“Well, ladies and gentlemen, standing in front of you is my personal knight in shining scuba suit—” She looked up from the card and found Ally smirking wryly. Louisa would deal with her later. “Cody is new to Brant Point station, but he’s already making waves. A three-time state champion swimmer, honors graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, and decorated officer, Cody guarantees that with the right partner he will take home the top prize at the Jackson Wirth Coast Guard Regatta.”
She allowed a brief amount of trash talk from his fellow guardsmen. A brief moment to pull herself together and reread the card and the details he’d chosen to share. Some of which she hadn’t been aware of until that moment.
She realized how much she missed being the first to know everything about Cody Boggs.
“Sounds like fighting words to me,” she said into the mic.
Cody gave a playful shrug, but his cocky grin looked like a put-on. She didn’t even know he was capable of pretending. His smile quickly faded. Ah, that was more like the Cody she knew.
“Let’s see, shall we start the bidding at—”
“Five thousand dollars.”
Everyone turned toward the voice in the back, a smattering of whistles and chatter filling the space, but Louisa didn’t need confirmation of the identity of their first bidder.
McKenzie Palmer stood with her hand raised, a smug expression on her face. She’d started the bidding high on purpose. She’d sent the message that she was willing to pay for what she wanted.
After a long pause, Louisa remembered she was the one running this event. “Five thousand dollars. Our first bid on Cody Boggs. Do I hear fifty-two hundred?”
Louisa said a silent prayer that someone—anyone else, but preferably one of Dorothea Quinn’s lifelong friends—would pop their hand up, but no one did.
“Five thousand going once?” McKenzie called.
Louisa’s head spun with images of McKenzie and Cody that started with her first sailing lesson and ended with a white dress and a walk down the aisle. Her palms turned clammy, and the microphone slid lower in her hand.
Louisa cleared her throat. “I know this is unorthodox, but I’d like to bid.” Her voice echoed through the speakers.
The crowd murmured excitedly, and Louisa caught a few phrases that told her that at least the front row approved. The girl and her hero. Of course they should be together.
She imagined her face had turned redder than her hair, and she could feel Cody’s eyes on her, not to mention Eric’s and her parents’. What was she thinking?
“Well, what’s your bid?” McKenzie asked from where she stood.
“What?” Louisa looked away. “Oh, right.”
She’d taken on this fundraiser in large part because she needed the money. Was she really going to give away her earnings in an attempt to keep another woman’s hands off of Cody, who might actually enjoy her hands on him?
“Well?” McKenzie was getting impatient.
“Fifty-two hundred.”
“Fifty-three.” McKenzie waited exactly point-two seconds before firing off her next bid, as if there was nothing but money in her purse.
Louisa glanced at Cody, who shook his head at her, probably aware that she could not afford to continue down this path. Or perhaps he simply didn’t want her to win. Perhaps he wanted to spend his limited days off with McKenzie. She was, after all, petite, well-built, blonde, and beautiful. Not to mention uncomplicated and apparently wealthy.
Who knew bloggers made actual money?
“Fifty-four,” Louisa said.
“Fifty-five.” McKenzie squared her shoulders and stared at Louisa, practically daring her to go higher.
Louisa glanced at Ally, whose expression said, What in the world are you doing? After all, Ally managed their business account. She knew Louisa couldn’t afford this.
Still, Louisa heard herself say, “Fifty-six.”
And then she saw a shift in McKenzie’s posture. Her shoulders slumped ever so slightly, and a look of defeat fell on her face.
That was when Louisa began to panic because reality set in. A reality she hadn’t considered. She didn’t have $5,600 just lying around. She silently prayed that McKenzie had one more bid in her, but the woman shook her head to indicate she was out.
Louisa did a slow turn toward Cody, who looked less than pleased.
“Do I hear fifty-seven?” she squawked into the mic, but the crowd responded in silence.
Finally a guy at the back shouted, “Looks like you won him fair and square!”
Then a lady hollered out, “Maybe he’ll do mouth-to-mouth again.”
The crowd laughed and Louisa’s heart wrenched. What had she done? She was jealous and impulsive and it was going to cost her precious, hard-earned money. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
“Sold?” Cody asked.
Louisa raised the microphone. “Sold.”
Was there a return policy on Coasties?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“COME ON, DUNCAN. SURELY YOU CAN MAKE AN EXCEPTION.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Chambers, but you of all people should know the rules. You made them. No refunds. No returns.” The master chief winked at her—he seemed to be enjoying this.
“Right.”
Cody watched as Louisa’s brow knit into a tight line, and he could see the worry behind her eyes.
Most days since returning to Nantucket, Cody had been able to keep his feelings for Louisa squarely locked up in a box marked Do Not Open and shoved to the back of his mental closet. Most days he would describe Louisa as cute. She had a cute personality and a cute little nose that turned up at the end. She had a cute laugh and made cute, quirky comments.
But today, in that dress, cute was the last word he would’ve used to describe her. He could feel the box moving out of that closet at the back of his mind, begging to be opened.
Louisa turned heads. She didn’t even realize it, but with her deep-red hair and that killer blue dress, everything about her stood out. She wasn’t skinny or waifish—she curved in all the right places—and standing back against the wall watching her try to make a return on her most recent impulsive purchase, Cody didn’t know whether to be offended or amused.
He cleared his throat and she spun around, a hand-in-the-cookie-jar expression on her face.
“Unhappy with your purchase already?” He could have some fun with this. He shouldn’t, but he could.
She stammered for a few seconds before he raised a hand to let her off the hook.
“I know you can’t afford it,” he said.
Her shoulders sank in a deep exhale. “I really can’t.”
He watched her fidget, clearly uncomfortable. “So what were you thinking?”
A sheepish look came across her face. “I was just trying to drive up the bid.”
He only stared.
She looked away, refusing to explain further.
“I’ll split it with you,” he offered.
“No,” she said. “This was my mistake. I’ll figure it out.”
“A mistake, huh?” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her. “Ouch.”
She met his eyes for only the briefest moment. She stepped out of her heels and picked them up, tucking them under her arm. “We both know that you and I trying to sail together is a giant mistake.”