“I’m not a damsel in distress,” Louisa said. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She didn’t want to be reduced to one of those women who needed a man to swoop in and save the day.

But if Cody hadn’t swooped, she would’ve died. The weight of that might never escape her.

“XPO Boggs said he’d talk to me.” McKenzie’s expression turned wry.

“Great. He’s full of stories, I’m sure.” She tried not to sound sarcastic. She didn’t try hard enough.

“You really should be more grateful to him, Louisa,” McKenzie said. “He’s a hero. An actual hero, and you’re not the only person he’s saved.”

Maybe not, but Louisa knew it likely mattered very little how many people Cody saved. He hadn’t saved the one person who mattered most. That was probably what drove him in the first place.

“I have a meeting, McKenzie,” Louisa said with a wave. “Nice to see you.”

“You, too,” she called out in her singsongy voice. Louisa couldn’t be sure, but she thought two or three chirping sparrows circled around McKenzie’s head as she walked away.

She turned back to the station and inhaled a sharp breath. Here goes nothing.

The melody of “My White Knight” from the Broadway musical The Music Man drifted through her mind as she strode toward the door. She groaned. She didn’t need old-time love songs in her head right before she sat down with Cody Boggs.

She walked inside the station and instantly felt out of place. She shouldn’t have agreed to meet here. She should’ve insisted he come back to her office so she could pitch her ideas.

“Hey, you’re that woman.” One of the guardsmen stood a few yards away. “The one we saved the other day.”

Oh yeah, this would be fun.

“That’s me,” she said.

He grinned at her. “You got lucky.”

Luck had nothing to do with it.

“I’m here to see XPO Boggs.” She’d stolen his title from McKenzie. Truth was, she had no idea what Cody’s rank was or what it meant, but nobody needed to know that.

“’Course you are,” the man replied. “All the pretty ones want to talk to Boggs.”

“Louisa?”

She turned and found Cody standing in the doorway of what she could only assume was an office.

“We can meet in here.” He took a step into the nondescript room, furnished with a desk, two bookshelves, and a window that faced the ocean.

She stood awkwardly in the doorway. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”

He eyed her for a split second, then motioned toward the chair on the opposite side of the desk. “Have a seat.”

He clearly didn’t have time for witty banter today, which was a shame because she felt especially witty at the moment.