Page 1 of All You Need Is Love

Chapter 1

Normally, life in the slow lane suited Shannon Baker just fine.

But three months or more to become a foster mom—to become Noah’s mom?

That was an eternity.

The water lapped at her bare feet as she walked the wet shoreline, flip-flops dangling from her fingers. As she’d expect at eleven o’clock on a Saturday, the beach was already crowded with locals and tourists alike, but Shannon only had attention for the boy she hoped one day to adopt.

Several feet ahead, Noah Robinson tossed a football to Lucky and laughed as the golden retriever took off into the fringes of the California surf. Shannon closed her eyes for a moment, relishing the five-year-old’s giggles pealing across the same breeze that lifted Shannon’s hair off her shoulders.

Noah’s joy, the late-June sun on Shannon’s face, the crisp scent of coconut sunscreen and brine—it all soothed the parts of her soul left ruffled by her call from the foster care agency yesterday to confirm the processing of her application.

She had hoped that her role as a preschool teacher might speed along the process of bringing Noah into her home. But the agency worker had been clear that it would take just as long for her as any other applicant.

Which meant, in the meantime, Noah 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 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 knees, 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 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, another deep growl breaking the man’s speech. The guy took a step back.

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