She nodded. “That would be nice.”
They started off down the road, the noise from the party slowly beginning to fade.
“I’ll get right to it, Louisa,” she said. “I’m worried about my son.”
“Is he okay?” Louisa’s heart raced. “Did something happen?”
“Oh no, physically he’s fine.”
They turned the corner and walked toward the water. Louisa noticed the sun had begun to dip lower in the sky. Her mind wandered across the island to the lighthouse. It pained her to think that after all this time, after all this buildup, after their almost second chance, neither of them was there at this precise moment.
“I had forgotten about your birthday wishes,” Marissa said, nostalgia coming through in her voice. She started rummaging through her bag. “Then I found this. He left it behind when he stayed with me this week.” She handed over a sheet of folded paper.
Louisa slowly opened it. On it, in Cody’s familiar scrawl, was written:
Birthday wish for my thirtieth year:
I wish my mom would learn to forgive. And I wish Louisa and I could be together.
Louisa’s heart caught in her throat. She glanced at Marissa, who was staring straight ahead.
“I was cleaning after he left, and it caught me off guard. I didn’t realize I was one of the reasons the two of you weren’t together.”
“I didn’t want to be the reason he lost his family,” Louisa said sadly.
Marissa shifted. “Obviously I have a reason to be angry.”
“Of course,” Louisa said quietly.
“But not enough of a reason to ruin the rest of my son’s life.” Marissa faced her. “You make him happy. You always have.”
Tears sprang to Louisa’s eyes, but she didn’t even bother to blink them away. “I love him, Mrs. Boggs.”
Marissa reached over and took Louisa by the arms. “I know you do. And I think your love has taught me a lot about what I need to work on.” She stilled. “I called your mom.”
Louisa stared at her with wide eyes. “You did?”
“We’re going to have coffee.”
Louisa couldn’t keep a laugh from escaping. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“Forgiveness is a powerful thing, I’m starting to see. Daniel was so good at it, I think I almost resented him for it.” Her face turned sad. “It came so easy to him, just like everything else.”
Louisa understood, at least partly. The day Cody forgave her, she felt like she’d been set free. She studied the older woman for a moment, then dared the question she’d been turning over in her mind. “Mrs. Boggs, do you forgive me?”
Marissa reached out and put a hand on Louisa’s face. “I forgive you, LuLu.”
Tears streamed down Louisa’s face. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Thank you,” Marissa said, “for loving my son.”
Louisa wiped her eyes. “I do love him, but I pushed him away. I always find ways to lose him, don’t I?”
Marissa squeezed her arm. “I don’t think you’ve lost him, dear. Your birthday isn’t over yet.”
Louisa smiled sadly. “If only that mattered. I don’t even know where he is.”
“He’s here somewhere,” Marissa said.
She frowned. “Here on the island?”
“He arrived this evening. He has a lot of decisions to make. But maybe we should start by making his birthday wish come true?”
Louisa looked down at the paper in her hands. She nodded, unable to contain her joy at learning Cody was here—in Nantucket.
Now she just had to convince him to stay.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
MARISSA TOLD LOUISA SHE WANTED TO SPEND SOME TIME at Daniel’s memorial—alone—and Louisa agreed. She hugged Cody’s mom, thanked her profusely, then rushed back home. The party was still going strong.
Ally raced over to her. “What was that about?”
Louisa found her keys in a small bowl on the table in the entryway. “I’ll explain later,” she said. “Can you hold down the fort here?”
“You’re leaving?”
Louisa smiled, feeling hopeful for the first time in days. “We already did cake. Nobody will even notice I’m not here.”
“It’s your party.”
She took Ally’s hands. “I promise I’ll be back. There’s just something I have to do.” She leveled her friend’s gaze. “You know I wouldn’t leave if it wasn’t important.”
After a beat, Ally’s eyes lit up. “Cody?”
“I’ll be back!” Louisa rushed out, maneuvered her Vespa around the other vehicles parked in her driveway and in front of Seaside, then sped off toward Cody’s house. The place appeared to be empty, but Louisa knocked on the door just in case. As she suspected, there was no answer. If he was back on the island, he wasn’t here.
She heaved a sigh, then hopped back on her scooter and motored back to her own house. After parking, she headed next door to Maggie’s, which, at first glance, also seemed to be deserted. She walked up the steps and onto the porch, fishing her key from her purse. She pushed open the door and called out into the darkness, but there was no answer.
He wasn’t here either.
She was starting to feel discouraged—maybe she should check the party one more time? Or maybe Cody wasn’t on the island like Marissa thought. Maybe he’d planned to come, then realized it would be better not to. Maybe he’d put her behind him once and for all.
There was only one other place she could think to look without launching an all-out search in every restaurant and bar downtown.
Odds were, if he wasn’t home, he was at the station. But that meant driving out to Brant Point and being faced with the realization that their pact was now part of their past—and nothing had come of it. All it was now was a broken promise.
She tried not to think about it as she drove through town, down Beach Street, past Children’s Beach. She arrived at the station, parked, and went inside. She found a few of the guys in the common area.
“Louisa!” Carlos Delgado, one of the guys from the auction, grinned at her.
“Hey, Carlos.” She looked around the station, growing sadder by the minute. “You haven’t seen Cody, have you?”
Carlos frowned. “Oh. He’s gone. Didn’t you know?”
The other guys were staring at her now, and she wondered if she appeared as frantic and frazzled as she felt. “I heard he might be back.”
They exchanged glances and shrugs across the room.
“Sorry; we haven’t seen him,” Carlos said. “If he shows up, do you want me to tell him you stopped by?”
Louisa felt like the air had been sucked straight out of her lungs. Was she suffocating? Was she back underwater, just one wave away from certain death?
“Louisa?”
She shook the memory away, angry that it still haunted her at all. But losing him felt a lot like flailing around in that water. It felt a lot like drowning.
“Sorry,” she said. “No, you don’t have to tell him anything.”
“Okay. Have a good night.” They resumed their chatter, and the sound of laughter filled the space behind her as she walked toward the door.