“You’re right. I hate when you’re right.” She draped the sweater over her arm and fingered the sleeve of the blouse Maggie had over hers. “Are you buying that?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m having it if you’re not.”

“Well, I am.” Smug, Maggie gathered up her bags and went to pay for it.

“You’d probably have put it back if I hadn’t said I wanted it,” Shannon complained as they left the shop.

“No, but it certainly adds to the satisfaction of the purchase. There’s a cookery shop nearby. I want to pick up some things for Brie.”

“Fine.” Still sulking over the blouse, Shannon fell into step. “What’s that?”

“A music store,” Maggie said dryly when Shannon stopped to stare at a display window.

“I know that. What’s that?”

“A dulcimer. Hammer dulcimer.”

“It looks more like a piece of art than an instrument.”

“It’s both. That’s a lovely one, too. Murphy made one a few years back just as fine. A beautiful tone it had. His sister Maureen fell in love with it, and he gave it to her.”

“That sounds just like him. Do you think he’d like it? One someone else made?”

Maggie lifted her brow. “You could give him wind in a paper bag and he’d treasure it.”

But Shannon had already made her decision and was marching into the shop.

Delighted, Shannon watched the clerk take the dulcimer out of the window, then listened as he gave her a skillful demonstration of the music it could make.

“I can see him playing it, can’t you?” Shannon asked Maggie. “With that half smile on his face.”

“I can.” Maggie waited until the happy clerk went in the back to find the right box for transport. “So you’re in love with him.”

Stalling, Shannon reached in her purse for her wallet. “A woman can buy a gift for a man without being in love with him.”

“Not with that look in her eyes she can’t. What are you going to do about it?”

“There’s nothing I can do.” Shannon caught herself, frowned, and selected her credit card. “I’m thinking it over.”

“He’s not a man to take love casually, or temporarily.”

The words, and the knowledge that they were fact, frightened her. “Don’t push me on this, Maggie.” Rather than the snap she’d hoped for, there was a plea in Shannon’s voice. “It’s complicated, and I’m doing the best I know how to do.”

Her eyes lifted in surprise when Maggie laid a hand on her cheek. “It’s hard, isn’t it, to fall where you’ve never been, and never really thought you’d be?”

“Yes. It’s terribly hard.”

Maggie let her hand slide down and rest on Shannon’s shoulder. “Well,” she said in a lighter tone, “He’s going to trip over his tongue when you hand him this. Where’s the bloody clerk? Rogan’ll skin me if I don’t have you there at three on the damn dot.”

“Yeah, you look like you’re terrified of him.”

“Sometimes I let him think I am. It’s a kiss on the ego, so to speak.”