Would it be wrong to engineer such a scene?
She made her way toward the yacht club where the regatta would take place, pulling into the first parking spot she saw—right next to Cody’s Jeep. Her stomach turned over when she spotted him down by the water. He was helping with the setup—how early had he gotten here?
She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked toward him, trying to ignore the memory of McKenzie on his arm exiting the restaurant the other night. She’d tried to deny it, but they really did look lovely together. McKenzie was shorter than Louisa and much, much smaller. Maybe Cody should have someone like that instead of someone like her—tall and sturdy with unattractive red hair and freckles.
She forced the thoughts away with a silent groan. This wasn’t helpful for anyone.
“There you are,” he said as she walked up. He took his ACK ball cap off, repositioned it back on his head, then squinted at her. “Feeling good?”
She nodded. She wore a lightweight white sundress with her strappy gold sandals and carried a change of clothes for the race in her bag. She’d oversee the regatta’s preliminary events, then hand everything off to Ally when it came time for the race.
All the details had been handled, though at the moment, she wished she’d left something undone so she could busy herself.
“You’re probably well-rested since you bailed on me yesterday.” He started walking toward the water. “We’re going to tie the cutter ship up right over there. Give people tours, and then right next to it, we’ll have water-safety information. I told the guys to make sure it wasn’t boring.”
She’d followed him but only half listened. “I didn’t bail on you.”
“I was just joking.”
She crossed her arms, aware that she was being overly sensitive but somehow helpless to stop herself. Ninny. “Well, maybe I just thought you needed more sleep after your busy night out.”
Shut up, Louisa.
He frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing, forget it.” She sounded like a jealous girlfriend when she knew she had no right to sound that way. She turned to go—she would check on the food stations and see if anyone needed anything—but he grabbed her arm.
“Louisa.”
She could feel her cheeks were flushed. Heat crawled up the back of her neck. She plucked her sunglasses off the top of her head and stuck them on her face as if they could conceal her emotions.
“Sorry; I think Ally might need me.” She raced off, leaving him standing there, probably wondering when she’d lost her marbles—and she would happily tell him she’d lost them the day he rescued her from the angry ocean and maybe he should’ve simply left her there. Maybe if she’d floated off in the sea, she would’ve landed on another island, one that wasn’t inhabited by haunting memories or men she desperately wanted and couldn’t have.
“Morning!” Ally had arrived and now approached Louisa, clipboard in hand. She rattled off her list of to-dos, not pausing for breath until she reached the end. “I think we’re in really good shape.”
Louisa forced herself to sound normal. “Good. Maybe you could touch base with the food vendors as they arrive and I’ll go check on the silent auction. I’ll bring the items out and line them up on the tables.”
Ally’s eyes drifted over Louisa’s head. “He’s here early.”
She didn’t have to turn around to know who her friend was talking about. “Yep.”
Ally’s eyebrows traveled toward her forehead. “Yep?”
“Yes, he’s here early.”
“Oh, and look,” Ally said. “So is she.”
Louisa turned and saw McKenzie and a dark-headed girl (not a woman because Louisa wasn’t sure she was even out of college) running toward Cody, who was tying the cutter to the dock and talking with some of the other guardsmen.
She quickly looked away. “I’ll be inside.”
People started showing up for the regatta around nine in the morning, when the festivities began. Louisa had hauled all the silent-auction baskets out to the tables they’d set up near the food booths, and she did a perfectly stellar job of pretending Cody Boggs wasn’t there at all.
He was busy with the water-safety protocols and giving tours to little kids, which he did with such charm and kindness Louisa couldn’t help but notice it made her heart double in size. For a fleeting moment, she pictured him with kids of his own, a little boy maybe, with dark curls and a carbon copy of his brown eyes. She could see Cody carrying him on his shoulders, making him laugh, protecting him from the monsters under his bed. He’d be a good dad.
“Is this where you want the trophies?”
Louisa turned toward a man carrying the box of awards she’d had engraved for the race winners. The kids’ race started in twenty minutes—this guy was cutting it really close.
“Sorry they’re late. We found a mistake on the way out the door. Thought it was better to get it right. I think my boss emailed you?”
Well, she couldn’t fault him for that. “Thanks. You can set them here.”
She led him to the table they’d reserved for the bling, right next to the podium where the announcer would give the play-by-play for each race.
Louisa was helping the man unload the trophies and medals when she accidentally glanced over toward the Coast Guard setup and accidentally noticed that Cody was no longer there.
She scanned the crowd and braced herself for the impact of seeing him with McKenzie (again)—would it ever get easier? But it wasn’t McKenzie he was talking to. It was Louisa’s dad.
Oh no. Would Cody ask him about Maggie’s accounts? She hadn’t been clear enough that she had a strategy when it came to broaching the subject with her father. Namely, Don’t broach the subject with my father. But Cody was curious, so he’d likely broach away.
“I think the medals are upside down.”
“Huh?”
Louisa turned and found the trophy deliveryman pointing to the medals she’d just laid out on the table. They were, in fact, upside down.
She glanced up just in time to see Cody walk off with her dad and shake hands with someone else. Her stomach roiled.
Could this day get any worse?
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
WHEN WARREN CHAMBERS SHOWED UP next to the cutter, Cody shook his hand, all the while wondering if he had the answers to the questions that kept Cody up at night.
So many questions about his dad, about Maggie’s money, about the memorial on the beach and all the things he didn’t know about his parents.
His eyes drifted over to where Louisa was setting up trophies with some guy who’d just shown up. He’d managed to keep her in his sights all morning, and her comment about his busy night out had gotten under his skin more than he would’ve liked. What did she mean by that?
As he faced Warren, he noticed the man had the same bright-blue eyes Louisa had. He spotted JoEllen chatting with a group of ladies, all of them dressed up and half of them wearing big sun hats and sunglasses.
“Good to see you again, son,” Warren said, his hand firmly wrapped around Cody’s. “Looks like you’ve done a good job of getting people to come out and support your cause.”