OVER THE NEXT TWO WEEKS, Cody spent as much time with Louisa as his schedule would allow. The awkwardness between them had dwindled, and while they’d settled into a rhythm, the air between them was still charged with the newness of their mutual attraction.

He liked that he had the right to reach over and take her hand. He liked being welcomed into her house. He loved that she kissed him good night and that she still seemed shy about it. He might’ve known Louisa his entire life, but it was as if they were becoming reacquainted.

It excited him.

His first year in the Coast Guard, it became pretty clear that his lifestyle didn’t lend itself to a relationship, and frankly, he’d never met anyone who made him want to change that. Until now.

Cody happily helped her prepare for Maggie’s party, awed, as usual, by watching her work. She was so good at her job—how could that jerk ex-boyfriend of hers make her think otherwise?

Perfect strangers hired her—a moonlight picnic on the beach or a personal tour of the island—and it didn’t matter what they wanted her to do; she did it with her whole heart.

It inspired him. Had he ever cared about anyone that completely before? Maybe not until now.

Every single detail of Maggie’s party mattered to Louisa. Food, decorations, party favors, location, guest list—she left nothing out. And while it mattered to her for all the right reasons, Cody feared there was a lot of weight on this party’s success for other reasons too. As if it were the magical cure for healing a past so broken anyone else would’ve deemed it beyond repair.

One evening, when they were supposed to be on their way to dinner, he found her stressing about tablecloths, as if choosing the wrong ones would have tragic results. He gave her hand a tug and pulled her up from the chair behind her desk, where she’d likely been sitting since early that morning. She sighed as she looked at him, and he waited for her to give him her full attention.

“Hey,” he said.

She smiled. “Hey.”

“You’re putting a lot of importance on these tablecloths.”

“I just want everything to be perfect,” she said.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her body closer to his and inhaling the scent of her. “Perfect is boring.”

She shook her head.

“Lou, I just don’t want you to be disappointed.”

Her body stiffened underneath his fingers, and she inched back. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing, forget it.”

“No, not nothing.” She was fully out of his arms now. He shouldn’t have brought it up. “You still think it’s a bad idea.”