“They wanted to put him in a nursing home.”

“They could do that?”

“Standard practice, apparently. The insurance people talk to the doctors, and if it’s clear the patient isn’t improving and has reached a plateau in their recovery, then they have the right to trigger that clause in the policy. It’s all in the fine print. The man in the suit flipped open his briefcase and flashed the paperwork in my face, but by that point I was too distressed to take any of it in.”

“What a nightmare. What did you do?”

“I lost it, had a meltdown right there in the hall. I pleaded, I begged, tried to tell him he was making a huge mistake, but he wasn’t going to change his mind.”

“And what happened when you told your father? How did he react?”

Ryan thrust his hands deeper into his pockets and dropped his head, admitting with a shameful sigh that his father never found out. “I mean, I did try to tell him. I started by saying there were about to be some changes, changes that meant he’d be saying goodbye to the hospital . . . but before I had a chance to finish, he reached out for my hand and asked me if this meant he was going home. I should have corrected him, but I froze. It was the first time I’d seen his face light up in weeks, and even though I should’ve told him the truth right there and then, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. He really believed he was going back to the ranch. So, I lied. I said I didn’t know. I made up something along the lines of ‘they’re still working out the details.’ Then I kissed him goodbye and I left. Got in my truck. Drove straight home.” Ryan shook his head, chastising himself. “I was a complete coward.”

They were approaching the end of the beach, the last sliver of walkable sand. They could barely see a thing. The tide was encroaching and rocks were getting in the way of their feet, jagged, porous heads rising out of the ground like tiny black icebergs. Rather than continue on this path, which would have taken them toward the outcrop, they turned and searched for a place they could sit. They headed up the beach to the dunes, where the sand was soft and full of buried shells. The breeze was getting stronger and colder, and brought with it the smell of the ocean’s tide and the sound of a faraway amplified guitar.

“After you,” Ryan said, nodding to the slope.