‘‘I remember the first time you called me that. Took you a while to come to it. You’d been with us almost a year. Christ, you were a spooky kid, Ethan. Quiet as a shadow, deep as a lake. One evening when I was grading papers, you knocked on the door. You just stood there for a minute, thinking. God, it was a marvel to watch your mind work. Then you said, ‘Dad, the phone’s for you.’ ’’ Ray’s smile went bright as sunlight. ‘‘You slipped right out again, or you’d have seen me make a fool of myself. Sniffled like a baby and had to tell whoever the hell it was on the phone I was having an allergy attack.’’

‘‘I never knew why you wanted me.’’

‘‘You needed us. We needed you. You were ours, Ethan, even before we found each other. Fate takes its own sweet time, but it always finds a way. You were so . . . fragile,’’ Ray said after a moment, and Ethan blinked in surprise. ‘‘Stella and I were worried we’d do something wrong and break you.’’

‘‘I wasn’t fragile.’’

‘‘Oh, Ethan, you were. Your heart was delicate as glass and waiting to be shattered. Your body was tough. We never worried about you and Cam pounding on each other those first months. Thought it did both of you good.’’

Ethan’s lips twitched. ‘‘He usually started the pounding.’’

‘‘But you never were one to back off once your blood was up. Took some doing to get it up,’’ he added. ‘‘Still does. We watched you watch and settle and think and consider.’’

‘‘You gave me . . . time. Time to watch and settle, to think and consider. Everything I’ve got that’s decent came from the two of you.’’

‘‘No, Ethan, we just gave you love. And that time, and the place.’’

He wandered over to the window, to look out on the water and the boats that swayed gently at the dock. He watched an egret sail across a sky hazed with heat and plumped by clouds.

‘‘You were meant to be ours. Meant to be here. Took to the water like you’d been born in it. Cam, he always just wanted to go fast, and Phillip preferred to sit back and enjoy the ride. But you . . .’’

He turned back again, his gaze thoughtful. ‘‘You studied every inch of the boat, every wave, every turn of a river. You’d practice tying knots for hours, and nobody had to nag you into swabbing the decks.’’

‘‘It came easy for me, right from the start. You wanted me to get a college degree.’’

‘‘For me.’’ Ray shook his head. ‘‘For me, Ethan. Fathers are human, after all, and I went through a time when I thought my sons needed to love schooling as much as I did. But you did what was right for you. You made me proud of you. I should have told you that more often.’’