Shannon was very happy now. The food was excellent, and she wondered why she didn’t go to Kimmy Sim’s more often. Probably because it was out of the way and more expensive than the other places on the island.
Jeremiah didn’t say a whole lot, and that was okay with Shannon. Hercules moved to her feet and laid right on them, which made her feel comfortable.
“You want to take him home with you tonight?” Jeremiah asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “I have two cats.”
“Two cats?” Jeremiah chuckled. “Hercules is practically perfect, so he’ll probably be fine.”
“Jean Luc is quite snooty,” Shannon said. “But Fuzzy is nice.”
“Jean Luc?” Jeremiah laughed fully now, and Shannon joined in.
“Yeah, well, my father loved Star Trek, and maybe I picked up a few names.”
Twenty minutes later, Shannon walked up the front steps to her door, Jeremiah half a step behind her. “Sorry I’m not great company tonight,” he said.
“You were perfect company tonight.” She turned to face him. “Sorry I’m not really sure how I’m feeling and….” She didn’t know how to finish, so she didn’t.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Want me to stick around to make sure Hercules doesn’t eat your cats?”
“Will he do that?” Shannon glanced down at the dog. She couldn’t imagine him ever doing anything harsher than yawning.
“No,” Jeremiah said with a scoff. “But I better come in and make sure anyway.” He wore a sparkle in his blue eyes, and Shannon shook her head.
“Okay, but I haven’t been home all day, so don’t judge.” She opened the door, a tremor of trepidation flowing through her. Fuzzy and Jean Luc waited a few feet inside the door like they always did, but as Hercules entered the house alongside her, Jean Luc hunkered down, hissed, and streaked away. Fuzzy stayed for a moment, and then she followed Jean Luc without the hiss.
“So I think it’s safe to say the cats will stay hidden,” she said, realizing Jeremiah had entered the house and closed the door behind him.
“Shannon, your place is great,” he said, glancing around. “Look, you have fresh flowers on the counter.” He beamed at them and then her. “This place is exactly you.”
Shannon wasn’t sure what that meant, but she did like her house. “I painted the walls myself,” she said, walking into the kitchen with Hercules at her side. “And my mother made the curtains in here.” Nerves ran through her, and she couldn’t believe she was talking about the window dressings—which she actually wanted to replace.
“Do you want something to drink?” she asked.
“No, I’m going to take off.” Jeremiah put his hand in hers and smiled. He was calm while she felt like a tornado had torn through her chest. “Okay? I’ll see you later.” He fell back a few steps and added, “See you tomorrow, Herc.”
Shannon watched him turn and walk back out the front door, and she moved to the couch and sank onto it. “What am I doing?” she asked Hercules, who once again came over to her, sat, and leaned into her. She scratched his head and ran both hands down the sides of his face.
And Jeremiah was right. The simple act of patting Hercules calmed her down. “I sure like him,” she told the dog. “But I have no idea what I’m doing, and I’m…scared.”
She was so, so scared, and she didn’t know how to see past it to what might be on the other side.
“One step at a time,” she whispered the advice which her therapist had given her years ago, after the incident with Richard. She’d told Shannon she didn’t have to fix everything in one day, or even one month. All she had to do was take one step at a time.
“Not too far, Michael,” Cheryl called toward her son. Shannon sat next to her sister under the umbrella, the sound of the surf and the smell of the sea like old friends. Her sister turned to her. “I swear, he has selective hearing.”
“He’s five,” Shannon said, like that explained everything. And it usually did. Right where the water met the land, Cheryl’s husband Bastian played with their daughter. Also, a five-year-old McKayla didn’t seem to have the same risk-taking DNA as her twin.
Shannon adored her niece and nephew, and Cheryl was pretty great too. A few years younger than Shannon, she’d taken Shannon to her first therapy appointments and sat with her while Shannon talked to her parents about Richard.
“So, I have some interesting news,” she said, positioning her sunglasses to make sure Cheryl wouldn’t be able to see her eyes.
“Yeah? Another prince tying the knot on the beach?”
“No, thank goodness.” Shannon sighed. While neither the bride nor groom had been all that particular about the details of the wedding, Noah Wales was a prince, and his entire royal family had attended the wedding. “And that was in a backyard,” Shannon added.
“Oh, of course.”
Shannon didn’t have to look at her sister to see her rolling her eyes. Cheryl had a way of rolling her whole head when she found something ridiculous.
“So, what’s the news?” Cheryl asked.
Shannon took her time stretching out, just letting her bare feet out of the shade and into the sun. She loved lazy Sundays like this, and she wondered if she and Jeremiah would come to the beach on the weekends. Pack a cooler and bring the kids and just let the hours rolls by one at a time.
“I’m seeing someone,” Shannon said, a touch of glee in her voice.
Cheryl choked, and she started coughing. “Warning,” she said, still choking. She got herself under control and stared at Shannon, who refused to look at her sister. “I need more warning next time.”
“I warned you,” Shannon said, folding her arms. “I said I had interesting news.”
“I thought you were going to say some celebrity had come into the shop or something.”
“Because that’s always my news,” Shannon said, anger tripping through her. Maybe not anger, but definitely annoyance.
“No,” Cheryl said quickly.
“Yes,” Shannon argued. “Is it so hard to believe I can get a date?”
“Of course not, honey.” Cheryl put her fingertips on Shannon’s arm, which utterly deflated her. “It’s just that…since…you know. You haven’t dated.”
“I know. I think maybe it’s time to move on.”
Cheyenne arrived, kicking sand and exclaiming, “Why are you so far down? I had to walk like a mile to get here.” She huffed and puffed, causing her two older sisters to look up at her.
“I have to keep an eye on Michael,” Cheryl said. “And besides, it’s not that far down.”
Cheyenne set up her beach chair and flopped into it. “What a day.”
“Sell a million houses this week?” Shannon asked.
“Just two,” Cheyenne said, her sense of humor and hyperbole not the greatest.
“Shannon has a boyfriend,” Cheryl said, and Cheyenne fell out of her chair. Literally. Fell right out onto the sand.
“What?” she asked, her arms splayed to her sides.
“Oh, come on,” Shannon said. “It’s so surprising that you fell out of your chair?” She shook her head, her bliss at this lazy Sunday afternoon at the beach completely gone now.
“She’s moving on,” Cheryl said.
“I was adjusting myself and the chair folded a little.” Cheyenne stood up and brushed sand from her body before pulling her chair out farther and sitting again. “That’s great, Shan. Who is it?”
“I’m not telling.”
“Come on,” Cheryl said. “That’s not fair.”
“You choked,” Shannon said, pointing a finger at her next youngest sister. “And she fell out of her chair.” She hooked her thumb at Cheyenne. “I don’t need this in my life.”
Only the wind whispered between them, and then Cheryl started giggling.
“Stop it,” Shannon said, but the fight had already left her body.
Cheyenne laughed too, and before Shannon knew it, she was cackling with her sisters too.
“Fine,” she said, trying to sober up. “Fine. I’ll tell you. But you have to promise not to put any pressure on me. We’re…it’s new, and it’s been going okay, and I’m hopeful.”
“How new?” Cheryl asked.
“Uh, I guess it’s been almost a week. He asked me out last Monday after I got my flat tire at the coffee shop.” Shannon couldn’t believe it had been almost a week since then. It had felt longer, and she wondered how time had a way of playing with her mind. She’d seen Jeremiah every day since then, even yesterday when they went to the farmer’s market out at the cattle ranch.
“Okay, no pressure promise,” Cheyenne said. “Cheryl?”
“No pressure.”
Shannon looked at one sister then the next. “It’s Jeremiah Yeates.”
“The doctor?” Cheyenne practically screeched.
“The guy getting Getaway Bay’s biggest award?” Cheryl asked, her voice made of pure incredulity.
And if Shannon hadn’t already felt like Jeremiah was way out of her league, she certainly did then. She pressed her lips together, tightened her arms across her chest, and gave a single nod.
“He’s gorgeous,” Cheyenne said next.
“How’d you meet him?” Cheryl asked.
Shannon seriously didn’t want to answer any more questions. She loved her sisters, and she probably should’ve been able to predict their reactions.
“He’s too good for me,” she said, all her old insecurities and fears rearing up inside her like a tsunami. “I’ll break up with him.”
But she couldn’t do that before the event on Saturday night. Could she?
“You don’t need to break up with him,” Cheryl said. “He’s definitely not good enough for you.”
Shannon rolled her eyes. “Don’t make yourself a liar, Cheryl.”
Her sister sighed with a touch of frustration in the sound, but Shannon felt the same way.
“I didn’t mean to make you feel like you weren’t good enough for him,” Cheryl said.
“Yeah, of course you are,” Cheyenne added. “And hey, you got a date. I haven’t been on one of those in months.”
Shannon softened, especially when Cheryl reached over and took her hand. “So, how’d you meet him? How many times have you gone out? Tell us about him.”
Shannon looked at her then, and she saw genuine concern and compassion in her sister’s eyes. Tears welled up in Shannon’s eyes, and her throat narrowed. “Sorry,” she said. “I just…things are hard. Dating is hard work, and I’m a little nervous about it.”
“Of course you are,” Cheryl said.
“But you don’t need to be,” Cheyenne said. They’d probably rehearsed this tag team speech for when Shannon started dating again. But she didn’t mind. “If he’s a good one, he’ll understand.”
“I told him about Richard already,” Shannon said.
She saw the surprise lift Cheryl’s eyebrows, but her sister put them right back down. “Seriously, Shan. Start talking. We want all the details.”
Shannon watched the waves crash against the shore, one right after the other. They never quit. Never gave up. Never stopped, even in the darkness. She admired their tenacity, and the way they didn’t worry about what they might hit.
“We buy coffee from the same place,” Shannon said. “And I got a flat tire on Monday, and he rescued me.”
“Ooh, romantic,” Cheryl said with a smile. “Keep going.”
And so Shannon did, telling them about Jeremiah and Hercules and everything they’d done that week. By the time she finished, she realized she had that same warm glow and that she couldn’t flatten the smile on her face no matter how hard she tried.
So maybe she liked Jeremiah. Of course she did. And maybe her happiness would win out over her fear.