There were about a dozen bones on the towel, all of them clean and bleached, like the rest of the bones I’d found on the beach. Leaning across the table, I picked one up and looked at it closely. It was smooth and slightly curved, like a boomerang. It was lightweight, too, almost like it had been hollowed out. Or maybe that was just how fish bones felt? I hadn’t had a lot of experience with them, so I didn’t know. Mostly my parents dealt with fish of the alive variety.

“That one’s from a dolphin, I think,” my dad supplied.

Okay, so mammal, not fish.

“A rib bone, I believe. Though I could be wrong,” he added.

I doubted that. He was hardly ever wrong, not when it came to marine life.

I put the rib bone back on the towel and looked at my dad. He was watching me closely. “So, what’s up?” I asked. “What did you want to talk to me about? If it’s about the bones, I went back down to High Head on my run today, and everything looks the same. No one was around, though, so I don’t know if people are paying attention to your sign—”

“No, that’s not what I was wondering about. Though”—he shrugged—“I suppose that is good to know.”

“Okay. So what did you want to talk to me about?”

He took a deep breath. “Porpoise, I know you might not want to discuss this kind of stuff with your old dad, but I do feel like it’s important.”

I had a sinking feeling about this. “What?”

“And if you’re dating boys who are off to college soon, then I want to know that you know what your own boundaries are, and that you feel comfortable asserting them when the moment calls for it.”

My stomach dropped, and my face flushed hot. “Dad,” I groaned, dropping my face into my hands, “can we not, please?”

“Porpoise—” he started.

“Mom and I already had the talk years ago,” I went on, unwilling to look back up at him.

“I know that,” he said, “but that’s not what I want to talk to you about. This isn’t about mechanics—”

“Oh my god,” I groaned. “Can this get any worse?”

“I want to talk about the emotions,” he went on, speaking over me. “And the pressures you might feel to do things to impress a boy you like, and who you want to like you back.”

I could have probably baked cookies on my face, it was burning so hot, but I looked back at my dad. I figured the best thing to do was to get through this moment. Preferably without thinking about the education on the male anatomy that Jonah had given me last night. I especially didn’t want to think of the diagrams he’d drawn.

“I promise you, Dad, I know what you’re saying, and I won’t do anything that I don’t want to do,” I told him.

He nodded slowly. “I believe you, Porpoise, but that’s the kind of thing that’s easy to say right now, but in the moment, you could feel overwhelmed, and I just want you to know that your body is yours, and yours alone. You make the choices about it, and you don’t owe anyone anything. Ever.”

“I know that,” I said, and somewhere in the back of my freaked-out mind, I knew my dad was awesome for saying this and making sure I understood it. But the embarrassment of this moment made it difficult to focus on that—or anything else.

He leaned toward me. “Promise me that you’ll remember that.”

I nodded. I really, really just wanted this conversation to be over. As soon as possible. “Yes,” I said emphatically. “I promise.”

He looked at me for a long moment, like he was wondering whether to believe me. Then, apparently decided, he leaned back in his chair again.

“Okay, then,” he said simply.

“Okay?” I asked.

He nodded.

“I can go?”

He nodded again, picking the bone key up and looking down at it, apparently ready to get back to work.

I got quickly to my feet and hurried back toward the stairs, but I stopped when he said my name.

“Camilla?”

“Yeah?” I asked, turning, hoping I wasn’t in for another courageous conversation.

He nodded toward the little table next to the staircase. “There’s something for you on that table.”

I looked at the table in confusion, but there was a brown paper bag. That was what he was referring to, I supposed.

“For me?”

He nodded, watching me closely.

I picked up the bag and opened it. I wondered why the floor couldn’t open up and swallow me whole when I spied what was waiting for me in the bag.