Charity (Black Mountain Academy) - Rochelle Paige Page 0,59
that my grandparents and father donated to his Alma Mater was enough to make them see reason.” I flashed him a sheepish grin. “Well, that and my offer to cover four years tuition for someone on the waitlist if I backed out of attending. My only request was that the student needs to have been part of the foster system at some point in their life.”
“You’re going to fund a scholarship to a foster kid to go to Yale, baby?” he whispered.
My cheeks heated as I nodded. “Yeah, that’s the plan.”
“You’re so fucking incredible, Emme.” He crashed his mouth against mine for a deep kiss. “But if you do this, you have to be one-hundred-percent sure it’s what you want. This is a huge decision, and I don’t want you to make it just because I proposed. Attending Yale is a big deal. Getting your degree there means you can get practically any job you want.”
“Here’s the thing; super successful parents expect the same from their children.” I lifted my hand to stare at my engagement ring again. “But that’s never what I wanted for myself. I don’t need to earn gobs of money because I already have more than I’ll ever be able to spend in this lifetime. I don’t even know what I want to study yet, let alone what I’ll do with my degree once I graduate. It doesn’t make sense for me to take a spot at Yale just because I can when I’d be happier somewhere else.”
He squeezed me tight and grinned, finally understanding where I was coming from with this. “If this is what you really want, then I’m one thousand percent on board with the plan.”
I hugged him back and returned his smile, relieved to have my decision behind me. “Then I guess we’ll be going to college together in a couple of months.”
“This calls for a celebration.” He rolled me onto my back and proceeded to honor the occasion by giving me three orgasms—one each with his mouth, fingers, and dick. One of my best ideas ever had been the rule about celebrating everything, and I was looking forward to a lifetime filled with nights like this one.
Epilogue
Corby
The past six years had been full of ups and downs, but only one topped this moment. The only time I’d been happier was the day I’d made Emme my wife. We came back to Black Mountain often, but this was a special trip because we’d brought the Stanley Cup with us. Rubbing my hand over her rounded belly, I took in the family and friends who’d joined in our celebration. We were an interesting group, and everyone in the room was important to our little family in one way or another.
“Your mom would’ve been so fucking proud of you, son.” A hand clamped on my shoulder, and I twisted around to meet my dad’s gaze. The past six years had brought many changes for him, starting with his early parole when Jonathan, Emme’s dad, got involved in his case. It had shocked the fuck out of me when he’d taken me aside when we’d come back during our first summer break to tell me he’d been up to the prison to visit my dad a bunch of times. Then he’d blown my mind when he’d added that the team of lawyers his company used had filed an appeal and were pushing hard for a retrial due to judicial bias.
They hadn’t been able to pull it off, but their early parole petition had been granted. When we’d come back home again for winter break, he was out and living with the Cushings—which drove Emme’s mom up the fucking wall. Her dad refused to back down, though, and she’d eventually shut up about it because she didn't want him to divorce her.
Emme’s mom was the opposite of how mine had been. My happiness was the only thing that mattered to her, not money or success. “She wouldn’t have cared about the Cup.”
“She would’ve been happy you’d achieved your dream.” My dad jerked his chin in Emme’s direction. “But she would have done cartwheels over your wife and baby.”
It fucking sucked that my mom would never meet Emme or the baby girl we planned to name after her. But with all the good luck I’d had in the past six years, I couldn’t help but feel as though she’d been looking after me all this time and knew how great my life had turned out. “The greatest