He leaned over and kissed her. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“PHONE’S BEEN RINGING OFF THE HOOK.”
Cody sat in the chair opposite Master Chief Duncan McGreery, staring out the window where the American flag hung proudly on the side of the black-and-white lighthouse. Brant Point was the backdrop for so many of his childhood memories. But he still never thought he’d be back here.
“When I told you to drum up good press for the Coast Guard, I had no idea you’d work so fast.” The phone on the master chief’s desk rang, and Cody winced at the sound. Peace and quiet would go a long way right now.
His superior took the call, and Cody only listened long enough for the sound bite.
“Yes, we do think XPO Boggs did an excellent job this morning. We don’t like to use the word hero, but I’d wager that’s exactly how Miss Chambers is feeling.”
Don’t bet on it.
The image of Louisa’s lifeless body would haunt his dreams, same way the others did. But Louisa had survived. He’d saved her. That should ease some of his guilt, shouldn’t it? He did a quick gut check. Nope. Still there. Would it ever be enough?
“Boggs.”
Cody could tell by the other man’s tone that he’d said his name more than once.
“Master Chief?”
“You okay?”
“Never better.”
“Do we need to have a conversation about why you went in the water after that girl?”
“She was in distress,” he said.
“But that wasn’t your job,” the master chief said. “Not to mention you broke protocol.”
Cody could’ve guessed this would come up. He cleared his throat. “Just wanted to lead by example. You said the men needed that.”
“Right, by example. You showed them how to break protocol.”
Cody didn’t respond.
Duncan wasn’t only his superior officer; he was Cody’s friend—one of the few he had. But being Duncan’s friend had proven to be problematic the second the master chief had called about the opening at Brant Point station.
“I need some help building morale up here,” Duncan had told him. “I need someone who can help me lead.”
“Must be a hundred other guys who could do that,” Cody remembered saying.
“Not like you,” Duncan said. “It’s a young crew, Boggs. They’ve had a rough go of it. Could really benefit from your kind of leadership.”
Cody understood. The men at Brant Point needed to be led, mentored, and brought up by someone who didn’t care about being their friend. That was Cody. It was what he was known for. Maybe this was always where he was meant to be. He’d done well for himself, despite the early setback. After all, he seemed born to lead, and just because it wasn’t his original plan didn’t mean he wasn’t fulfilling what he’d set out to do—save people from the ocean.
He loved his job. He liked moving up through the ranks. He liked the responsibility of being in charge. He liked doing his part to save lives, to serve whatever community he was a part of—it changed every few years.
When he was promoted to executive petty officer, he’d been proud, but when he got his most recent assignment, that feeling quickly disintegrated.
Duncan was thrilled they’d been stationed together. In fact, he hadn’t said so, but Cody had to wonder if the master chief wasn’t responsible for making that happen.
Cody wanted to fight it. He wanted to tell Duncan that this was a bad idea, that it would stir up memories and he liked to keep those neatly folded and tucked in a trunk stored at the back of his closet.
But that wasn’t how things worked. And Duncan needed him. Cody had a hard time walking away when he was needed.
So here he was. Sitting in an office at the Brant Point station. How surreal. He glanced out the window and saw the exact spot where he and Louisa had spent every childhood birthday he could remember.
Oh, the irony.
“Why don’t you go home? Take the day?”
“No,” Cody said—a little too quickly.
“It’s not a problem, Boggs. You just got in—and that was a heckuva first day.”
Was it enough of a morale boost for the duty station that Cody could pack his bags and take the ferry back to the mainland?
“I’m fine, Chief.”
“Boggs, I know Nantucket wasn’t on your dream sheet.”
Kodiak. Clearwater. Wailuku. Cape May. Honolulu. Juneau.
Nope. No sign of Nantucket on his dream sheet. Not that the dream sheet always mattered. Obviously not. Otherwise he’d be sipping a hot cup of coffee in Alaska right now.
“What’ve you got against Nantucket?” Duncan asked. “Most guys have the island at the top of their list.”
Cody shrugged. “Just never been a fan.”
Okay, so when he’d thought of Duncan as a friend, maybe he’d exaggerated a little. They were friends, but his master chief didn’t know the whole truth. Why he’d joined the Coast Guard. Why he didn’t want to be here. Why seeing Louisa was like seeing a ghost. Why it wrecked him to think—even for a second—how differently today could’ve gone.
If Duncan had known any of that, Cody had to believe he never would’ve allowed him to come here in the first place.
“Just let me get back to work, Master Chief,” Cody said.
Duncan eyed him as if deciding whether or not he wanted to issue a directive and force Cody to go home.
“Fine,” he finally said. He leaned back in his chair. “I need someone I can trust in my corner. Guys don’t always respond well to new leadership, and these guys need to function as a team. You know that.”
Cody forced himself to listen. It was important to hear the master chief’s vision, important the two of them were on the same page.
But the image of Louisa—pale-faced with blue lips and that striking red hair, limp on the deck of the rescue boat—assaulted his memory yet again.
What was she doing out there alone at that hour—without a life vest, no less? If she were here, he’d tell her exactly what he thought of her extracurricular activities. After all, they’d never been the kind of friends who beat around the bush. Whatever the opposite of passive-aggressive was, that was Louisa. She had never hesitated to speak her mind, but she did it in a way that made everyone fall in love with her.
He’d never met anyone who didn’t like Louisa Chambers. She was witty and smart and adorable. At least she had been. She’d gotten a little surly at the hospital. Maybe he simply had that effect on women.
He and Louisa had never actually “met.” They’d just always known each other. There were pictures of them in diapers together. Their parents had met in college ages ago, and since not a single one of them had a sibling, they all sort of adopted each other, became each other’s family.
Sometimes Cody wondered if their mothers had intentionally gone into labor on the same day, as if they could’ve planned for such a thing.
Cody and Louisa were both born on July 30. Their mothers were certain it was a sign. Of what, they never explained, but their births cemented a friendship that was meant to last a lifetime.