Lots of people loved his father, but only one person that he could think of called him Danny. JoEllen Chambers.

What if . . . ?

He shouldn’t have come here. He didn’t need anything messing with his memory of his father. In his mind, his father was the real hero. His father was the one who jumped in to save him in the middle of the choppiest waters they’d seen that summer. His father was the one who gave no thought to the fact that he’d warned Cody not to swim, no thought to the fact that Cody had disobeyed. He was the one who braved the waves and the rip currents and the darkness to save his son’s life.

He was the one who died.

Cody stood, tucked the card in his pocket, and gave the cross one last, lingering look as if staring at it could provide answers. Whoever had been here had known his father enough to want to keep his memory alive. They missed him enough, even all these years later.

He turned toward the road and started running again, unsuccessfully willing the questions to stop. So much for clearing his mind. All this run had done was create more confusion.

Unfortunately, he could come up with only two people on the island who might be able to help him.

And he was in no hurry to dredge up the past with either of them.

CHAPTER TEN

“WHAT DID THE COASTIES WANT?” Alyssa had returned from the Cape and now stood in the office where Louisa had set up her Big Dream whiteboard.

The whiteboard had been with her for years—it was a staple in her creative process. Anything and everything she thought of could go up on the whiteboard. Even if an idea didn’t make it past the board, it often cleared the way for an idea that did.

Currently the whiteboard was empty.

“You could’ve told me it was the Coast Guard I was meeting with,” Louisa scolded.

Ally looked sheepish. “You might not have taken the meeting if I’d done that.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“So what did they want?” Ally stood in front of her, looking put together and proper, as she always did. Somehow she managed to put up with Louisa’s tendencies toward the opposite, and Louisa was grateful. She knew The Good Life would really be floundering if it weren’t for Ally’s business sense.

Louisa filled her in on her meeting with Duncan and Cody, and when she finished, she drew Ally’s attention to the blank whiteboard.

“I see you’ve made progress,” Ally said.

Louisa sighed. “I think almost dying was bad for my creativity.”

“You think?”

The door opened, and Maggie walked in. “You’ve been back here for hours. You need to take a break.”

“I need to figure out a fundraiser idea for the Coast Guard,” Louisa said.