Jeremiah rose early and worked and worked and worked so he wouldn’t have much energy left to stew over Shannon. He kept Hercules to himself, because he couldn’t stand to be alone once he made it home.
Flo and Janey kept giving him glances when he came in, but they didn’t say anything. He still delivered their coffee, and life went on.
It always did.
He sighed and turned away from the window in his office. His next patient was ten minutes late, and he finally got up and went out to reception to see what was going on.
“Tanner’s not coming?” he asked.
“Oh, his mom called a few minutes ago,” Flo said. “Sorry. Things got crazy, and I forgot to come tell you.”
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“She said he had a chess thing come up.”
Jeremiah nodded, suddenly with almost another hour added to his lunch. “I’m going out for a bit,” he said.
No one asked him where he was going. He almost wanted them to, because then maybe he could get out some of his frustrations. He’d been pushing himself physically by working at his parents’ house and working out at the gym. It had been a little over two weeks since the beach house incident, and he wondered how much longer he could endure this loneliness.
His steps slowed as he passed the office building where Your Tidal Forever was, thinking maybe if he stopped, Shannon would come out and throw herself into his arms. He’d laugh, and she’d kiss him, and they’d walk down the beachwalk together, ready for lunch.
Of course, none of that happened. No one exited the building, and Jeremiah kept walking, his hands shoved down in his pockets. It was so hot in his suit, so he loosened his tie as he got behind the wheel. With the longer lunch, he decided to drive out to the ranch and get a burger.
The wind in his hair felt great, and he wondered if he could cancel his afternoon appointments too. He dismissed the idea quickly, because it was much easier for him to simply banish the thought than entertain it. Otherwise, he would’ve cancelled all of his appointments over the past two weeks and hibernated.
No, that wasn’t true. He hated his empty house, so maybe he would’ve gotten on a plane and left the island for a little bit. Tried to figure out where he’d gone wrong with Shannon. Because he hadn’t tried to be her therapist, even though that was what she thought.
He needed to apologize for that, because it didn’t really matter what he’d intended. It was how she’d taken it that mattered.
He also hadn’t thought his job more important that hers. They both had busy lives; he knew that. He understood it.
He managed to make it through lunch without really tasting his food or even remembering when he’d ordered. Thoughts of Shannon consumed him, and as he set his car back toward town, he forced himself to go over what he had to do the rest of the day.
Two therapy sessions. Paperwork. Then over to his parents’ to mow their lawn. Then he’d stop by the new ice cream shop for a cone before heading home.
“You can do this,” he muttered to himself as he eased onto Main Street and got trapped in all the lunchtime traffic. And he could. He knew he could. He just wished he didn’t have to do so much alone.
He was so tired of being alone.
The sessions passed. He got all the paperwork done. He drove to his parents’ house and pulled in behind Suzie’s car. “She’s going to try to take you home tonight,” he said to Hercules. “You don’t let her, okay?” But it wasn’t really up to Herc, and Jeremiah knew that if his sister even looked at him, he’d say she could take his dog home with her.
As he walked up the sidewalk toward the front steps, something seemed odd about the place. He couldn’t put his finger on it at first, and then he realized the lawn had already been mowed.
Edged too. The flowerbeds had no weeds in them. In fact, they’d been newly barked, something he was planning to do later in the fall.
He frowned, wondering if one of the neighbor’s had come by to help out. He wasn’t sure why they would. They all knew he came every week to tend to the yard. And if his parents had done this…frustration pulled through him. They were too old to be out in this heat, doing yard work.
He hurried up the steps now and pushed open the front door. “Mom?” he called. “Dad? Why’s the lawn already mowed?” Suzie wouldn’t have done it. She rehearsed ten hours a day and had always claimed she owed Jeremiah “big time” for all the work he did around their parents’ house.
No one answered him, and that only irritated him further. He glanced down the hall, but decided the better bet was the backyard. Sure enough, his mother sat in the shade, a glass of lemonade on the round table beside her. In fact, there were three more glasses of lemonade.
“Mom?” he said at the same time his ears picked up voices from around the side of the house. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what Jeremiah does,” his dad said, and Jeremiah didn’t wait for his mother to answer him. He caught sight of Suzie coming out of the shed at the back of the house, and the fact that she wore gardening gloves almost made him trip over his own feet.
“Suzie?”
“Jeremiah,” she said, panic streaming across her face. “You’re early.”
“Am I?” He looked at her, trying to put pieces together he couldn’t quite see.
“Jeremiah’s here,” she practically yelled, and every alarm inside him went off.
“Did you mow the lawn?” he asked, realizing the backyard had been trimmed too.
“No,” she said.
“Then who did?”
Suzie grinned and nodded to something behind him. Jeremiah turned, and the something became a someone.
“Shannon.” He didn’t mean to say her name with so much reverence. It just came out that way. She wore a pair of cutoff jeans and a tank top the color of the sky on a beautiful summer day. She was gorgeous, standing there with her waves of dark hair in a messy bun.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“What do you think I’m doing here?” She lifted the weed eater, and Jeremiah’s heart danced and withered at the same time.
“Why are you mowing my parent’s lawn?”
“Why do you think I’m mowing their lawn?”
Jeremiah sighed. “Is this some sort of sick game? I’m not interested in playing it.”
She looked at his father and then back to him. “I came to do something for you.”
“For me?” He was suddenly so thirsty, and nothing was making sense.
“I’ve been thinking a lot the past couple of weeks, since we, you know, broke up.”
“I can’t believe you two broke up,” Suzie said.
Jeremiah growled at her, sensing that something very big was about to happen.
“Sorry,” she said.
Shannon didn’t look away from him as she took a step forward. Seeing her in sneakers was a new experience for him, as she usually wore sandals or heels. Oh, how he’d missed her, and his heart kept tapping out an irregular rhythm.
“I’m feeling more like myself lately,” Shannon said. “And the thing that’s helped the most isn’t therapy. It’s serving others. Getting out there and making a difference. And I’ve learned that I’m happier when I’m helping others.”
Jeremiah didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing, or a therapist-y thing, so he just nodded.
“And I want to be happy,” Shannon said, still advancing toward him. “So I’ve been searching for more opportunities to get out there and make a difference.”
He nodded again, aware that a dog had started barking. And it was very close to them—in fact, as he turned, he found the smoky gray dog in the yard with them.
“That’s Shiloh,” Shannon said. “He calms down once he gets to know you.” She held out her hand, and Shiloh bent his head submissively and came over to her. “This is Jeremiah, the man I’ve been telling you about.” She glanced at Jeremiah. “I adopted him after the Strut Your Mutt event.”
Jeremiah’s eyebrows went up. “You did?”
“He’s been with me for three days now. I think we’re getting along.” She smiled, and it undid all of Jeremiah’s carefully planned defenses.
Their eyes met, and he was sure she could see every feeling he had for her. Her face softened, almost crumpled, and she said, “I’m so sorry, Jeremiah. I’m not exactly sure where the breakdown was in our relationship, but I want to fix it.” She swallowed and looked at Suzie, who nodded as if they’d rehearsed this speech together.
Shannon lifted her head and said, “I love you, Jeremiah Yeates, and I want to make things work. I’m trying to be myself, and I want to be happy, and you make me the happiest.”
Jeremiah’s own happiness burst out of the box where it had been hiding, and he swept forward and took her into his arms. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, his lips brushing hers with the words.
Then he kissed her, right in front of his parents and Suzie, who all cheered and clapped.
“Is this real?” he murmured, the scent of her perfume, her skin, as well as freshly cut grass, in his nose. She felt real in his arms, and he simply couldn’t get enough of her.
“Oh, it’s real,” Shannon said. “And I need your help with the line in this weed eater. Your dad insists in goes in a certain way, but I’m not so sure.” She giggled, and instead of helping her with the lawn tool, Jeremiah took it from her and tossed it onto the grass behind him.
“I love you, too, Shannon.” He kissed her again, deciding that if this wasn’t real, he was going to say and do whatever he could to enjoy it while it lasted.