Louisa closed her eyes. Of all the people to show up as an answer to her prayers. Was God trying to play a mean joke on her or something? Are you just throwing this all back in my face or what? She groaned.

“You okay?” Kiki again. Hadn’t she left yet?

“Sorry, yes. How long until I can go home?”

“Oh, I couldn’t say, but I’ll go find the doctor for you.”

Louisa let her head fall back on the pillow. Her family wasn’t on the island yet, and she wasn’t looking forward to calling them to let them know she’d nearly died that morning. Her mother would be sick with worry. Louisa could practically see her fanning herself with all the drama of a Southern beauty queen.

“Louisa Elizabeth Chambers, I cannot believe you were so reckless,” she’d say. “Are you trying to drive me to an early grave?”

“Yes, Mother,” Louisa would reply. “Because I secretly want your figurine collection and custody of Teddy.”

Louisa had spent the whole of her childhood begging for a puppy, so when her mother announced she’d gotten a Bernese mountain dog to keep her company now that Louisa had moved away, she’d tried her best not to get angry. Daddy tried his best too, though sometimes Louisa wondered if her parents would one day have to cite “giant teddy bear dog” as the reason for their divorce.

So far they were holding it together, but for how long, Louisa didn’t know. Maybe love wasn’t really meant to last.

Why she was thinking about that, she had no idea. Same way she had no idea why her end-of-life bucket list had taken such a dramatic turn there at the end.

I wish I’d fallen in love? Who was she? Noni Rose, the famous Nantucket matchmaker who drank in love and romance like it was more important than air—something Louisa knew firsthand was quite far from the truth?

She rubbed her face with her hands. Maybe she shouldn’t call her parents after all.

Her mother would view this near-death accident as a personal affront, as if Louisa had decided it might be fun to almost drown just to upset her mother’s equilibrium. In recent years, JoEllen Chambers had taken up yoga, feng shui’d her entire house, and declared on more than one occasion that her only daughter could certainly benefit from a more minimalist lifestyle.

“You overcomplicate things,” she’d told Louisa on their last visit to the island.

Louisa had rolled her eyes, but she knew her mother had a point. Mothers always had a point. Like when her mom told her all those years ago not to go on that date with Cody Boggs.

“There’s too much at stake here, Lou,” she’d said. “Danny and Marissa are our very best friends. If you break their son’s heart, there will be messy feelings.”