They’d all been coming to Nantucket since college. Daniel and Warren worked as caddies at the golf course while JoEllen put Marissa up in her family’s cottage. The girls waited tables for extra money, but even Cody knew work wasn’t why any of them chose the island as their summer destination. It was an escape—a vacation. And it became the place all four of them returned to even after they were grown.
It was clear that both of these families were destined to live and breathe and play on Nantucket. It was in their blood.
But that was before, of course. Before everything—everything—went wrong.
“Boggs, you’re distracted,” the chief said. “I’m sending you home. I’m sure you’ve got unpacking to do.”
Cody couldn’t deny he was distracted, not without lying anyway. But the thought of going home to bare walls and unpacked boxes sucked the life right out of him.
“I’m fine, Master Chief.”
“Why don’t you go check on Miss Chambers?”
“What?” The man had his full attention now.
“Listen, I’m not going to get into it all now, Boggs, but the Coast Guard could use a win or two. I’m going to let it slide that you left the deck of your ship to go in after that woman, but only because it’s already helping build morale around here and because it’s got the community talking. Let’s keep the momentum of this going. I want the people on this island to know us, to love us, to respect us. Then maybe they’ll wear life vests when they’re out paddleboarding.”
Cody eyed the other man. “What aren’t you telling me, Master Chief?”
“I want to make our presence on this island known,” he said. “That’s all.”
“But that’s not all,” Cody said. “Why do these boys need a morale boost, and why are we working so hard to look good in this community?”
“That’s not an uncommon goal,” Duncan said. “We’ll go over everything else later, when you’re actually listening. Now go check in with Miss Chambers. It’s the right thing to do.”
Cody didn’t try hard enough to stifle a groan.
Duncan’s eyebrow quirked and the man shifted in his seat. “Problem?”
“I don’t know that Lou—Miss Chambers will welcome a visit from me.”
Duncan didn’t move, but his eyes asked the question he didn’t say. It was at that precise moment that Cody realized he didn’t want to get into the details with his master chief or anyone else. What was he going to say anyway? “We used to be friends until she took my heart and sliced it in two like a slab of beef on the butcher block”?
He’d gotten over this a long time ago. Why would he even think of bringing it back up now?
But it was more than that, wasn’t it? It was more than their silly teenage romance gone wrong. It was everything else that had happened between them and how it changed both of their families forever. That was a little more difficult to get over.
The chief scribbled something on a scrap of paper and handed it to him. “This is her address.”
“You have it memorized?”
“I looked it up while you were daydreaming,” Duncan said. “Get some rest, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Cody didn’t bother protesting. He walked out of the man’s office and down the hall, aware of the quiet murmurs that followed him as he went. It was as if nobody had ever saved a person from the ocean before. He knew that wasn’t the case. But he supposed it would never get old to hear a story of how one person put their life on the line to save another person.
Maybe the world needed those stories to combat the stories where people purposely hurt each other every day. He should be proud to be a part of the good—why did it make him feel self-conscious?
Outside, Cody got in his Jeep and started the engine. Would Duncan ever find out if he skipped a visit to Louisa? He unfolded the piece of paper and read the address his chief had scrawled on it.
12 North Road.
Cody’s eyes focused, then unfocused as he stared at the handwritten address. Surely it was a mistake.
His mind whirled back years. Decades. And somehow, if he really concentrated, it felt like yesterday.
It was the summer he would turn ten. They’d been vacationing in Nantucket since he was a baby, and Dad’s investments were paying off, thanks to Mr. Chambers, who’d taught Cody’s father how things in the financial world worked.
That summer when they arrived on the island, Cody expected to join Louisa and her family at their big cottage on the water, the one her family had inherited from her grandparents. That’s the way it had always been. Their family took one side of the cottage, and Louisa’s family occupied the other side. The house was big enough, and nobody ever got in anyone else’s way.
It was the perfect setup. At least, he’d always thought so.
He and Louisa liked sneaking out of their rooms at night. They’d trudge out back and swing in the hammock strung between two trees, looking up at the stars and working like mad to keep their eyes open. He loved those nights. He loved their days on the beach. Their afternoon bike rides. The board game tournaments he and Louisa always seemed to win.
This year, though, Dad had the taxi turn down North Road and drop them in front of a small gray-shingled cottage with giant bluish-purple hydrangeas out front and a sign above the door that said Seaside. He got out of the cab and stood in the treeless yard on the quiet street, no other people anywhere in sight.
His little sister tore off toward the house, shouting and giggling as she ran around the yard.
“What are we doing here, Dad?” Cody asked, aware of the quick glance between his parents.
“What do you think, sport?” Dad asked.
“Are we going to Lou’s or . . . ?” The letters they exchanged from September to May were great, but it wasn’t the same as hearing her laugh.
Louisa’s family lived in Boston, but Cody and his family lived in his dad’s hometown—Chicago. They often spent holidays together since they considered each other family, but would everything change if they didn’t share the big cottage on Nantucket?
He didn’t want anything to change. He liked things the way they were. Mom always said they had something special, something rare. Theirs was a safe cocoon of friends who’d been brought together as if they were always meant to be in each other’s lives.
Dad smiled, faint wrinkles fanning around his eyes. “What would you think about staying here this summer?”
“Here?”
His mother’s smile faltered.
“Is Lou going to stay here?” Cody asked.
His dad clapped a hand on his shoulder. “No, but we will spend every day with Louisa and her family, same as always.”
Not the same as always. How would they sneak into the kitchen and steal the leftover lemon bars if they weren’t even in the same house?
Cody frowned. “But why can’t we stay there? They have the ocean right in the backyard.”
“We’re just a stone’s throw from the ocean,” Dad said. “See, out that way? ’Sconset Beach.”
Cody could see the water wasn’t too far, and while it wasn’t as great as having the ocean in your backyard, it was still pretty great.