Trials and Tiaras (Untouchable #7) - Heather Long Page 0,134
go to.
I pulled for NYU, but then, I was being greedy. I wanted her to stick close to us.
By the next weekend, Jake and I were drilling once a day on our European history facts. Archie and I had government and economics down, it was mostly terms and applications, but we’d been surprising each other with pop quizzes. Ian and I did practice tests for calculus, and Rachel and I practiced French either texting or when we talked or video chatted.
I had to do that when Coop wasn’t home, because the last time Rachel and I got going, Coop ended up half stripping before he realized that we were on video chat. Then he just grabbed the phone and said, “Sorry, I need to fuck my girl. She’ll talk to you later.”
I don’t know who laughed harder, me or Rachel.
Still, it was fun.
And I got to drive my car, a lot. We needed milk from the store? I went and got it. Wanted to run over and pick up something from Jake’s? I’d drive him there. Trina needed a ride, I was all in. The guys laughed at me, but the car was fricking cool, and I loved taking it to a charging station.
Prom was right around the corner. AP exams were coming. Our graduation robes came in, and true to his word, Jake had gotten me a set. I was actually looking forward to walking, which was weird. I mean, it was just a ritual right? No big deal? They didn’t even give you the real diploma.
Still, it was fun.
Archie had lined up a couple of places for us to look at, but he was also talking to his grandfather about their brownstone. Apparently, there was also an apartment, but he and Jake both nixed that.
Work was even fun, though I let Marsha off the hook and turned in my notice before mid-April. The scholarship was locked, and she had her new waitress up to speed. I was making plenty from my delivery job, which I got to use my new car for. I told Coop I was still finishing paying off the car I’d gotten from Maddy, and if he wanted, we could store it for Trina.
I’d thought about Jake’s sisters, but Jake said there was already a plan in place for them with his parents, so Trina won that flip. Then there was the bit about my trust fund. Apparently, on my eighteenth birthday, true to their word, my grandparents transferred the first twenty-five percent to my control. I’d get another twenty-five percent when I graduated college or turned twenty-five, whichever came first, and another twenty-five when I turned thirty or got married—also whichever came first. The last twenty-five percent would be made available on my thirty-fifth birthday or when I had a child.
The terms seemed weird on the surface, but I kind of appreciated they were an ‘either or’ and not an ‘if only.’ Wittaker handled all of my side of it and worked with their family attorney. I’d also started having weekly phone calls with them.
It was strange, not just the generational and money gap, but the everything gap. They didn’t quite understand my interests, and when I brought up the singing thing, they’d pushed back pretty hard. The dismissiveness irked me more than stung, so I just changed the subject. They were excited that I was going to college, but they offered to work with Harvard to get me in there or at Columbia rather than NYU. I turned down the offer.
We had a plan, and I was sticking to it.
One night, when it was just Jake and I, we sat down in front of his laptop while he video chatted his father. I hadn’t seen Jake’s dad in years. It was kind of impressive how much the colonel and his son looked and didn’t look alike. He had his mother’s coloring, but his father’s eyes. Jake’s dad was blond where he wasn’t silver and gray. There was an agedness at his eyes, and the conversation between them was terse and uncomfortable at first.
Then Jake introduced me and they started talking more, through and around me. There was a lot of hurt from the sounds of it, on both sides. I leaned my head against Jake’s shoulder as they discussed college and the opportunities Jake was looking for. When his father brought up enlistment, Jake stiffened, but I squeezed his hand.
“No, sir,” he said slowly. “I understand the opportunities available through enlistment and service.