Page 32 of Reeve

“You should!” says Isabella. “Good idea!”

The lump in my throat is so big, I can’t swallow over it.

My heart is so full, so overflowing, I don’t know how my chest contains it.

My eyes swim with so many tears, the entire room gets blurry.

The funny thing about being loved—reallyloved—is that even though you know the love is there, it can still crash over you like a wave. If you’re lucky—if you’rereally fucking lucky—it will make you speechless. It will reduce you to tears. It will make you a puddle of goo surrounded by love.

And while your eyes burn and your heart throbs, you will promise yourself that for the rest of your life, you won’t question the motives of the people who love you. You promise that you will believe in them as much as they believe in you, and you will thank your lucky stars that God saw fit to gift you this kind of huge, sweeping love in your life.

I lean my head on my father’s shoulder and let the tears fall, overwhelmed by the sheer goodness of being surrounded by a family who loves me.

“Now, would you look at that,” says my dad, putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me close. “You all made your little sister cry.”

I lean up just enough to face them. “I th-thought y-you’d all b-b-be mad!”

“Mad that you got a scholarship to a great college?” asks Tanner from beside me. “That’s crazy! Why would we be mad?”

“Be-because it m-means I have to l-leave Skagway.” I’m bawling like a baby, but I can’t seem to stop.

“Aw, babycakes,” says Harper, putting her hand on my knee. “Wewantyou to soar…just as long as you come home now and then.”

“I’m gonna come b-back after college!” I vow, drying my cheeks with the backs of my hands. “I want to take over the ambulance service from Belinda.”

“Good idea,” says Gran. “She’s getting on in years, that Belinda.”

“I think she was my babysitter,” says Paw Paw, which makes all of us laugh.

Parker and McKenna watch the babies while Harper and Quinn help Hunter and Isabella get dinner on the table, and Gran swears to Paw Paw that there’s more red wine somewhere in this doggone cabin if he’ll just look around a little harder.

“You see that, little one,” says my father. “It was all good, wasn’t it?”

“It was better than good,” I tell him. “It was epic.”

“It was love,” he says, squeezing my shoulders and kissing the top of my head. “Just a whole lotta love.”

Chapter 6

Reeve and Aaron

I don’t like dressing up.

I don’t like doing my hair and putting on makeup.

And Lord help me, but I hate high-heeled shoes with a passion.

But I like Aaron a whole lot, it turns out…which makes it a no-brainer to choose my prettiest outfit for New Year’s Eve at the Parsnip. Since I leave for Anchorage with Harper, Tanner, and Parker in four days, it’ll probably be the last time I see him for a while, too. I want to make it count.

Even a girl who lives on a campground in Dyea has access to the internet and, therefore, to the latest fashions at H&M. The dress I’m wearing tonight is black and sleeveless. It hugs my size eight body in all the best ways—making my cleavage look fuller and my hips look smaller—and because H&M is a one-stop wonder for shopping, I also bought black, high-heeled boots that go up to my knees, a red satin scrunchie holding my blonde hair back in a ponytail, and rhinestone earrings with a matching choker.

Will I be too fancy for the Parsnip?

Lord. Yes.

Most of my friends and family will be wearing jeans and a clean shirt or sweater.

Except for Ivy, I think. My brother’s fiancée (yes, fiancée!) has been known to dress up on occasion. So maybe I won’t stick out like a sore thumb, after all.

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