Page 31 of Reeve

“Married?” asks Parker.

“What? No!”

“Were you on a reality show?” asks Tanner.

“I’ve been here the whole time!”

“Did you place an ad for a fake fiancé?” asks Isabella.

“Why would I—”

Hunter asks, “Did someone take a secret video of you on vacation and upload—”

“No!” I hold up my palms in the universal gesture for “Halt!” and bellow, “I’m going to college!”

“College?” says Gran, looking confused. “That’s the whole announcement? You’re going to college?”

“Yes,” I say. “Well, no, actually, I’m going to college—”

“At U Dub!” exclaims Harper.

“Shut up, Harper!” yells Parker. “She’s U of O all the way!”

“Anchorage,” says my dad, reaching for my hand and holding it tight. “Reeve got a scholarship to the nursing college at the University of Alaska at Anchorage.”

“Reeve, that’s amazing!” exclaims McKenna, who used to be a college professor. “Wow! Congratulations.”

“Thanks, Ken,” I say.

“We’re proud of you, granddaughter,” says Paw Paw, raising his beer bottle to salute me.

“Thanks, Paw Paw.”

“When do you leave?” asks Parker. “August?” She turns to Harper. “We’ll have to take her shopping up at the Walmart up in Whitehorse—”

“Or just go to Anchorage and help her move in?” says Harper. “Get everything she needs up there in Anchorage? That’s easier than shipping it, right?”

“Good point!”

“Ah-hem! Terms of her scholarship say that she has to start in January,” says my dad, squeezing my hand. “She’s heading up there in a few weeks. After the New Year.”

I look up at my father, realizing that he’s decided to change the truth a touch to make things easier for me, and I couldn’t possibly love him more than I do in that moment.

Thanks, Dad, I mouth, turning back to my family.

“He’s right,” I say. “I start soon.”

“How soon?” asks Harper.

“January sixth.”

“Whew!” she exclaims, turning to Joe. “Can you take off on January fourth and fifth so I can go up to Anchorage and help settle her in?”

“Moving into a college dorm is more than a two-person job,” says Parker, looking meaningfully at Quinn. She points to her boobs. “I’ll start pumping and freezing tonight. I’ll make sure there’s plenty to last her for the two days I’m gone.”

Tanner nudges me in the side. “You need anyone to come up there and put together some furniture? Bedside tables and the like? You can’t always trust that dorm furniture. McKenna, jump onto the Target website and see what they got for dorm rooms…”

“It’s a few days after your mom’s birthday, and you’ll be back at work,” says Hunter to Isabella. “I might go up and help, too. Just make sure she gets all moved in, you know?”

---