Shannon finally said, “You can tell me, you know,” in a very quiet voice. So quiet she was sure Jeremiah wouldn’t even be able to hear her.
“He’s a therapy dog,” he said, his fingers releasing and then tightening on the wheel. “And he didn’t start with kids.” He looked at her, and in that one moment when his eyes weren’t on the road, she caught the vulnerability in his gaze. “He was for me.”
Whatever Shannon had expected Jeremiah to say, that wasn’t it. “Oh.”
“I was engaged once,” he said. “Her name was Elaine. I was hopelessly in love with her. When she called off the wedding….” He shrugged, leaving the words right there. “I maybe fell apart.”
Shannon knew what maybe fell apart looked like. What it sounded like. What it felt like, way down deep in her soul.
“My father is a veterinarian, as well as an expert dog trainer. He used to train dogs for agility courses, and he knew a lot of people who trained dogs for all kinds of things. He got Hercules for me, and well.” Jeremiah swallowed again, and Shannon was beginning to see that nervous swallow was his tell of anxiety.
“I saw someone for a few months, and Hercules would alert when I had panic attacks.”
“How did he do that?” she asked, genuinely wanting to know.
“He’d lay right on top of me,” Jeremiah said. “If I was in bed and couldn’t get myself out.” His voice took on a haunted quality. “If I was sitting, he’d come over and lean right into me, calming me down enough to pat him. Petting a dog is very therapeutic.”
She nodded, her eyes focused out the windshield now. “How did he know?”
“He’d been trained to know,” Jeremiah said. “Like I showed this kid a card trick today. Hercules is like that. He could sense something inside me, and he’d come press his head right into my chest, demanding attention from me, and I’d calm down.”
“And now he works with kids.” Shannon wondered if he could work some magic on her, but she was afraid to ask. Afraid to admit that she might still be broken, way down deep inside.
“He’ll go wherever he’s needed,” he said. “Sometimes Flo—she’s my receptionist—takes him home with her. Since her husband died, she doesn’t like being alone at night. Her grandkids love Herc.”
“And Maribel. Was that her name?” Shannon looked at Jeremiah now, almost craving the opportunity to look into his bright, blue eyes.
“Yeah, Maribel. She has some anxiety about her son being in the military,” he said. “So Hercules goes over there from time to time.”
“And you don’t need him anymore.”
Jeremiah exhaled, glanced toward the ocean, and looked at her, rewarding her with those beautiful eyes. “I still need him from time to time, Shannon,” he said. “But I’m willing to share him too.”
The Cattleman’s Last Stop came into view, and she focused on it, the question she wanted to ask stuck somewhere behind her ribs. Jeremiah pulled into the gravel parking lot and swung his car into an empty space. It wasn’t the normal lunch spot on the island, and in fact, it looked like they might have the whole place to themselves.
“Look,” he said, finally releasing the wheel. “Elaine was six years ago. I’m not still hung up on her.”
“Okay.”
“I can tell you have something you want to say,” he said. “So just say it. But I promise I’m not still dealing with feelings for Elaine.”
“It’s not that,” she said, a blast of anxiety hitting her. In that moment, she wondered what Hercules would do, and she was very glad he wasn’t there with them.
“Then what?” he asked, searching her face.
She tried to hold the words back. Even pressed her lips together. But she couldn’t win against this tide. “Would you be willing to share Hercules with me?”
A figurative light bulb went off above Jeremiah’s head, and Shannon saw the understanding roll across his face. He reached over, hesitated, and then tucked her hair behind her ear. She couldn’t help leaning into his touch, stealing the comfort from his warm hands, his nearness.
“Of course I’ll share him with you,” he said. “You want to take him tonight? I was going to have him, but—”
“No, I don’t need him tonight,” she said, though she really did want that big, yellow lab with her in her big, empty house.
Jeremiah cocked his head, apparently hearing more than what she’d said. Then he practically leapt from the car. “Should we go eat? I’m suddenly starving.”
Shannon wondered what had lit a fire under him, and she got out of the convertible a little slower. He extended his hand toward her, an open invitation for her to take it, which she did. As they walked up the wooden ramp to the front door, he pressed his lips to her forehead, and said, “You can have Herc whenever you want him, sweetheart. Just say so, okay?”
She paused and looked at him. “Okay, but tonight, I think he should stay with you.”
Jeremiah nodded, reached for the doorknob, and let her go first into the restaurant. It was easily the best meal of her life, with a funny, witty man who knew how to carry a conversation. They talked about light things, from their families to their favorite traditions on Getaway Bay.
“I love the family beach picnic,” he said.
“And see, for me, it’s always Santa’s sleigh being pulled by the dolphins.” She grinned and waved away the waiter when he asked her if she wanted more soda. Her stomach would probably be hurting for the rest of the day with the two glasses she’d already consumed.
Jeremiah drove them back to the office, the wind through her hair welcome, and the atmosphere between them easy and casual. Shannon felt the best she had in years, and she couldn’t help smiling to herself as the beach rolled by.
“So I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, fiddling with his car keys as they approached the turnoff in the sidewalk that would take her back to Your Tidal Forever.
She paused and looked up at him. “Yeah, about eight-ten.” She tucked her hair, very aware of the last time Jeremiah had done it, but she couldn’t get herself to walk away. She finally turned toward him, searching for the bravery she used to have.
“Lunch was great,” she said, putting one hand on his shoulder and tipping up onto her toes so she could press her lips to his cheek. “Thank you so much for taking me. I don’t get out of the office as much as I should.”
Her phone buzzed in her purse, but she ignored it.
Jeremiah smiled down at her. “Maybe we could get together tonight too. I mean, I’ll have Hercules, and maybe we could just, I don’t know, go for a walk.”
Shannon wanted to see him again, so she nodded, and that got her feet moving toward the doors of Your Tidal Forever. A warm glow enveloped her, almost like someone had poured hot honey in her veins. She turned back at the door to find him still standing on the boardwalk, his hands casually in his pockets.
She lifted her hand in a flirty wave and ducked inside. She knew the moment she took a breath inside the building that something was wrong.
Number one, Riley wasn’t sitting at her desk.
Number two, the faint sounds of crying could be heard.
Number three, her phone buzzed again.
Number four, Hope yelled, “Shannon! Does anyone know where Shannon is?” from down the hall.
She didn’t bother to check her phone, choosing instead to run down the hall toward Hope. What had happened? Was it the Newton flowers, because she had ordered those correctly. There would still be time to get them, though, because the wedding wasn’t for another six weeks. Maybe something had happened with Vivian….
“I’m right here,” she said, coming to a stop when she saw the bubbles.
Suds—so many suds—churned out of the dishwasher in the small kitchen at the back of the building. Hope herself was covered from neck to torso in them, and then up to her knee.
“What in the world?” she asked, wondering why she needed to solve a dishwasher emergency. The thoughts that had been tumbling through her head about which wedding had been affected disappeared, and she started laughing.
Riley wiped her hair out of her face, but she only succeeded in smearing soapy suds along her forehead. “There’s Shannon,” she said weakly.
Hope looked at Shannon and said, “I think I put the wrong soap in the dishwasher,” only two seconds before she started to slip.
Shannon lunged toward her, but there was no way she was faster than gravity. Hope went down, and Shannon lost sight of her as she disappeared beneath the waves of bubbles still oozing across the floor.
And she couldn’t help it—she started laughing. “I’m sorry,” she said between chuckles. “I am. Give me your hand, Hope. Come on.”
By the time she got home, her feet ached, and she couldn’t wait to get out of the wrong-sized clothes she’d borrowed from Hillary. She’d driven through a fast-food restaurant for a fried chicken sandwich, and she sat on her front steps to eat it. If she went inside, then Jean Luc and Fuzzy would want some of her dinner, and Shannon was starving.
She’d texted Jeremiah about the dishwasher incident, and all about how long it had taken to clean up. He hadn’t answered for the longest time, and then he’d commiserated with her for the last fifteen minutes of her day.
Her phone buzzed again, and she almost threw it into the nearest flowerbed—which would need to be weeded and planted that weekend. Shannon sighed. Maybe she’d come far enough in her career to hire a gardener. Hope had practically said that Shannon would get to run Your Tidal Forever should Hope want to retire.
Glancing at her phone over her chicken sandwich, she learned that Jeremiah was on his way home from the beach and wanted to know if she needed dinner.
With her pinky finger, she tapped out a Nope. Eating now and sent him the message.
Okay, he said. Well, I have to go see my parents, so we’ll have to raincheck that walk.
Shannon actually breathed another sigh of relief at that. She really just wanted to eat, get out of these clothes and shoes, and soak in a hot bath.
She’d already kissed Jeremiah today, and maybe they needed some distance to make sure the relationship was right.
Shannon did, at least. She felt like she was on a roller coaster—up one moment and swooping down the next. She didn’t trust herself to know how she was feeling in the moment, so she may have acted spontaneously or irresponsibly when she’d kissed him that afternoon.
She groaned, finished off her sandwich, and went inside where both of her cats sat a few feet from the door. Neither of them looked pleased, almost like they knew she’d considered bringing a dog home and that she’d eaten on the porch so she wouldn’t have to share with them.
“Hey, guys,” she said brightly. Fuzzy came forward and wound between Shannon’s ankles, but Jean Luc just looked at her with that aloof expression on his face. “Good to see you too,” she called after him, wondering what was more ridiculous—kissing Jeremiah or talking to a cat.