Ronnie shook her head, and Steve went on. “They’re beautiful creatures. They’ve got this reddish-brown shell, and they can weigh up to eight hundred pounds. North Carolina is one of the few places they nest. But anyway, they’re endangered. I think only one out of a thousand live to maturity, and I don’t want the raccoons to get the nest before they hatch.”
“How would the raccoons even know that a nest is here?”
“When a female loggerhead lays her eggs, she urinates. The raccoons can smell it, and they’ll eat every single one of the eggs. When I was young, I found a nest on the other side of the pier. One day everything was fine, and the next day all the shells had been broken open. It was sad.”
“I saw a raccoon on our porch the other day.”
“I know. It’s been getting into the garbage. And as soon as I go in, I’m going to leave a message with the aquarium. Hopefully, they’ll send someone by tomorrow with a special cage that’ll keep the critters out.”
“What about tonight?”
“I guess we’re going to have to have faith.”
Ronnie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Dad? Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Why did you say you believed me?”
In profile, he could see both the young woman she was becoming and the little girl he remembered.
“Because I trust you.”
“Is that why you built the wall to hide the piano?” She looked at him only indirectly. “When I went inside, it wasn’t that hard to miss.”
Steve shook his head. “No. I did that because I love you.”
Ronnie flashed a brief smile, hesitating before taking a seat beside him. They watched the waves rolling steadily up the shore. High tide would be here soon, and the beach was half-gone.
“What’s going to happen to me?” she asked.
“Pete is going to talk to the owner, but I don’t know. A couple of those records were real collector’s items. They’re pretty valuable.”
Ronnie felt sick to her stomach. “Have you told Mom yet?”
“No.”
“Are you going to?”
“Probably.”
Neither of them said anything for a moment. At the water’s edge, a group of surfers walked past, holding their boards. In the distance, the swells were slowly rising, forming waves that seemed to collide before immediately re-forming.
“When are you going to call the aquarium?”
“When I head back inside. I’m sure Jonah’s getting hungry anyway. I should probably start dinner.”
Ronnie stared at the nest. With her stomach in knots, she couldn’t imagine eating. “I don’t want anything to happen to the turtle eggs tonight.”
Steve turned toward her. “So what do you want to do?”
Hours later, after tucking Jonah into bed, Steve stepped out onto the back porch to check on Ronnie. Earlier, after he’d left a message at the aquarium, he’d gone to the store to buy what he thought she needed: a light sleeping bag, a camping lantern, a cheap pillow, and some bug spray.
He wasn’t comfortable with the idea of Ronnie sleeping outside, but she was clearly determined and he admired her impulse to protect the nest. She’d been insistent that she would be fine, and to some extent, he trusted she was right. Like most people who grew up in Manhattan, she’d learned to be careful and had seen and experienced enough of the world to know it was sometimes a dangerous place. Moreover, the nest was less than fifty feet from his bedroom window—which he intended to keep open—so he was confident he’d hear something if Ronnie ran into trouble. Because of the shape of the windblown dune and the location of the nest, it wasn’t likely that anyone walking on the beach would even know she was there.
Still, she was only seventeen, and he was her father, all of which meant he’d probably end up checking on her every few hours. There wasn’t a chance he’d be able to sleep through the night.
The moon was only a sliver, but the sky was clear, and as he moved through the shadows, he thought back on their conversation. He wondered how she felt about the fact that he’d hidden the piano. Would she wake up tomorrow with the same attitude she’d had when she’d first arrived? He didn’t know. As he drew near enough to make out Ronnie’s sleeping form, the play of starlight and shadow made her appear both younger and older than she really was. He thought again about the years he’d lost and would never get back.
He stayed long enough to gaze up and down the beach. As far as he could tell, no one was out, so he turned and headed back inside. He sat on the couch and turned on the television, flipping through the channels before turning it off. Finally, he went to his room and crawled into bed.