Is It Any Wonder (Nantucket Love Story #2) - Courtney Walsh Page 0,28

Cody, too, but she kept those to herself.

“What should I call you?” Duncan asked.

“Louisa,” she said. “Or Lou. Most of my friends call me Lou.”

“It suits you,” Duncan said.

Her eyes drifted back to Cody, who apparently didn’t share his master chief’s kind demeanor.

“I’ll get to the point, Lou,” Duncan said.

Cody stiffened.

“As you mentioned, we have an image problem.”

“Sorry for the rambling,” she said.

He held up a hand and smiled again. This guy was the perfect person to handle their image problem. He was handsome, kind, and he had a lovely set of very white teeth. At his side, Cody looked miserable and grumpy like a man auditioning to play Scrooge in a community theatre production of A Christmas Carol.

Any director would cast him, too.

“We would like to improve our reputation here and our relationship with the community.”

Louisa forced herself to listen as the master chief explained his hopes for the Coast Guard as it related to the people of Nantucket. Of course the Coast Guard had been a presence on the island for years, but the goal was to integrate more with the locals, the idea being that if they won the respect of the people, the people would be more willing to listen and therefore obey the advice of the Coast Guard.

Advice like “Wear a life vest.”

“You know about Jackson Wirth and our issues there,” he said. “We’ve come under fire, and his family isn’t about to let it go, not as long as their son is in a coma.”

“Would you, sir?”

Duncan paused, a thoughtful expression on his face. “You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”

Cody’s eyes were full on her—she could feel it—and she didn’t like the effect it had on her. Louisa was confident in this space. She knew her business, and she knew what she was good at.

If only that confidence carried over into her personal life, where she was something of a disaster. Sometimes she felt like two people occupying the same body. One, smart and self-assured. The other, full of doubt.

“I don’t like to, no,” she said.

“That’s refreshing,” he said. “Too many people tend to hold back what they’re thinking.”

She dared a glance at the neatly dressed Coastie at Duncan’s side. Cody held back everything he was thinking, didn’t he? Whom did he tell his secrets to?

“You think the Wirth family is justified in their criticism of the Coast Guard?” Duncan asked.

“I think they’re hurting—grieving—and people sometimes say and do things they don’t mean under those circumstances,” Louisa said.

Her mind wandered back to the day after Daniel Boggs drowned.

“This is your fault, Lou!” Cody had shouted at her, face red and splotchy from crying. “You’re the reason my dad is dead.”

Those words still haunted her sometimes. Not only because they stung, but because she believed them. She absolutely believed it was her fault, and she’d spent her whole life trying to make amends for that.

It’s why she had to repair what was broken. She had to bring their two families back together. She couldn’t bring Daniel back, but at least she could try to put the people he loved back together.

Or maybe Daniel wouldn’t want that. Maybe he’d want his wife and kids to walk away from the Chambers family and never speak to them again.

She’d never know.

“So how do we fix it?” Duncan asked. “We’d like your help improving our community relations, restoring our reputation. We want to do good on the island.”

“You do,” she said. “The haunted house at Halloween. The Valentine’s Day dance.”

“You’re right, we do, but I’d like to go above and beyond. Is there something more we can do to increase visibility, connect with people on a personal level?”

Louisa sometimes felt like an idea machine. While she didn’t always know how to go about implementing things, she never wanted for good ideas. She’d always considered that her one true talent.

“What if you did a fundraiser for the Wirth family?” she suggested.

“A fundraiser?” Duncan looked intrigued.

“Sure,” she said. “Someone organized a clambake for them when the accident first happened, but it’s been months of medical bills, and I’m sure they could use the extra support.”

“What kind of fundraiser?”

Louisa didn’t often organize fundraisers. Her business was more about arranging Nantucket dream vacations—fishing excursions and delightful accommodations—or finding the perfect chef to cater a party, those kinds of things. People hired The Good Life for any number of tasks—Alyssa coordinated many of the daily errands they were contracted to do. One client had hired them to arrange his move off the