Shannon stared at this new version of Jeremiah. A less refined man, without the suit and shiny shoes. He wore a ball cap, shorts, and a T-shirt, and he carried a bag with food in it.
“My mother made Gertie some chicken soup. I guess she isn’t feeling well.” Jeremiah held up the bag with a few jars in it.
Shannon simply stared at him. It seemed impossible that their paths had crossed so many times in the past and yet nothing had come of it. She glanced up and down the street. “Where did you come from?”
“Right next door,” he said, nodding to his right. “My parents live right there.” He extended the brown paper bag toward her, and she took it.
“Oh, this is still warm,” she said, the scent of yeast now meeting her nose. Freshly baked bread. It was one of Shannon’s downfalls, and the main reason she had such curvy hips. “Come on in. Auntie is sleeping, but she’ll be happy for the food when she wakes up.”
“Gertie is your aunt?”
“Great aunt,” she said. “She’s my father’s aunt.” She followed him into the tiny, galley-style kitchen.
He set the jars on the countertop and faced her. “And you come visit her often?”
“Not that often, actually.” She giggled, sucking the sound back in when she realized how girlish it sounded. “Tonight, I’d heard she was sick, and something told me to get over here and sit with her.”
Jeremiah’s blue eyes sparkled like sunlight glinting off the ocean. “Interesting.” He edged closer to her, invading her personal space. Her initial reaction was to tense, to prepare to have to push him back.
But he just smiled and stepped past her. “Well, I won’t stay long. I’m beat after today.” He yawned, and it sounded a bit fake to Shannon.
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. Any time 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?”