“Still got your head in the clouds, I see.” Mom had gone back into the kitchen and had probably asked Louisa a question, but Louisa had no idea what it was.

“What did you say?”

“Honestly, Louisa. I really hoped you’d outgrow this daydreaming.”

“This daydreaming is the reason I’m now a successful business owner.”

Her mom raised a brow. “Successful?”

Louisa shrank under the accusation. She was successful. She had her own business. She paid her bills. Never mind that her bank account was nearly empty and she had no idea how she would ever pay for her impulse buy of one handsome Coast Guardsman.

“I suppose you must be if you have over five thousand dollars to give away at a charity auction.” Her raised brow seemed to accuse.

“It’s for a good cause.” Louisa sat on the tall stool at the kitchen island and plucked a grape from the bunch in the fruit bowl on the counter.

In the lull, Louisa wondered if part of the reason it had become so important to repair the relationship between her family and Cody’s was because of this thinly veiled tension that always existed between her and her mother. Had it been there before Daniel had died? Did she really think that making things right between Marissa and her parents would fix her own relationship with them?

Louisa knew her mother blamed her for Daniel’s death. She’d implied as much more than once.

The day Louisa had told her she’d decided to move to Nantucket full-time and work for the hotel, her mom said, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? It will be a constant reminder that your actions have consequences.”

Louisa hadn’t bothered correcting her. She hadn’t taken the time to explain that she’d already learned that lesson and was currently punishing herself for it on a daily, hourly, minute-ly basis.

Louisa had always believed her mother’s passive-aggressive anger toward her was a result of the fact that she’d lost Marissa, her best friend in the world. But now, in light of what Cody suspected, she wondered if it was more than that.

The thought of it made Louisa’s stomach roll.

“Are you here to ask for money?”

“What? No. I’ve been on my own for years, Mom.”

Her mother took a Diet Coke from the refrigerator.

“Still drinking that, are you?”

She opened the bottle and poured it into a glass. “Leave me alone. I know all about how bad it is for me.”

“You know aspartame is worse than real sugar.”

“Why are you here, Louisa?”

“Can’t a girl stop by and say hello to the parents who never text or call?”

“Oh, Louisa, you’ve always been so dramatic.” Her mother took a drink. “So have you had a sailing lesson yet?”