Which meant he faced even more uncertainty. And his short life had already been filled with so much.
When combined with the thought that tonight she’d have to face her sister Quinn for the first time in forever—thank you, Baker family reunion—it was almost enough for Shannon to bury herself in a heap of blankets and stay curled up in bed all day watching Hallmark Christmas movies in the middle of summer.
But here she was, fighting the urge to turn inward. Fighting to keep the peace in her own heart. Fighting for Noah’s sake.
The blond-haired boy raced after Lucky toward the north end of the beach, where rocks curved into a magnificent cove that divided the beach from a six-acre community park on the other side.
“Noah!” Shannon cupped her hands around her mouth. “Don’t go too far.”
“Okay!” But as soon as he reached the rocks, he disappeared from sight.
There wasn’t anywhere for him to go past the rocky cove, and he could swim, but that didn’t stop Shannon from chasing after him, her heart banging against her ribs until she caught sight of the boy hugging Lucky at the edge of the water. For the first time since she’d picked him up from his current foster home this morning, he’d stopped moving, staring out across the ocean.
He’d grown so much in the two years since she’d met him. A recent spurt had left his bathing suit two inches higher than his knee, but in this moment, he was the same three year old she’d had to comfort when his grandma Mary had dropped him off in Shannon’s preschool classroom for the first time.
The faraway gaze in his precious blue eyes, the way he bit his bottom lip so it didn’t tremble, his arms wrapped tight around Lucky’s neck—they all socked Shannon in the gut, a reminder that he was lost. No matter how brave and confident and friendly he’d grown since that first day of school, a boy simply didn’t get over his mother leaving him behind to chase other dreams.
And with his former-neighbor-turned-foster-mom moving out of state by the end of the summer, he needed someone he could count on. She wanted to be that person.
Shannon dropped her shoes on the ground, squatted beside Noah, and placed her hand on his back. “You okay, bud?”
He glanced at her, his freckled nose scrunched. “Miss Florence is taking me to see Grandma tomorrow.”
“Is she?” His foster mom hadn’t mentioned it when Shannon had picked him up this morning. “That will be nice.”
Noah plopped onto the ground and leaned toward her, his soft curls tickling her neck as she slid her arm around him. “What if her memory is so bad that she doesn’t know who I am?”
Oh, bud. How she wished she could assure him that would never happen. But with Mary Robinson’s recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, it was almost inevitable at some point. Shannon squeezed the boy and kissed the top of his head. “Even if your grandma’s mind can’t always remember, her heart will never forget you. How could anyone forget such a wonderful boy?”
Noah snuggled closer as the water lapped in and out.
Rocks skittered behind them, and a low growl rumbled in Lucky’s throat, breaking the peace of the moment. The dog bounded toward the rocks and barked a few sharp warnings.
“Lucky!” Shannon’s arm dropped from Noah’s shoulders and she pivoted from her spot on the ground. “Wha—”
The question caught in her throat at the sight of a man standing not ten feet away, his hands held up as if a police officer had ordered him to surrender. “Whoa, boy.”
Shannon scrambled to her feet. She should call Lucky off, but her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.
The man cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but—”
Lucky advanced a step, a deep growl breaking the man’s speech. The guy took a step back.
Shannon shook herself from her stupor. “Lucky. Heel.”
Her dog whipped his head around, big brown eyes mournful, but he eventually trotted to her side.
I’m so sorry. Why wouldn’t the words come out of her mouth? Sure, she didn’t have an affinity for chatting up strangers like her cousin Ashley, and she wasn’t a take-charge type like her soon-to-be cousin Bella, but she did have common decency.
And yet, when a well-dressed man with gel-tousled brown hair, deep chocolate eyes, olive skin, and a straight Grecian nose looked at her, apparently Shannon’s manners disappeared. All she could do was stand there like an idiot, blinking hard as if sand had settled into her eyelids. If only she had that excuse.
“Hi.” Noah’s voice sliced through the silence, causing Shannon to jump. Before she could remind Noah not to talk to strangers, the boy moved around her and toward the man. “My name’s Noah.”
“Hey, Noah. I’m Marshall.” The guy’s face lit up with a grin—and goodness, his five o’clock scruff made it hard to tell, but were those dimples on either side of his mouth?
Didn’t matter that it was only seventy-something degrees out and Shannon wore shorts and a tank top. She was sweating. “Noah, let’s not bother the poor man.”
The boy’s shoulders drooped at her words. He dragged his feet back toward the ocean, pulling Lucky along with him.
“He wasn’t bothering me. I’m afraid I was unintentionally bothering you.” Marshall stuck his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts as he came to stand beside her. He wore a white button-up shirt rolled to his elbows, and his silver watch winked in the sunlight. Hints of some sort of exotic cologne filled the air between them.
He definitely was not from Walker Beach. She’d have remembered him for sure.
“You just surprised us. I didn’t hear you coming at all.” Shannon toed the sand before forcing herself to glance up into his eyes.
Her efforts were rewarded with another view of his dimples—yep, they were definitely
