For the first time, Beatrice accepted an answer she could not control.
That summer, Elena, Leo, and I went to Montauk to build the enormous sand fort Liam had once promised his son. The walls leaned, the towers were uneven, and a wave destroyed half of it within minutes.
“We build it again,” Elena told Leo.
He handed me the shovel.
“Grandpa Ray, you fix it.”
So I did—not perfectly, but with the people I still had and the time I had left.
