The woman coughed again, then tried to sit up. She wasn’t small or frail—she was muscular and athletic, the kind of person who made activity a part of her daily life. Would she be ticked off to find out she’d required saving? Lots of women were these days.

But as she shifted and brought her intense blue eyes to his, it wasn’t anger or irritation he found there. It was recognition.

“Cody?”

He leaned back on his heels and studied her face—freckles that trailed across the bridge of her nose, hair darkened by the sea, and familiar eyes as bright as the sky.

“Louisa?” Her name escaped his lips, almost a whisper.

“You two know each other?” Jessup knelt beside him.

She hadn’t looked away since she’d said his name.

Was their entire history flashing through her mind too? Was she wondering where he’d been? Whom he’d loved? Why he was back? Why he never called? Did she want to know how he and his family had survived after they left the island? Or maybe, just maybe, she was thinking of that stupid pact they’d made all those years ago. Back when things were simple and it seemed like there would never be a day they wouldn’t be in each other’s lives.

Of course, it was possible she was thinking none of those things. Maybe she was simply thinking that he was a jerk for saying the things he did.

She’d be right.

But there was a whole world she didn’t understand, and he wasn’t about to explain it to her. He stood.

Her eyes followed.

He didn’t like it. He didn’t like being watched. Being seen. Not by Louisa Chambers, anyway.

The crew of the other boat boarded their vessel and got to work. Soon Louisa would be headed for the hospital.

Once she was gone, Cody might be able to breathe again.

CHAPTER TWO

LOUISA SAT IN A WARM HOSPITAL BED, wondering if she could patent a new design for a hospital gown that was slightly more flattering than the tent they currently had her wrapped in.

Not that her attire mattered exactly, because, let’s face it, the real objective here was restoring her health. But truly—would it be too much to ask for a girl to get something with even a hint of shape to it? With her long hair a tangled mess of salt water and her face still pale from nearly dying, she could use all the help she could get.

These thoughts, she realized, were wholly unlike her. And she blamed them on the almost-drowning thing. Or more accurately, on Cody Boggs. The man who’d saved her life.