“Not only me.” She tossed one quick look at Cody.

“Come on in. Let’s run through the evening’s program.” Duncan ushered her past Cody (who smelled like an evergreen forest in heaven) and outside to the beach, where the tables had been set up next to a small stage.

“Couldn’t have asked for better weather,” Duncan said.

“No, we sure couldn’t.”

The man took a quick look around. Tall circular tables had been covered with cloths the same dusty lavender as the many hydrangeas that were starting to blossom around the island. They’d been arranged for optimal viewing of the small stage and decorated with centerpieces of white and blue hydrangeas in low glass vases.

White lights had been strung around the outdoor space, and a buffet table featuring large galvanized-metal containers and three tiers of appetizers would later be perfectly arranged to encourage grazing.

There was also a bar neatly positioned inside an old wooden boat Louisa had brought in from her shed of “treasures waiting to be discovered.” Sometimes it was good to be a collector—not quite to the same degree as Maggie, but enough to have cool focal-point pieces like this one.

They would set up several glasses and self-serve drinks in the boat, which had a beautiful, colorful floral centerpiece in the middle of it. Louisa’s vision had come to life. The men of the Coast Guard might never fully appreciate all the detail that had gone into it, but hopefully the potential bidders would.

And even Eric wouldn’t be able to deny she’d created something truly special.

“Run me through the evening,” Duncan said.

Right. She was working. Focus. She found it terribly hard to concentrate with Cody standing just over there and looking like that, but she stuttered her way through an explanation of the plan as she glanced around the space. Appetizers and cocktails, straight into a quick run-down of the regatta, the fundraiser, and what they were actually bidding on.

“Then, of course, the auction itself.”

When she finished, she looked at Duncan, who appeared wholly unimpressed with her explanation. “I promise I won’t stutter so much tonight.”

“You do seem distracted,” he said.

Her eyes were inadvertently drawn to Cody, who was not looking back, then quickly back to Duncan.

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Your own real-life hero, eh?”

Louisa shook her head, pretending not to understand what the man was talking about, but she had little energy for pretending, and frankly, Duncan didn’t seem all that interested. In fact, he’d already walked away and here she was, alone.

Typically Louisa was perfectly comfortable being alone. She wasn’t the type of person who wouldn’t go to a movie or sit in a restaurant by herself. But somehow, right now, she felt out of place, like she needed something familiar to cling to.

A teddy bear or hard-bodied Coast Guardsman would suffice.