“Yes, it was.”

He eyed her. “No, it wasn’t.”

“I was the control freak who drew up a contract.”

He looked away, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you don’t remember.”

Her mind raced back to that day on the beach. Had she remembered wrong?

He seemed to be on to a different topic—namely, sailing instruction. “Your turn.”

She frowned. She didn’t feel like learning anything about that boat. She wanted to figure out what she was forgetting about their pact. She wanted to remember it—in detail. Should she suggest a reenactment? She was pretty sure most of their conversations that summer ended with kissing—and she was a lot better at that now. Oh, how she wanted to show him.

Another boat approached from the opposite direction. Cody kept his eyes forward, and Louisa didn’t move.

“You’re slacking.”

She stood.

“I’m going to teach you to change direction.”

“I have full confidence that you can handle it.”

“Louisa, you paid big money for my expertise.”

She groaned. “Don’t remind me.” She still had half of her pledged money to pay. Maybe she should buy a lottery ticket.

“Morning, sailors!” Louisa looked up at the other boat and discovered her favorite person, McKenzie Palmer, was on board. Beside her, Charlie Pope, the Coastie Cody had warned her about.

“McKenzie?”

“You weren’t kidding about the sunrise, Cody,” McKenzie called across the water. “It was a beauty today. You might’ve turned me into a morning person.”

He didn’t respond.

“Still on for tonight?”

Cody did not look at Louisa, who once again begged herself to stay cool. “Uh, sure.”

“Great!” McKenzie tossed her long, wavy, too-perfect-for-this-hour ponytail behind her shoulder, and Charlie sailed them off. “Queequeg’s at six. Meet you there.”

A rock of dread lodged itself in her gut, but Louisa kept her eyes forward. “She’s friendly.” She did a poor job of keeping the annoyance out of her tone.

“Yep,” Cody said.

And that’s all he said. That’s it. No explanation of when he’d told McKenzie about the sunrise. Had it been that morning, before he left their mutual dwelling? He didn’t say. He also didn’t explain why he was meeting her later. A date?

“You wanna try this?” he asked, because in his mind, everything was just fine. Because they were just friends. Barely even friends.

Maybe it was time Louisa started remembering that.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?”

Ally was always so impatient. Louisa should’ve known she was a poor choice to bring along on her stakeout. Her business partner was meticulous, not only with the details of her business, but the minutes of her day.

“Just getting a good lay of the land,” she said. “You know, for the regatta.”