercules to whoever needed him. But for some reason, Jeremiah felt like he needed the therapy dog that night. He knocked twice on the counter before turning and returning to his office. Five minutes later, he felt a year had passed. Tiffany knocked on the door and said, “Go on in, Porty.”

  The little blonde boy came in, his stuffed alligator clutched against his chest.

  “Oh, you brought Allen,” Jeremiah said, smiling at the child. “Did he want to see my newest trick?”

  Porter nodded, his big blue eyes wide as Tiffany brought the door closed, leaving the doctor alone with his patient.

  “All right.” Jeremiah cleared his throat. “But I’m still working on it, so you better tell him not to be upset if it doesn’t work.”

  Porter glanced down at the alligator and whispered something to him. It had been Kelsie’s idea to get the stuffed animal for Porter, who had a very difficult time talking to adults. He’d been in foster care for a year now, and his latest family seemed to really love him.

  “Is he ready?” Jeremiah asked, smiling at the boy.

  Porter nodded and Jeremiah opened the top drawer in his desk. “All right then. Come on over here. Make sure you can both see.” He waited for the boy to come closer, and he adjusted his cards so the trick would work.

  “Okay.” He shuffled the cards, which were covered with blue patterns on one side and had cartoon characters and numbers on the other. He fanned them out. “Pick a card. Look at it real good. Show it to Allen.”

  Porter did as he was instructed, and Jeremiah swept the unchosen cards up and made a spot for Porter’s card, quickly marking it as he put it in the pile.

  “Okay, so sometimes we have to really watch what’s going on around us,” Jeremiah said. “And if we don’t like it, we tell someone we trust.” He switched his gaze to Allen. “Right, Allen? Who would you tell?” He cocked his head toward the stuffed animal and said, “Porter. Of course. I think I could’ve guessed that.”

  He flipped over a card. It wasn’t Porter’s. “Is this your card?”

  “No,” Porter said, and Jeremiah knew today was going to be a good session. After all, Porter had just spoken to him and it had taken less than five minutes.

  He flipped another card and immediately swept it off the desk. “That’s not it either.” He looked at Porter, who smiled. “Wait. Was that it?”

  “No.” Porter giggled, and Jeremiah wanted to scoop up the six-year-old and tell him he was going to be okay.

  “Who would you tell if you saw something that made you upset?” he asked, still shuffling the cards. He took a peek at one, made a face, and tossed it away too. “Not that one.”

  “I’d tell you,” Porter said. “Or my mom.”

  Jeremiah almost dropped the whole deck of cards. He caught himself and kept them moving. “All right. Let’s see if I can get the right card this time.” He flipped over five cards and asked, “Is it one of those?”

  Porter’s eyes rounded, and he nodded. “Yeah, it’s there.”

  “Allen? Is he fibbing?” Jeremiah grinned at the alligator, and then he pointed to the mouse holding a pie with an eight-shaped candle in the middle of it. “It’s this one.”

  “Yes.” Porter looked from the card to him. “How’d you do that, Doctor Yeates?”

  “It’s magic, Porty. I can’t tell you how I did it. It just…gets done.” He swept all the cards back into a deck and put them back in the drawer. “Did you draw anything with Miss Kelsie last week?”

  “No.”

  “Hmm. Well, what are we going to do today then?” Jeremiah grinned at him. “I know. How about you tell me about your mom? That must be going good.”

  “She made me a birthday cake,” he said.

  “That’s right,” Jeremiah said, deciding to circle back to the fact that Porter had called Linda Lowry his mother when it had always been Linda in the past. “It was your birthday on Saturday.” He pulled open another desk drawer and pulled out a box wrapped in blue paper. “Allen almost forgot to remind me last time, remember?”

  Porter stared at the gift. “You got me something?”

  “Yep.” Jeremiah pushed the box closer to him. “But I want you to peek at it first, and don’t let Allen see. He might not like it, and you’ll need to decide what to do.”

  Porter took his hands off the stuffed alligator—something he rarely did—and reached for the box. The top lifted right off, and he tilted it at an angle so that Allen couldn’t see in. Then he looked at Jeremiah again.

  “Well?” Jeremiah asked. “What do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “They could be friends.” Jeremiah leaned forward. “Like you and your mom are.”

  “My mom loves me,” Porter said. “And she said if I wanted to, she and Daddy could adopt me.”

  “Is that right?” Jeremiah asked, happiness swelling inside him. “And what do you think of that?”

  “I don’t know,” Porter said.

  “Hmm.” Jeremiah leaned away from the boy. “It sounds like you have some decisions to make.” He nodded toward the box. “Sometimes those are easy, and sometimes they’re hard.”

  “What should I do?” he asked.

  “Oh, now that’s like the magic trick. I can’t tell you what to do. But remember how we talked about what we feel in our hearts?”

  Porter nodded, pressing his lips together.

  Jeremiah pulled open his drawer of tricks and retrieved a piece of gum for the kid. Porter snatched it up and started unwrapping it.

  “And what does your heart tell you about…you know.” He nodded to the box.

  “I think Allen would like having a friend. I might could leave him at home if he had someone to play with.”

  Jeremiah nodded. “All right. I can see that. And your mom and dad?”

  “I like them.”

  “You want to live with them forever? Have them be your family?”

  Porter looked at Jeremiah for a long, long time. Finally he said, “My heart says yes.”

  “All right then. Why don’t you take that new friend out and introduce him to Allen? I’ll go get your mom.” Jeremiah stood up as Porter took out the new stuffed animal—a frog about the same size as the alligator.

  He made it to the door before he heard Porter say, “Allen, this is Fiona. She is so nice, and you guys are going to be great friends.”

  Later, as he stood in the sunshine and waited for Shannon to exit the building, he thought he should probably listen to his heart a little more too. It had hurt for so long, he’d sort of forgotten how.