He and Louisa liked sneaking out of their rooms at night. They’d trudge out back and swing in the hammock strung between two trees, looking up at the stars and working like mad to keep their eyes open. He loved those nights. He loved their days on the beach. Their afternoon bike rides. The board game tournaments he and Louisa always seemed to win.

This year, though, Dad had the taxi turn down North Road and drop them in front of a small gray-shingled cottage with giant bluish-purple hydrangeas out front and a sign above the door that said Seaside. He got out of the cab and stood in the treeless yard on the quiet street, no other people anywhere in sight.

His little sister tore off toward the house, shouting and giggling as she ran around the yard.

“What are we doing here, Dad?” Cody asked, aware of the quick glance between his parents.

“What do you think, sport?” Dad asked.

“Are we going to Lou’s or . . . ?” The letters they exchanged from September to May were great, but it wasn’t the same as hearing her laugh.

Louisa’s family lived in Boston, but Cody and his family lived in his dad’s hometown—Chicago. They often spent holidays together since they considered each other family, but would everything change if they didn’t share the big cottage on Nantucket?

He didn’t want anything to change. He liked things the way they were. Mom always said they had something special, something rare. Theirs was a safe cocoon of friends who’d been brought together as if they were always meant to be in each other’s lives.

Dad smiled, faint wrinkles fanning around his eyes. “What would you think about staying here this summer?”

“Here?”

His mother’s smile faltered.

“Is Lou going to stay here?” Cody asked.

His dad clapped a hand on his shoulder. “No, but we will spend every day with Louisa and her family, same as always.”

Not the same as always. How would they sneak into the kitchen and steal the leftover lemon bars if they weren’t even in the same house?

Cody frowned. “But why can’t we stay there? They have the ocean right in the backyard.”

“We’re just a stone’s throw from the ocean,” Dad said. “See, out that way? ’Sconset Beach.”

Cody could see the water wasn’t too far, and while it wasn’t as great as having the ocean in your backyard, it was still pretty great.

His father knelt down in front of him. “We’ve loved staying with Louisa and her family, kiddo, but we wanted a place that was all our own.”

His eyes traveled left toward the small cottage on North Road. “So this is ours?”

Dad nodded. “All ours.”

“I have my own room?”

“Yep.”

“Cool!”

Dad laughed. “Cool!”