Is It Any Wonder (Nantucket Love Story #2) - Courtney Walsh Page 0,5

would be sick with worry. Louisa could practically see her fanning herself with all the drama of a Southern beauty queen.

“Louisa Elizabeth Chambers, I cannot believe you were so reckless,” she’d say. “Are you trying to drive me to an early grave?”

“Yes, Mother,” Louisa would reply. “Because I secretly want your figurine collection and custody of Teddy.”

Louisa had spent the whole of her childhood begging for a puppy, so when her mother announced she’d gotten a Bernese mountain dog to keep her company now that Louisa had moved away, she’d tried her best not to get angry. Daddy tried his best too, though sometimes Louisa wondered if her parents would one day have to cite “giant teddy bear dog” as the reason for their divorce.

So far they were holding it together, but for how long, Louisa didn’t know. Maybe love wasn’t really meant to last.

Why she was thinking about that, she had no idea. Same way she had no idea why her end-of-life bucket list had taken such a dramatic turn there at the end.

I wish I’d fallen in love? Who was she? Noni Rose, the famous Nantucket matchmaker who drank in love and romance like it was more important than air—something Louisa knew firsthand was quite far from the truth?

She rubbed her face with her hands. Maybe she shouldn’t call her parents after all.

Her mother would view this near-death accident as a personal affront, as if Louisa had decided it might be fun to almost drown just to upset her mother’s equilibrium. In recent years, JoEllen Chambers had taken up yoga, feng shui’d her entire house, and declared on more than one occasion that her only daughter could certainly benefit from a more minimalist lifestyle.

“You overcomplicate things,” she’d told Louisa on their last visit to the island.

Louisa had rolled her eyes, but she knew her mother had a point. Mothers always had a point. Like when her mom told her all those years ago not to go on that date with Cody Boggs.

“There’s too much at stake here, Lou,” she’d said. “Danny and Marissa are our very best friends. If you break their son’s heart, there will be messy feelings.”

Louisa had ignored the advice, of course, because what did her mother know, and had she seen how gorgeous Cody had gotten this past year? He had muscles and that swift summer tan, not to mention eyes as deep and rich as chocolate cake and hair to match.

What if she had listened? What if she’d heeded her mother’s advice? She wondered that often, unfortunately. Because if she’d been wiser, there was a good chance Mr. Boggs would still be alive and their two families never would’ve fallen out.

Conversely, however, her mother had been charmed by Eric Anderson, Louisa’s only real grown-up boyfriend. (It didn’t escape her that those two things seemed to contradict each other. After all, the very idea of a “boyfriend” didn’t sound very grown-up.)

Everyone was charmed by Eric—he was charming. None of them ever saw him for who he really was. Last time she’d talked to her mom, the older woman had asked if there was any chance of reconciling with “that dashing Eric from the hotel.” As if all her hopes and dreams were pinned on that relationship. As if their breakup had simply been another one of Louisa’s silly mistakes.

So perhaps mothers didn’t know everything.

Yes, maybe she wouldn’t tell her parents. Maybe they’d never find out their daughter would be dead right now if it weren’t for the strong, firm, muscular arms of their old pal Cody Boggs.

Yeah, and maybe pigs would fly.

“Should I come back?”

Her eyes shot open and instantly drank in the sight of a fully grown and eternally handsome Cody Boggs. This was terribly unfair, she thought, that he emerged from this morning’s fiasco looking like he’d just stepped off a photo shoot for the “World’s Most Eligible Bachelor” and she looked like she’d decided to try out life as a drowned sewer rat. With red hair, no less.

Thank goodness nobody had given her a mirror. Although right about now she was wishing she’d at least done a quick pass over the curls.

“Louisa?”

“Sorry,” she said. She ran a hand over her hair and felt the frizz, stifled a groan. “No, it’s fine.”

“Just came to see how you’re feeling,” he said. “And to tell you how stupid you were to be out there without a life vest.”

“You don’t have to be ugly about it,” she said. “I didn’t mean to get out that