“Good to see you again. We met at Barton Springs. I’m Daniel’s friend, Josiah Rush.”

“Yes, I remember you, Josiah. How are you?” Shannon asked the man who towered over her.

“Well, thanks. How’d you like the service?”

The three of them strolled down the winding sidewalk toward the parking lot. At five-foot-seven, Shannon didn’t normally think of herself as short, but she felt a little like a miniature between Josiah and Daniel, both of whom probably exceeded the six-foot mark.

She smiled and stared at the sidewalk ahead of them as she answered him. “I liked the pastor’s message about new beginnings. It was very timely for me.”

Josiah grinned and slapped his thigh with his large hand. “I guess it was. So what do you two have planned now? Interested in grabbing some lunch?”

“Sorry, bud, we can’t,” Daniel replied. “Shannon has a meal with her aunts on Sunday afternoons, and I was just lucky enough to horn in on it.”

“Would you like to join us?” she asked him. “It’s just Daniel and me and my three elderly aunts. Not very exciting, I’m afraid.”

“But the chow will be good,” Daniel chimed in.

“I really appreciate that, but I have to be at the hospital by four today. I’m covering for Victoria,” he explained to Daniel. “Her daughter’s birthday.”

“Your good deed for the year?” he teased.

“Yeah, I like to do something nice every now and then, just to throw people off the scent.”

“Another time then,” she interjected.

“Thanks. I’d like that.”

Once they said their goodbyes, Daniel opened the door for Shannon and she slid into the passenger seat. She watched him jog around the front of the SUV and wave to a family gathering at a sedan across from them. He seemed well-known and liked here. Had Edmund become so casual and entrenched in life at United Point of Grace Church too? Had he gotten to know Josiah Rush, or the family in the black sedan? Obviously, he’d gotten to know Emily Dawson and her family and helped them in a truly remarkable way. Maybe he went out to lunch with select groups sometimes, or had been invited to supper now and again by church-goers who felt sorry for the young groom whose bride lingered in a coma year after year.

Now it was her turn to blossom in an unexpected new environment—but she wasn’t alone. She waited for the pang of guilt to come, but she realized she didn’t feel it. This was her life now, and she was moving forward. She only hoped that Edmund had been able to do the same in some way. From what the church people had been telling her, it sounded like he had.

“Do you need anything from the store before I get you back to start your cooking?” Daniel asked as he snapped the seat belt into place.

“Nope. I have everything I need. I’ve got the turkey roasting …”

“And it’s not even Thanksgiving.”

“I figure I missed enough of them. I may as well make up for it. Do you like turkey? I guess I should have asked you.”

“I certainly do.”

“I found a recipe for dressing that kind of appealed to me,” she explained as he drove out of the lot and onto the main road. “I put it together last night, and all I have to do is bake it today. It has a cornbread base, which Aunt Mary is going to love because she has a weakness for all things cornbread. And it has all sorts of fresh things in it, like onions and celery, raisins and walnuts, even some cranberries and orange juice.”

“Orange juice,” he repeated.

“Don’t question my OJ, Dr. Petros,” she warned him with a scowl. “You didn’t think you would like risotto with lemon slices in it either, did you?”

“You knew?”

“Mmm. Something about that hint of horror in your eyes when you saw it helped me figure it out. I’m a crime-solver that way.”

“A crime against lemons? Really?”

“Well,” she said with a chuckle, “it would have been a crime not to taste it and see how delicious it is, right?”

“Worth a sentence of ten-to-twenty years at the very least.”

Shannon giggled and leaned her head against the window. What was it about Daniel Petros that made her feel as if they’d known one another their whole lives? Not like with Edmund. He’d been the electrical outlet she plugged into, and their combined current coursed through her. With Daniel, beyond the foundational flames of attraction, something else slow-burned. With Daniel, it was easier. Comfortable. He gave her the odd yet relaxing feeling of … home.

I did not just think that!

Just a couple of hours later, the reason she felt like she’d known Daniel for a very long time was unexpectedly revealed after the whole group of them sat down to enjoy a well-trimmed turkey dinner.

“Okay,” Daniel admitted, and he raised his right hand in a solemn vow. “I repent of ever doubting your orange juice stuffing.”

“I warned you,” she said, shaking her head at him. “It’s pretty good, right?”

“It’s heavenly,” Mary sang. “Just heavenly.”

Shannon surveyed the table and smiled. Candied sweet potatoes, steamed string beans, cucumber and tomato salad, and fresh strawberries and a pumpkin spice cake for dessert: a delectable combination of Thanksgiving fare and seasonal fruits and veggies. Aunt Lonna had brought along her buttermilk biscuits, and Lora made sweet apple butter to accompany them. Just one whiff of that warm butter, and Shannon had been transported back to a happy holiday table surrounded by her parents, aunts, and grandmother.

“You sure can cook, Missy,” Lonna told her between bites, and she smacked her lips. “That nap you took really did transform you, didn’t it?”

“I guess it did, Aunt Lonna.”

“Any more sweet tea?” Lora asked.

“Let me get it,” Daniel said, and he hopped up from his chair.

Lonna leaned toward Shannon and whispered, “He’s a honey-pie, isn’t he?”

Shannon giggled. “Maybe I can fix you two up on a date.”

“Someone at this table should make the most of him anyway,” her aunt cracked. Raising her voice, she asked, “Daniel, what’s your last name again? Petros? That’s Greek, isn’t it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, giving them all refills from the glass pitcher. “Short for Petropoulos.”

“Petro-poul-os,” Mary repeated.

“Pop shortened it when I was a kid.”

“I never knew that was your given name, dearie. There used to be a Petropoulos family that lived in my neighborhood.”

Daniel sat down again and nodded. “Yep. That was us. We were a few streets over from where you are now.”

“Daniel, you lived near Aunt Mary?” Shannon inquired.

“For a couple of years. I told you that. Remember, in the garden? I said my mom had a vegetable garden at our house too, and that it wasn’t far from where we were standing.”

“Did we go to school together, too?” she asked.

“I doubt it. My family was Greek Orthodox back then. While we lived on Beaumont Street, I went to Holy Trinity.”

“Oh.”

“Your father was Constantine, and your mother Irini?” Mary inquired.

“Indeed!” he exclaimed. “You knew them?”

“Of course. We all did.”

“I didn’t,” Shannon said.

“Shannie. You did. In fact—wait a minute!—I think you and Daniel may have played together. Yes, you must have! There was a Petropoulos boy in that secret club you children formed. Was that you, Daniel?”

“Daniel?” she repeated. “No, we never …” Sudden realization dawned, and it made a distant crackling sound as it emerged over the horizon of her brain. “Danny Petropoulos? That was you?”

He chuckled. “Still is. But I didn’t remember you being in our club?”

“The Adventurers. Yeah,” she muttered. “You were one of us?”

“I think you and Daniel were actually married,” Mary told her, “right there in the woods behind my house.” She narrowed her eyes playfully at the memory. “Yes, and you tore my best lace tablecloth when you wore it as a veil.”

Daniel turned toward Shannon, a sort of panicky confusion burning in his brown eyes.

“You’re Danny Petropoulos?” she asked him.

“You’re—my … bride?”

“Well, technically, I think it was the Professor and Mary Ann that got married, but we were pretending to be them.” Shannon chuckled.

“Wait! I remember Gilligan. Yeah, he—or she?—performed the ceremony for us, didn’t she?” Daniel suddenly recalled. “Who was that kid again? I can’t remember her name. That girl with the braces who looked like a boy and insisted on being Gilligan.”

“You’re right! She lived next door to my best friend Caitlyn. Debbie something.”

“Right.” He leaned back against the chair and heaved a deep, thoughtful breath. “Oh, man. I remember playing in those woods with a whole group of kids. Sometimes we were the Swiss Family Robinson, and sometimes we were lost on Gilligan’s Island. Donny Labecki was Thurston Howell III.”

“Donny Labecki!” she exclaimed. “What ever happened to him?”

“His family moved to Minnesota.”

“That’s right. Funny, I can remember that summer like it was yesterday….”

The sudden flash of Shannon playing the part of Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island still stung in Daniel’s eyes. Wearing knee-length blue jean cutoffs, pigtails with bright red bows and a checkered blouse tied at the waist, she’d placed a remnant from a lace tablecloth over her head like a veil for their fake wedding in the woods. And when Gilligan/Debbie pronounced them husband and wife, he’d lifted that veil and …

Good grief. He’d kissed Shannon as they were pronounced Professor and wife. His family had moved across town a few weeks later. Shaking his head swiftly, Daniel exclaimed, “Shannon. That was you?”

Rodney stood close at Daniel’s feet as he poured coffee for everyone while Shannon cut and served the pumpkin cake. They’d only lived on Beaumont Street for two years, but they’d been happy ones where he recalled having a lot of school and neighborhood friends. How bizarre that Shannon Malone—now Ridgeway—had been one of them.

“I just can’t get over the fact that we knew each other all those years ago,” Shannon said once they’d all convened at the table again.

“And that we played together,” he added. “I have really fond memories of the adventures we had in those woods.” He glanced at Mary who grinned at him like a cat with a secret. “Donny and I would fight with wooden swords made out of fallen branches, and we’d tie ropes to the trees and swing along like clumsy Tarzans.” A memory suddenly occurred to him. “Shannon, were you the girl who loved to play Robinson Crusoe?”

She guffawed at the memory. “Yes! That was me! Daniel, how strange…”

Daniel turned toward Shannon, and the two of them just stared at one another wordlessly. But the silence was just as noisy as any roar Daniel had ever heard.

Aunt Lonna elbowed her sister and they shared a smile.

“You came to the hospital on your night off just to tell me about your dinner with Shannon and her family?” Josiah recapped once they’d settled at a cafeteria table.

“Well, come on. Were you listening? It’s not about the turkey, bro.”

“She made turkey? Like Thanksgiving?”

“Yeah. But how weird is it that we played together when we were kids?” Daniel exclaimed.

“That’s weird, all right. Dressing, too?”

“Yeah. It had orange juice in it, but it was better than it sounds.”

“Sounds pretty good.”

“Back on the track, freight train.”

“Sorry. Yeah. Weird.”

“And the thing is, I can almost remember her now. She was younger than me, played Mary Ann to my Professor.”

Josiah chortled. “You’re joking.”

“No. And we even had this pretend wedding—”

“I don’t think the Professor ever married Mary Ann.”

“—and afterward … I kissed her.”

Josiah grinned and raised his hand into the air, awaiting a high-five. Daniel just glared at him until he dropped his hand and shrugged.

“How was it?” he finally asked.

“She was like … eight!” Daniel exclaimed.

“Still.”

“You’re a hopeless case. I don’t know why I came over here.”

“So I could tell you my news.”

“You have news?”

Josiah fidgeted with his plate and glanced away before answering. “You know Emily Dawson?”

“From church?”

“Yeah. When you bailed on me for lunch, I met up with her in the parking lot and we got to talking …”

“Oh, no.” Daniel recalled a couple of casual conversations with Emily over the years. In particular, he remembered that Edmund had met her at Draper and brought her and her family to United Point of Grace.

“Anyway, we decided to go grab some lunch together …”

“Oh, come on, Josiah,” he said, leaning forward seriously. “She’s a sweet kid.”

“She is. I know. She’s very sweet.”

“Don’t do your Josiah thing on her. She goes to our church, man.”

“My Josiah thing!” He laughed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Regret tinged the echo of his words, and Daniel smiled. “I’m just saying … you’ve dated just about every nurse in this place.”

“So? I’m single. They’re single. I’m not doing anything wrong, Daniel.”

A spark in his friend’s eyes told him he may have gone too far, miscalculated the depth of Josiah’s feelings. “Sorry, man.”

“Look, I’d love to have my future all figured out the way you do.”

“Wha—”

“But I’m not mooning over some girl I kissed when we were in grade school.”

“Come on, now.”

“The thing is,” he said with a somber tone in his voice that Daniel had never heard before, “I’m just looking for it like everyone else. And I felt a little something between me and Emily at lunch today. So I asked her to go out with me Friday, and she agreed.”

Daniel flopped back in his chair and grinned. “Where’re you taking her?”

“Jazz night at La Zona Rosa.”

“Nice.”

“You and Shannon want to come? We’ll make it a foursome.”

“Ooh, jazz night with Shannon? I think it’s a little soon for that.”

“Yeah,” Josiah said, nodding his head slowly. “I can see that. It’s been—what?—twenty-five years since you kissed her the first time? You give new meaning to taking your time, bro.”

With a fire roaring in the pit and a fat, happy dog curled around her feet, Shannon sat on the patio reading Robinson Crusoe on her tablet. The egg timer on the sofa next to her ticked down the seconds until she would remove the strawberry cupcakes from the oven, and the silver stars twinkling through the slats of the pergola seemed to keep time with it. A bright crescent moon floated there like a swing in the sky.

She hadn’t heard from Daniel in days, and she’d begun to really feel his absence. Since the revelation about their past on Sunday afternoon, memories had been flickering often. Maybe that was why she’d felt such a connection to him since waking up in his care. Or maybe it was just attraction. Maybe both.

Shannon stared at her phone where it sat idly on the table in front of her. She’d resisted the urge to call … text … Skype …

She leaned back and groaned. Maybe Daniel was right to stay away.

Still.

With a sigh, she leaned forward and grabbed the phone and laid it to rest in the palm of her hand. After several minutes of pensive consideration, she typed in a text.

The mere mention of kissing sent u running, huh? Thinking that might sound too strong, she added a smiley face.

She waited. The egg timer let out a shrill ding next to her, and she jumped.

She waited. Twenty seconds. Thirty.

“Fine,” she said, tossing her feet to the ground and leaving Rodney sleepy-eyed and confused at the other end of the patio sofa. A few more seconds, and she got up and stomped into the house to remove the cupcakes from the oven, muttering as she went. “You want to disappear as soon as you feel a little uncomfortable, fine. You just do that, Daniel. I don’t care. It’s not like I didn’t live most of my life without you just fine. And I’m still getting over Edmund. What was I thinking? I certainly don’t need—”

When she heard the tone of an arriving text, she dropped the muffin tins to the stovetop, threw off the quilted oven mitt, and raced back out to the patio.

Sorry. Just busy. How r u?

“Busy. The universal excuse of a man in hiding.”

Strawberry cupcakes cooling. Want some?

Nothing.

Trapped under something heavy?

Still nothing. She gave up.

I know. You’re busy. Catch you later.

She put the phone down and jumped when it buzzed again.

Be there in 30.

She grunted. “What, years?”

Daniel had heard Shannon was in the building just that afternoon for her physical therapy session with Carrie, and he’d avoided leaving his office at all until he finally left for the day. He’d driven as far as the entrance to Briarcliff on his way home too, but he’d thought better of it and made a U-turn beyond the stone arch. Torn between his enthusiasm about the news he had for Shannon and his concern about the growing feelings between them, he’d chosen to simply avoid her until he decided which won out.

Come on. Meeting when we’re kids? A pretend wedding? Cut to a couple of decades later and she lands in my care at Draper? With a husband who becomes my friend and suggests that we might end up together?

He’d never been much of a conspiracy theorist, but it felt like a colossal setup. Before, he had just felt concern over her vulnerability, wanting to go slowly for her sake. Now he wanted to slam on the brakes for his own sake; for his own sanity.

“Come on,” he exclaimed aloud as he turned into Shannon’s driveway and parked. He closed his eyes and tilted his head upward. “What’s going on here, Lord?”

When Rodney barked out the announcement that he’d arrived, his eyes jolted open and he reluctantly climbed from behind the wheel.

Just the sight of Shannon standing there in the doorway grinning at him made his pulse quicken—and made him want to turn around and get back into the Lexus and drive away. Away from those beautiful red curls dancing on the evening breeze, and away from that little button nose smeared with pink icing—or maybe it was strawberry batter.

Why does she have to be so adorable?

And with that very thought, Shannon’s lovely beaming face seemed to drop, and she scowled at him.

“You look like you’re marching to meet the death squad, Daniel.”

He didn’t even know how to respond, so he didn’t.

“How are you?” he asked as she closed the door behind him.

“Peachy.” As she marched away from him, she added, “You?”

He followed her into the kitchen, reaching the island just as she filled two mugs with steaming black coffee.

“Have a cupcake,” she said in monotone, and she grabbed one of the coffees, plucked an iced cupcake from the platter on the counter and set it into a napkin, and then stalked away.

When he caught up to her on the patio, she’d already settled into one of the chairs. Rodney groaned as Daniel exited the house, and he somehow got to his paws and growled.

“It’s okay, Rodney. Sit.”

The dog made no move to obey. Instead, he stood his ground in protecting Shannon from the intruder. Daniel stepped over the basset hound, sat down on the cushioned sofa, and crossed his legs. The pink icing had bits of fresh strawberries in it, and he recognized it as the imperfection on Shannon’s otherwise perfect complexion.

“You have icing on your face,” he said, and he took a huge bite of the cupcake while she rubbed one cheek and then the other. “The side of your nose,” he added, tapping his own.

She grazed her nose with a napkin. “Is it off?”

He nodded. “Yeah. These are great, Shannon.”

“Thank you.” Her voice had a grudge in it.

“I have—”

“Look. Do we need to talk about our marriage, Professor?”

“—some news.”

“Do you want a divorce? What news?”

“Did I tell you I’d been named to the governing board at Draper?” He knew he hadn’t.

“No,” she said, brightening slightly. “That’s wonderful, Daniel. Congratulations.”

“My first board meeting was today.”

“Oh.” She looked confused at the course of the conversation, but tried to just go with it. “How did it go?”

“Really well, I think. I mean, I’m still wondering what I’m doing there.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said, and Daniel had the feeling that she couldn’t quite decide between congratulating him and willing a large wart to pop up on his face. “You’re a wonderful addition, I’m sure.”

“Well, among other things, I learned that one topic of conversation for the past year has been that there’s nowhere on-site for the families to have a meal. Some of them are sitting there for days on end, keeping a patient company, and all they have are the vending machines. They have to leave the facility to get something solid to eat.”

“I don’t think I knew that,” she said. “Or even thought about it. Poor Edmund.”

“We’ve been negotiating with a few vendors, trying to provide something better. But as the building stands now, we just don’t have the room for a cafeteria.”

She stuffed the last of her cupcake into her mouth and grinned at him. Through a full mouth, she said, “Theesh are good, huh?”

“Very. So I pitched them the idea of someone with a mobile trailer,” he said, and Shannon perked up. “They could pull it right into the courtyard where the stone benches and tables are. Instead of vending machine food, people—and Draper staff—can get a hot, healthy meal.”

“Ooh!” she exclaimed. “I could do that!”

Daniel chuckled. “Well, that was my thinking.”

“Really?”

“I told them about you this afternoon, and they’re looking for a proposal from you.”

She shot to her feet, hopping from one to the other. “Okay. I can, uh, put together a proposal.” She hesitated. “Right?”

“Sure. Draper won’t charge you anything to be there as long as you’re consistent about showing up on agreed-upon days and hours and obtain your own licensing and the like. You can charge whatever you want but—”

“Daniel, is this really happening?” Her enthusiasm cast sparks bigger than those from the fire pit.

“Well, it hasn’t happened yet. There is one other provider we’ve approached for a proposal. But I was thinking about what you said, about wanting to do something bigger, serving a greater purpose. Anyway, I thought maybe you could include so many free meals per week for needy families in your proposal. I think that would do it for the board—not to mention the fact that you’re a former patient. And we have some families of patients at Draper that can hardly afford the gasoline to drive out and see them every day or so, sometimes for months or years on end.”

Shannon went suddenly silent and folded down into the chair again without making a sound. She just stared straight ahead, her eyes wide and round, her ruby lips barely closed. After a couple of minutes of that, Daniel shifted.

“So? What are you thinking?” he prodded.

Shannon looked at him for a long, crackling moment before she shot to her feet again. This time, she walked straight toward him with her hand outstretched. When he took it, she tugged him up to his feet and Daniel stood in front of her, curious.

“Don’t freak out,” she whispered. Then she folded her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into an embrace. “Thank you.”