Jeremiah’s heart pounced around his chest as the blocks passed from Roasted to Shannon’s house, and then from there to the boardwalk where his practice sat next to Your Tidal Forever.
Just ask her, he told himself for probably the tenth time.
He’d always found Shannon Bell to be beautiful, exotic almost, and completely out of his reach. She wore blouses with flamingoes or horses or pineapples on them. She wore black or navy pencil skirts, or sometimes long, flowy dresses that brushed the sidewalk. If she wore pants, they were slacks, and he wondered what she’d look like in a pair of skinny jeans.
No, he told himself, banishing the fantasies from his mind. He barely knew Shannon, though he’d seen her in line at the coffee shop for years now. The day he’d realized she worked at Your Tidal Forever, a mere twenty feet from his office, had been a great one.
But had he done anything about his casual friendship with the lovely Shannon Bell?
Nope.
Absolutely not.
Because Jeremiah had spent a year getting over his fiancée and then he wasn’t sure how to ask Shannon out after twelve months of quick smiles and nods in the coffee line.
And now she was in his car, those black waves cascading over her shoulders and the scent of her fruity perfume seeping into the leather seats.
“So,” he said, wondering how he could learn more about her in the short time they’d be in the car together. “How long have you lived on Five Island Street?”
“Oh, about three years now,” she said, glancing at him. “You?”
“I’ve been there for a decade,” he said. “It’s a nice area.” He wanted to drive into the nearest lamppost so he wouldn’t have to continue this lame conversation.
“It is,” she said. “Are you from the island?”
“Yep,” he said, popping the P. “Sure am. I have one sister, and my parents live in the older area of the island at the end of Main Street.” He glanced at her. “They’re getting up there in age.”
“They are?” She looked fully at him now. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-nine,” he said. “My parents were both forty when they had me.”
If she was surprised by that, she didn’t show it. “Younger sister, huh?”
“Yeah, she’s a synchronized swimmer. You ever been to any of the shows on the island?”
Shannon shook her head, and he wondered if she did more than work and get coffee in the mornings.
“What about you?” he asked. “Siblings? Oldest? Youngest?”
“I’m the oldest. Two sisters. My parents live out on the highway toward the cattle ranch. Have for decades.” She nodded and nodded, and Jeremiah could sense her discomfort. So he definitely wasn’t going to be asking her to be his date to the recognition gala. But he needed a date….
He pulled into the parking lot the wedding planning place shared with his office, his time with Shannon coming to an end. “So,” he said. “This might be totally crazy, but the City Council is having this…thing that I have to go to, and I need a date. Are you busy next weekend?”
Shannon blinked, her deep, brown eyes soaking him up. Jeremiah let her too, and he wished his crush on this woman wasn’t quite so large. “Next weekend?” she asked. “Friday or Saturday?”
“It’s on Saturday night,” he said.
“And it’s a…thing?” Her eyes smiled at him, and he wondered if this was flirting. He wasn’t sure, because he hadn’t been out with anyone since Elaine, and she’d taken most of his heart with her when she’d left Getaway Bay.
“It’s a…dinner and a program,” he said. “The city is recognizing me for my work with kids.” He hated saying it out loud, but she’d asked.
“You’re getting the Getaway Bay Professional Dignitary Award?” Her eyes widened, and she leaned away from him and folded her arms. Jeremiah had taken a body language class a couple of years ago, and he knew the crossed arms weren’t good.
Or maybe they were. She looked playful and poised at the same time, and his blood ran a little hotter in his veins.
“Yes,” he said simply. “Dinner at six. Program after that. You’d need a nice dress. I’m wearing a tuxedo.”
“Is that so?” She grinned at him now, and Jeremiah kicked himself for not asking this woman out a year ago. “I have to check my schedule,” she said. “Sometimes my weekends are insane with weddings.”
“Ah, yes. Lots of weddings on the weekends.”
“Right.” She picked up her purse and took her coffee from the cup holder between them. He hurried to get out of the car with her, collecting the coffee for his employees from the backseat so he could walk with her. After all, she hadn’t said yes yet.
Don’t ask again, he told himself. She said she’d check her schedule.
“Anyway, let me know,” he said when she got close to the glass doors leading into Your Tidal Forever.
“I will.” She reached for the door handle. “Oh, wait.”
Jeremiah almost tripped over his feet he stopped so fast. “Yeah?”
“Maybe I should get your number, so I can text you if my Saturday is open.” She looked at him with those glittering eyes, and Jeremiah thought he would’ve given her anything she asked for.
“Sure,” he said, looking at the seven cups of coffee he held.
“Go ahead and say it,” she said. “I’ll text you, and then you’ll have my number.”
He recited it, and a moment later the device in his pocket buzzed. “I got it.”
“Great.” She watched him for another moment and then another, and then she cleared her throat and ducked into the building where she worked. It took every ounce of self-control Jeremiah had to keep walking to his own building, where he hit the handicapped button to get the doors open and himself inside with all that coffee.
He worked with six women, and yet he hadn’t been able to get a date to the gala. He had female neighbors. A few lifelong friends that he could’ve asked. But he hadn’t. He hadn’t specifically been thinking about asking Shannon until he’d seen her crouched down in front of that flat tire.
And while she was crumpled and sweaty—the first time he’d ever seen her that way—she was the most beautiful woman in the world in that moment. And the idea to ask her to the gala had entered his mind before he’d even asked her for help.
“Morning, Flo,” he said, setting the coffee on the counter in front of his receptionist. Three women worked behind the desk, keeping the files, making the appointments, and working with the insurance companies. He had a nurse who spoke the kids before he did, and another therapist worked in the same office as him. Kelsie mostly did art therapy with the children as an additional step of their treatment. She had a nurse as well, and Sunny rounded out the six women Jeremiah worked with.
Honestly, he could use a little testosterone sometimes. To get that, he went to the gym before work and afterward too. He worked out with a trainer in the morning, and he simply ran in the evenings.
“Hercules is in your office,” Flo said. “He was so sweet with my grandson last night.”
“I’m glad.” Jeremiah continued past the desk. “Did I beat Jerry in?”
“Tiffany’s with him,” she said. “He’s been here maybe five minutes.”
“And his mother didn’t come in?”
“She’s next door,” Flo said as she shuffled some folders around. “She said her daughter is getting engaged soon, and she wanted to get some information.”
“Hmm,” Jeremiah said, adding the information to his memory. Jerry was only eight, and he had five half-siblings from various relationships his mother had had over the years. She was not married to Jerry’s father and never had been. He had no full blood siblings, and he struggled to fit in anywhere, which had caused him problems at home, school, and church—and ultimately, led him to Jeremiah’s care.
He set the rest of the coffee on the desk down the hall where the others would get it and headed for his office. Upon opening the door, he expected to see a giant yellow lab waiting for him, and he wasn’t disappointed.
“Hey, Herc,” he said. “Did you have fun with Flo last night?”
The dog’s tail started to thump the floor and Jeremiah ran his fingers down Hercules’s back. “I asked Shannon out today. Can you believe it?” He collapsed into the chair behind his desk and sighed.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw her text. Thanks for the ride.
He assigned her name to the text, and he stared at his phone, wishing and hoping she’d text to say she was completely free on Saturday night. She didn’t, and he couldn’t even pretend to know what she did for Hope Sorensen.
He did know Hope had been through four assistants in a year’s time before Shannon had showed up. She was a bit intense and demanding, but Shannon had stayed and seemingly thrived at Your Tidal Forever.
Anytime, he tapped out and sent back. And if you need a ride home tonight too, just let me know.
She didn’t text before Tiffany knocked on the door and said, “All right, Jerry. Go on in. Told you Hercules would be here.”
The child entered and went straight to the lab, who sat there and let Jerry stroke him and play with his ears.
“How are you today?” Jeremiah asked without getting up. Most of his sessions were informal, and he just spoke to a child while they played with the dog or while they did homework.
“Fine,” Jerry said.
“I didn’t see your mom in the waiting room.”
“She went somewhere,” he said. “Said she’d be back before I was done.”
“Tell me something good that happened this week,” Jeremiah said, thinking that if he was in therapy, he’d be going on and on about Shannon Bell, whose number he now had in his phone.
When his midday appointment cancelled, Jeremiah sat in his office, looking out the window at the building next to his. Your Tidal Forever. Shannon was in there somewhere, and she still hadn’t answered him about a ride home. Or next Saturday.
His stomach growled, and he wanted to text her and see if she had time for lunch. “She doesn’t even have time to send a text,” he muttered to himself, finally standing up. He wasn’t going to text her again. He might be desperate to see her again, talk to her, smell that wonderful scent of her hair and skin, but he wasn’t going to let her know.
He’d been hiding his crush for a year. He could do it one more day.
“Who wants to walk down to Manni’s for tacos?” he asked the receptionists. “I’m buying.”
“I’ll go,” Michelle said. “I think these two are having a phone war.” She grinned at Flo and Janie, both women in their fifties. Sure enough, the phone rang, and Flo lunged for it at the same time Janie practically knocked the receiver off the cradle.
“Doctor Yeates’ office,” Janie said, a triumphant smile on her face. Flo rubbed her knuckles, which had taken some force from the phone as it skidded across Janie’s desk.
“Okay,” Jeremiah said brightly. “You and me, Michelle.” She worked on filing and insurance payments, which was a huge headache, Jeremiah knew. She was also closer to his age, with a boyfriend who worked out at the cattle ranch several miles outside the main part of the city.
“Bring me back the tuna bites,” Flo said. “And Janie will want the mahi mahi, since it’s Monday.”
“Monday special,” Jeremiah confirmed. “Tuna bites.” He and Michelle left the office, and though it was still March, the sun shone brightly over Getaway Bay. “So, how are things with Dan?”
Michelle sighed, which meant they weren’t good. But Jeremiah said nothing. He didn’t analyze his employees—or anyone else that wasn’t paying him.
“He’s going over to his mother’s again.”
“Well, she’s been injured, hasn’t she?”
“Oh, it was a pulled tendon in her foot,” Michelle said, like that was something simple that didn’t require any help.
“So we’re not liking Dan.”
“I just think he needs to cut the apron strings.”
“I think it’s the mother that usually does that,” Jeremiah said, casting a quick glance to the front door of Your Tidal Forever as they walked by.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Michelle said, putting her hand on Jeremiah’s arm. “A woman came by about an hour ago when you were with Max. She said she doesn’t need a ride home, because she’ll be…out somewhere?”
Jeremiah’s heart beat out of control. “Was it Shannon?”
“Yeah, that’s what she said her name was.” Michelle smiled at him and tossed her long, sand-colored hair over her shoulders. “And they were going out to Petals and Leis to get flowers. I think.”
“Okay,” Jeremiah said, his pulse settling back to normal. He trudged down the boardwalk that would take them to Manni’s and back, wondering when he’d be able to see Shannon again.
And why hadn’t she just texted him that she didn’t need a ride?
He frowned at the bluest sky in the world, thinking he probably better stuff his crush back into the box he’d been keeping it in for all these months.