Page 13 of All You Need Is Love

Then why did it feel like she did?

So many questions and no answers. Nothing that made rational sense anyway.

Shannon blew out a breath, took another sip of tea, and stood, the legs of her chair scraping the wooden floor. “Do you mind if we walk and talk? I process better that way, and I don’t want to keep taking up the table since it’s so crowded in here.”

Marshall didn’t bat an eye at her lame excuses, just finished off his own drink, snagged his pastry bag, and stood. “Lead the way.”

She did, ignoring all the curious glances from various patrons flung her way. Great. Tongues would be wagging for weeks—Shannon Baker finally somewhere with a man she wasn’t related to. She maneuvered past all the customers in the crowded lobby area before emerging into the radiance of another perfect summer day. She hadn’t realized how cold the Frosted Cake had been inside until the sun warmed her skin.

Marshall caught up to her and they walked side by side on the sidewalk as she headed south on Main Street. “So, I have to admit, I don’t have a ton of experience with event planning.”

“Neither do I.” They passed her cousin Samantha’s Charmed I’m Sure Bookstore, Hardings Market, and Froggies in no time at all. The town was more crowded now than during the week, but still not as busy as last summer before the earthquake that had damaged several buildings in the North Village and all of Walker Beach’s economy. Hopefully the upcoming festivals would help jump-start the return of more tourists. “But I’m the one who was available, so Ashley asked me to help out.”

“That seems like a lot of pressure.”

Shannon shrugged, biting the inside of her cheek to keep her thoughts inside. Because what good would it do to tell him she was terrified of failing the whole family the one time she had something important to do? “We’ve been doing this family reunion every summer for as long as I can remember. Ashley had a lot of the arrangements made before she handed it off to me, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I just got behind.” Because organization wasn’t her talent.

She didn’t really have a talent, to be honest. But she’d help where she could. And her cousin had needed her help, so here she was.

“So what’s there left to do? Something about a picnic? Is that like the main event?”

She smiled at the sheriff’s wife as they passed on the sidewalk in front of Herman Hardware, which had opened a few months ago after the old hardware store had been converted into the library. “Didn’t Quinn prepare you for this week? If not, you might be in for a shock. Our reunion is a whole thing.”

He massaged the back of his neck, tugging at the bottom bits of hair curling there. “Quinn didn’t tell me a lot of things.”

Hmm. Okay, then. Shannon veered down the alley between the hardware store and the edge of the golf course toward one of the least crowded parts of the beach. And yes! Her favorite bench was currently unoccupied, a small miracle at this time of day.

They crossed the sand and sat on the weathered wooden bench, which offered a fantastic view of the ocean in front of them and the grassy green to the left. A golf cart whizzed down the paved path and a pair of golfers chatted at the seventeenth hole, their voices drifting toward Shannon and Marshall, twisting in the breeze so they became unintelligible.

Marshall pulled open the pastry bag and his fingers emerged with a flaky chocolate croissant. Tugging it in half, he offered one piece to Shannon. “You want to fill me in since Quinn was derelict in her duties?”

Quinn, derelict? The description made Shannon grin as she took Marshall’s offering. “The reunion kicks off tonight with a burger cookout at the Iridescent Inn, which has been in my family for over a hundred years. My cousin Ben—the one who’s getting married next weekend—owns it and his fiancée Bella is the manager there.”

“Sounds amazing.” He bit into the pastry and groaned. “Kind of like this croissant. You were totally right.”

Shannon followed suit, and the combination of salty and sweet burst in her mouth. “Mmm. Yes, I was.” She licked her teeth and continued. “Tomorrow it’s olallieberry picking in the morning and a family talent show at night. Then there’s a Marvel trivia night and a chili and salsa cookout with beach games—volleyball, jet skiing, that sort of thing—on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is our picnic, complete with a fried chicken dinner and games like potato sack races, three-legged races, and cornhole. The Bakers are a rather competitive group.”

“Really?” His croissant gone, Marshall dusted his hands free of flaky bits. “Quinn—now that I can believe. But you don’t strike me as the type.”

“Maybe I would be.” She lifted a shoulder and tried for a smile. Tried, and failed. “But after a while, you stop trying to compete when you know the inevitable outcome.”

“And what’s that?” His brow crinkled as he turned his body slightly toward her.

The very edges of their knees touched for a moment before Shannon swung hers to face forward completely. “Quinn always wins.” Her voice nearly choked on the words—so often thought, so rarely spoken.

And here she was speaking them to the one person she shouldn’t.

Shannon folded her arms over her chest and chewed her fingernail. “Anyway, the rest of the weekend will be full of wedding festivities, and the reunion finishes up on the Fourth of July at the town’s Fireworks Festival. Everyone goes home after that.”

“Sounds like a really fun time.”

“It is.”

When he didn’t say anything more in response, she braved a glance. Just like yesterday morning on the beach, he looked at her in a way that turned her inside out—like he saw her. The real her. The one she rarely let anyone see, mostly because they didn’t seem interested, or even aware that the Shannon she projected wasn’t always the Shannon she held tucked away close in her heart.

It’s all in your mind. Because he was Quinn’s man, and Shannon would never in a million years try to steal him from her sister.

It would be wrong—and she’d never succeed.

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