More Than Words(14)

Nina looked down at the book in her hands. She remembered him telling her she was intricate and complex. “I think it’s Rafael who’s into poetry,” she said.

“Well, enjoy,” Jane said, shooing Nina out of the room.



* * *



? ? ?

    Tim and his parents were heading out to the beach, too, and they picked Nina up so they could all go out together.

“Do you think your dad’s going to let us sleep in the same room?” Tim whispered to Nina once she was settled in the car. They were in a black SUV with two rows of seats behind the driver, TJ and Caro in the first row, Nina and Tim behind.

“No chance,” Nina whispered back.

“Even though he loves me?” Tim asked.

“Even though he loves you,” Nina said. “I’m still his little girl.” Though the truth was, she hadn’t asked. She wouldn’t, not after what happened when she’d brought her college boyfriend, Max, to the house, and, drunk on love and her desire to be an adult, put his bag in her room. Her father had pulled her into the study and told her, in no uncertain terms, which room Max would be sleeping in that weekend. It was the biggest fight they’d ever had. And marked the beginning of the end of her relationship with Max. And changed her relationship with her father, too. She started to weigh her words before sharing them, to leave out the details he might not like.

Tim wrapped his arm around Nina, and she leaned into him. “Then we’ll have to sneak out,” he said quietly, right into her ear. “Expect a knock on your door tonight. Or maybe I’ll throw seashells at your window.”

Nina laughed.

TJ turned around. “What’s so funny back there?” He and Caro had been answering work e-mails for most of the ride.

Nina and Tim exchanged a look. “Oh,” Nina said, grasping for an answer, “Tim was—”

“Checking to make sure she’s still ticklish,” he finished.

“Right,” Nina said. “Apparently I am.”

TJ looked at Nina and Tim and then at his wife. “Oh, really,” he said, leaning toward Caro.

“Don’t you dare,” she said, a hint of playfulness in her no-nonsense voice. Then she laughed as TJ lunged toward her. “They’re both crazy,” she said to Nina.

“Completely nuts,” Nina agreed.

They all were laughing now, but as much as Nina felt like part of it, she also didn’t. She looked at Tim and TJ and Caro and felt a flash of jealousy that their family was there, whole and intact, while hers was nearly gone.





14



When they arrived at the house, the backyard grill was already going, and Nina’s dad was sitting next to it, giving instructions to Carlos, the nurse he’d brought with him to the beach after his doctors balked at him being out there alone. Nina grabbed Tim’s hand when she saw that. Usually it would’ve been Joseph himself grilling the steaks, holding a drink.

As it got dark, Joseph suggested a nighttime ride on the boat, the Mimsy, which her father had named after the first line in “Jabberwocky.” “I heard someone’s setting off fireworks tonight over the ocean,” he said. “For your birthday, Sweetheart—though I prefer when they do it on the actual day.” It was their old joke that the July Fourth fireworks were for her. Since the Fourth was a Tuesday this year, she knew they’d be going off all weekend.

Nina remembered the fireworks displays when she was little, when she, her dad, and her mom would all take the boat out together after dinner, and Nina would pretend that the loud booms didn’t scare her, because she didn’t want to miss the light show. But her father had known, somehow, and every time a blast went off, he’d tickle her or try to make her laugh. He knew to chase away her fear without her having to tell him about it.

“You captain us tonight,” he said to Nina, tossing her his captain’s hat—the one she’d bought him a dozen or more Father’s Days ago. She put it on her head. It was slightly too big, but once she stuffed her ponytail inside, it fit just fine.

“Lookin’ good, Captain,” Tim had said, quickly kissing Nina when their parents weren’t looking.



* * *



? ? ?

The boat ride was short-lived because Joseph started shivering. Even with a blanket around him, he was cold.

“Sorry, Sweetheart,” he said to Nina, when they were back on the beach. “I know how much you like your birthday fireworks out on the water.”

“It’s okay, Dad,” she said, leaning against him. “We can see them just as well from here.”

Joseph Gregory wrapped both arms around his daughter, and they stood like that, draped in the blanket, watching the lights explode in the sky.

“I nearly forgot your birthday present,” he said, after a moment, pulling a box out of his pants pocket. “Early, like the fireworks.”

Nina laughed and took the long, narrow box.

It was from his favorite jewelry store, the one on Main Street in East Hampton. She untied the ribbon and opened it. Inside was a tennis bracelet made of sapphires. She ran her fingers across the stones.

“It’s the same setting as the diamond bracelet I had made for your mother,” he said. “I thought you could wear them together. It’ll be a good way to remember us both.”