Page 119 of Edge of Unbroken

“You can tell him.” I free myself from her hold, then stoop to pick up the phone. “Are you still there, Ran?”

“Still here.”

“Ahh, I can’t wait,” my mom screeches. “We should celebrate tonight, okay? Let’s go to dinner. I gotta head out—emergency call from a patient—but I’ll be back in a couple of hours and then we’ll go commemorate this incredible achievement of yours, Kitty,” she jabbers, already on her way out of my room, not waiting for a response from me.

“Safe to say she’s excited,” Ronan says, making me laugh again.

“Oh yes. She’s been bugging me to open those letters since the first one arrived on Wednesday.”

“You’ve been holding on to your college admission letters since Wednesday?”

“I wanted to open them with you on the phone. My parents weren’t really excited about the wait, but it meant a lot to me,” I say sheepishly.

“Thank you for making me a part of such a big moment,” he says, his voice laden with emotion.

“It meant a lot to me to have you with me, at least over the phone.”

Ronan clears his throat. “Alright, so you’re going to have to do some stewing and figure out where to go.”

My heart squeezes in my chest with the truth of his words. Maybe I never really believed I had a shot at getting into Duke and was therefore so much more reluctant to entertain the idea of being anywhere but in New York when Ronan is set to attend Columbia.

“Uh, yeah, I… I guess I do,” I say, feeling less certain. Now that I have an acceptance from Duke in my hands, now that admission isn’t just a remote possibility, my future suddenly seems less clear.

“I just… I don’t really want to be away from you,” I say in a small voice. “I don’t want to…” I don’t finish the sentence, don’t say that I’m afraid it’ll mean the end of us.

“I don’t want to be away from you either. But baby, you have to do what makes you happy; you have to gowhereyou’ll be happy. That’s all I care about, that you’re happy, whichever shape or form that takes and wherever that might lead you,” he says. “And if Duke is where you see yourself being happy, then that’s where you should go. We can make anything work. Fuck, we madethisshit work.”

My lips curve into a smile. God, he’s so good to me. If only my dad was as supportive, would see that I’m capable of making decisions for myself.

I sigh deeply. “Ran, if you only knew how—”

My phone vibrates pleasantly against my cheek, then twice more in rapid succession. I move it instinctively and nearly faint as my heart drops into my stomach at the sight of the three new messages in my inbox.

Unknown:

Break’s over. I need a re-up on my funds.

Unknown:

And you know what? I wouldn’t hate a new picture.

Unknown:

Also, I never realized New York can be so nice in March...

Ronan

I knew I’d feel a thousand times better the moment I heard Cat’s voice today. She’s like medicine, stilling my racing thoughts, calming my aching heart. The very first word she spoke when she picked up her phone brought immediate relief and, after talking through what happened with Miranda yesterday, Cat even managed to make me smile, hell, even laugh. This girl is pure, undiluted magic.

I can’t believe she waited to open her college admission letters, and her loving gesture of waiting to find out the fate of her future until we got to talk today does not go unnoticed. No amount of healing or therapy is ever going to get me to a point where I don’t believe, with all my heart, that this perfect creature that is Cat is way too damn good for me.

Alright, so she got into NYU and Duke. Both great schools. I can’t imagine it’ll be an easy choice. I’d obviously love to have her as close to me as possible—I don’t have a choice but to attend Columbia unless I want to forego college altogether, but what the fuck would I do instead?—but we could make North Carolina work, too. Hell, we’ve made Montana work and that’s without getting to talk to each other every day, so at this point I’m convinced we’d manage any long-distance relationship if Cat decided she wanted to attend Duke. I’m certainly not going to stand in her way. Whatever this girl decides to do with her life—even if none of it involves me—I’m going to cheer her on because that’s what she deserves.

“Ran, if you only knew how—” She abruptly stops talking.

“Baby?” I’m met with silence. I wonder if we got disconnected. “Cat?”

“Sorry, Ran, I…” The rest of her sentence gets stuck in her throat.

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