“Yeah, I know, but your body went through a trauma. When all that adrenaline gets out of your system, you’re going to crash. Someone needs to be here with you. You said Maggie was going to look after you.”

“She is,” Louisa said.

“Where is she?” Their eyes met for a split second, and he squeezed the cap a little tighter. She could tell because his knuckles turned white. In a flash, she wanted to know everything he was thinking, even though she was certain it would sting a little.

Unless he was thinking, Oh, Louisa, you really are the love of my life. Let’s put the past behind us and start again. That certainly would not sting.

Odds of that? Slim to zero. No, never mind. She didn’t want to know what he was thinking.

The memory of water holding her under like a bully at a child’s pool party invaded her mind, and she forced herself to take a deep breath.

You’re safe now.

She looked at Cody. She was safe because of him. An inexplicable knot formed at the back of her throat, and she turned away as her eyes clouded over. She would not cry in front of him. Not today. Not ever again.

She sat down and closed her eyes, willing away the tears, and when she opened them, he was standing beside the couch, holding the old quilt.

She felt the skin of her forehead crease in confusion as he gently laid the blanket over her lap, then sat across from her. His kindness stunned her. Shamed her. She didn’t deserve it. Yet it sent a tingle through her body like a shock wave.

“What are you doing here?” The words came out as an accusation, which was not her intent. “I mean, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

He cleared his throat. Probably biting back an angry retort. “I didn’t expect to see you here either.”

She took his meaning. The cottage. His cottage. North Road. He’d been so proud of this place that first summer when his family moved in. She’d overheard bits and pieces of their parents’ conversations, enough to know that Daniel Boggs had learned to play the stock market thanks to her father, and he’d had a knack for it. He had, as her dad said, “a brilliant financial mind.”

The best part, Louisa thought, was that Daniel had a kind heart. Cody’s dad hadn’t been raised with money, and having it never seemed to change him. He didn’t hold on to it too tightly.

By contrast, Louisa’s dad’s life seemed to revolve around the stock market. His world was all numbers all the time. And though nobody said so, she had a feeling Warren wasn’t “a brilliant financial mind.”