Shannon sure did enjoy showing off her devilishly handsome boyfriend. Even if she hadn’t seen Jeremiah as much as she’d wanted to over the past few weeks, but some things couldn’t be helped.
He didn’t leave his clients to go to lunch with her, and her job was as important as his. Just because she hadn’t gone to medical school or earned Dignitary Awards didn’t mean what she was doing at Your Tidal Forever wasn’t worthwhile.
“So you’ve met Charlotte,” she said. “And Riley. And this is Ash Lawson. She designs and sews a lot of the bride’s wedding dresses.”
Jeremiah shook her hand and said, “I’ve seen some of your designs. They’re stunning.”
“Thank you.” Ash grinned at him and then Shannon, and she’d seen that look on her friend’s face before.
“Shannon,” Hope called, and Shannon turned toward her boss. She stood next to her husband and the owner of Aloha Hideaway, Stacey DuPont.
Shannon’s pulse jumped, and she headed toward them, trying not to twist her ankle on the grass. She should’ve worn better shoes for the environment, but she’d wanted to be professional.
“Hope, Aiden, Stacey, this is Jeremiah Yeates.”
“Oh, the doctor who won the Dignitary Award.” Stacey grinned at him, and he said something about her husband and his hotel. Their conversation was easy and light, and allowed Shannon to step over to Hope.
“Are we ready?”
“Stacey wanted to say something about the food after you welcome everyone.” Hope glanced at the redhead.
“Sounds good.” Shannon couldn’t help the nervous tic of smoothing down her skirt. She’d been rehearsing her welcome speech for a week now, but it had suddenly flown from her mind.
“All right,” Hope said. “You’re up.”
Shannon looked at her, panic racing through her. Stacey took a side-step and stood next to her, and Shannon faced the rest of the group. Your Tidal Forever only employed about fifteen people, but they’d all brought plus-ones, and Shannon was not used to talking to more than a few people at a time.
Her stomach felt like someone had squeezed it between two pieces of metal, and she pressed her palms together to try to find a measure of control inside her. “Welcome, everyone,” she said, but it wasn’t anywhere near loud enough to get their attention.
Her nerves shot up another floor. “Uh, everyone.” Her voice broke, and she felt very near tears.
Someone whistled, and Shannon startled along with everyone else. Jeremiah nudged her forward and said, “Try it now.”
For some reason, annoyance sang through her, though everyone was looking at her now. She put a smile on her face and said, “Welcome, everyone, to our first company picnic. Isn’t it so great here at Aloha Hideaway?”
A few people clapped, and Shannon did so enthusiastically until foolishness raced through her. She didn’t clear her throat, though she wanted to. “We’re thrilled to get out of the office for an afternoon and just relax, eat, and spend time together. Stacey, the owner here at Aloha Hideaway, wants to say a few things about the food.”
She gestured to Stacey, who stepped forward. She spoke, but Shannon barely heard her through the rushing in her head. Her anxiety coiled through her like a snake about to strike, and she felt lightheaded and nauseous at the same time.
“Are you going to eat?” Jeremiah asked, his hand on the small of her back comforting. He steered her to the end of the line, and he engaged in a conversation with one of the construction managers as easily as if he’d been best friends with the man his whole life.
Shannon picked up a plate and started with the macaroni salad, hoping that would calm her further. Food usually did, as her hips could testify. “Hey, where’s Hercules?” she asked. She’d missed that dog almost as much as his owner.
“He’s with Flo this weekend,” Jeremiah said. “Are we still on for snorkeling tomorrow?”
Shannon’s chest pinched and she felt her face fall. “I have a meeting in the morning. I’m sure it won’t go long.” But she wasn’t sure of that, and Jeremiah surely knew it.
“It’s okay,” he said. “When you’re done, we’ll go.” He acted like the day had countless hours in it, and Shannon supposed it did. But she kind of wanted to just sit on the beach and relax.
And you can, she told herself. They wouldn’t snorkel for hours, and there was plenty of lying around in between going out to see the tropical fish.
“It’s at ten,” she said. “I could grab lunch afterward and meet you at the beach.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, that sparkling tease in his voice. “I’ll be at the yacht club.”
“The snorkeling there is idiotic,” she said, a slight scoff following. “We should go over to Horseshoe Bay. The water is the calmest, and there’s the best coral there.”
“There’s also a million people there,” he said.
“Snorkeling?” Hillary asked. “You should come to the beach along Six Mile Road. My family has a beach house there, with a private beach.”
“And the snorkeling’s good?” Shannon asked.
“It’s on a little inlet,” Hillary said. “It’s awesome for snorkeling or just paddling around on a boogie board or a small boat.”
“I’m sure your family is using it,” Jeremiah said. “We’ll figure—”
“Actually, my parents are on an Alaskan cruise,” Hillary said. “I was going to ask some friends to go this weekend, but I’m feeling pretty exhausted after this week.” She flashed a smile that did look tired around the edges. “So the house is empty for at least another week.” She ladled another spoonful of sauce over her pork and moved away.
“What do you think?” Jeremiah asked. “You want to go out to Hillary’s beach house?”
“Definitely,” Shannon said. “I’ve heard her talk about it with some of the other girls, and it sounds fantastic. Right on the water. Private beachfront—exactly what you like.” She said the last few words in a singsong voice.
She liked teasing and talking with Jeremiah, and though she should’ve mingled more with everyone there, she saw most of these people every day. And she hadn’t seen Jeremiah, and she really just wanted to spend time with him.
After the party, after she’d paid Stacey and thanked her profusely, after Hope and Aiden drove away, Shannon held hands with Jeremiah and walked with him on the beach. Yes, it was hot, but there was a nice breeze coming off Getaway Bay, and it brought the scent of the sea and coconut oil with it.
She paused in the shade of a tree along the fence line that marked Aloha Hideaway’s property from the beach. “Thanks for coming today, Jeremiah.”
“It was great,” he said. “You work with a lot of fun people.”
“I do.” She tipped up on her toes and touched her mouth to his, glad he was still willing to kiss her.
A week later, Shannon put a second pair of sandals in her beach bag and then took them out again. She was staying at Hillary’s beach house for the weekend, and Jeremiah was going to join her there tomorrow.
In the end, she put the sandals back in the bag, added another towel, and an extra bottle of sunscreen before zipping the bag closed and shouldered it. She wheeled her small suitcase out to her car and stood at the trunk, trying to figure out if she’d forgotten anything.
“Shannon, the beach house is fifteen minutes from a grocery store—and your house. If you forgot something, you’ll just go get it.” She closed the trunk and got behind the wheel.
Fifteen minutes later, she pulled off the main highway and drove down the dirt road to the beach house. It was a one-story house the color of a pale blue sky in the winter. The white shutters looked recently painted, and she sighed as she got out and collected her bags.
It had been another busy week at Your Tidal Forever, and Shannon was looking forward to a couple of days on the beach—starting right after her meeting tomorrow.
Inside, she found the master bedroom and put her bags on the bed. The kitchen sat beside that, with double doors that led out onto a deck. Shannon pushed through those, the wind coming off the ocean a bit too strong for Shannon’s liking.
She took a deep breath and realized there was a patio below her on the beach. She went down the steps to the ground level and gazed out at the water. If the wind died down, it would be a perfect place to snorkel and soak up some sun.
Turning, she found the house had a lower level built into the sand dune, and she started for the patio doors that led back inside. A set of steps went up to the main floor, but she explored downstairs for a few more minutes, finding a laundry room full of towels and shelves full of snorkeling gear, water shoes, and other beach toys.
Upstairs, she heard someone walking, and she made for the steps. “There you are,” she said to Jeremiah when she found him in the kitchen with a couple of pizza boxes.
“Dinner’s here,” he said, barely glancing at her. Shannon moved over to the fridge and opened it, finding the soda and lemonade Hillary had promised would be there.
She felt like she’d been making great progress in her therapy sessions, and while she hadn’t seen as much of Jeremiah as she had in the past—or as she’d like—she felt like they were doing just fine.
So maybe he seemed a little distant. That was to be expected when they didn’t get a chance to talk every day. Right?
“Mango lemonade?” she asked. “Or cola?”
“Lemonade,” he said.
Shannon got out two bottles of lemonade, trying to figure out how to make things more comfortable between them. “Did you bring your swimming suit?” she asked.
“Well, not tonight,” he said, glancing at her. “I thought we were just eating and hanging out on the beach.”
“You don’t want to go swimming tonight?”
“Not particularly.” He opened the cupboards and pulled down a couple of plates. He loaded his with a few slices of pizza and moved out onto the deck. She joined him, and they ate with the sunshine and the breeze.
He wore a pair of khaki shorts and a plain gray T-shirt, and she noticed he hadn’t brought Hercules. “Where’s Herc?”
“Oh, my sister wanted him, and I figured he’d have more fun with her than with us, lying on the beach.” He flashed her a smile but didn’t really look fully at her.
She took another bite of her pizza, but her appetite was gone. “Should we go out on the beach?” she asked when he finished eating.
“You didn’t eat much.”
“We had two caterers in today for samples,” she said, though she hadn’t eaten much then either. “I’ll go change, and we can head down. There’s tons of towels and water shoes in a room downstairs, if you want anything.”
“I’ll go take a look.”
“All right.” She trailed her fingers along his shoulders as she moved back inside, and she thrilled at the warmth seeping through his T-shirt. “I’ll meet you down there.”
Shannon took several minutes changing into her swimming suit, though she wasn’t going to swim either. She pulled a bright pink sundress over that, hoping it was flirty and fun and said I’m sorry for whatever I did. Please forgive me. Kiss me.
She brushed her hands down her stomach and turned to look at herself from the back. It would have to do. She put on a pair of sandals and went downstairs to get a couple of towels and a blanket before she went outside.
Jeremiah stood several paces away, his back to her, and she approached him cautiously. “Hey,” she said, shifting everything she held so she could link her arm through his. “You ready?”
The sun had already started to sink toward the horizon though it wouldn’t be dark for hours.
“Yeah,” he said. He walked about halfway to the water and spread out a blanket. She spread hers on top of it, and she rolled up her towels and used them like pillows before she laid down.
“This is nice,” he said, exhaling, and Shannon finally felt him relax. “I’ve really missed you the past several weeks.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m really sorry. My job is kind of intense sometimes.”
“Yeah.”
Shannon’s fear blipped through her. “Jeremiah, are we okay?”
“I don’t know, Shannon. You tell me.”
She suddenly felt like she was sitting in the black leather chair opposite of Doctor Finlayson, and she didn’t like that. Not one little bit.
“You seem angry with me,” she said.
“Why would you think that?”
Typical therapist talk, answering with a question, never really saying anything. Shannon sighed, the perfect weekend before her suddenly marred with Jeremiah’s psychiatrist mentality.
“I don’t want you to be my therapist,” she said.
“I’m not,” he said. “You asked me if we were okay, and I said I didn’t know and wanted to know what you thought.”
“Why wouldn’t we be okay?” she asked.
“Because you work eighty hours a week and have no time for us,” he said. He sucked in a breath, as if he’d just realized what he’d said.
“You have days where you’re busy too,” she said.
“Everyone does.”
She lay in his arms, but she didn’t want to be. She sat up and gazed at the water. “So I work too much.”
“Can you honestly tell me you’re happy with how things are?”
Shannon didn’t know how to answer so she stayed silent. And she didn’t like being silent when she had so much going on inside her mind.