Page 11 of Fortuity

Our standards were on opposite sides of the spectrum so I wasn’t certain exactly what she meant by ‘not much,’ but I did know one thing for sure. “It’ll be more than they haverightnow.”

“Then I’ll make sure itgetsdone.”

We reached the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, and I pulled out my cell phone to request a ride back tocampus.

“They can validate your parking if you need it,” Elaine explained, moving towards the Bentley the valet had just parked at the curb. He opened the driver’s side door and stepped out, the engine still running and his attentiononher.

“I don’t have a car.” Which was hard to admit when it was obvious she didn’t just have a car—she had one that probably cost as much as the state was going to pay in tuition for twenty foster kids to attend college thisschoolyear.

“Did a friend drop you off? I’ll wait with you until they come back to pickyouup.”

“No, I took an Uber. But it’ll only take a few minutes for another one toshowup.”

She circled back and opened the passenger door on the Bentley. “Get in. I’ll dropyouoff.”

I told myself it would have been rude to decline her offer, but really I just wanted to ride in her car. Between the wood veneer touches, buttery leather on the seat, and deep pile carpets, it felt like being wrapped in luxury. When she pulled into the parking lot on campus, I was reluctant to leave the comfort of the passenger seat. “Thanks for the ride. I appreciate it.” And so did my savingsaccount.

“It really was no problem. I needed to stop by the campus bookstore to pick up some stuff for my son sometime this week anyway, so I’ll just do that next since I’malreadyhere.”

“I didn’t realize he was a student here, too. What yearishe?”

“A senior,likeyou.”

I’d been laser-focused on my studies and working with foster students during my first three years of school, so I didn’t have a big social circle like a lot of the other students. I tried to think of any guys I’d met in class or in the dorms with the same last name as hers, but I didn’t come up with anyone. “What’s hisfirstname?”

“Dillon.”

It still didn’t ring any bells. “I don’t think Iknowhim.”

“I guess that’s not too much of a surprise since it’s a big campus, but maybe he’ll be available to come with me on Friday to drop off the first round of donations to you. I’d love for the two of youtomeet.”

I was too preoccupied with her casual mention of giving me stuff for the group in such a short amount of time to notice the gleam in her eye when she mentioned introducing me to her son. “Friday is the end of this week. Will that be long enough for you to get everything pulled together for so manystudents?”

“Absolutely,” she replied without batting an eye. “And I plan on making this first round special because I’m well aware of all the stuff kids need when they move into thedorms.”

I quickly learned that Elaine Montgomery was a woman of her word when we met up that Friday and she handed me one hundred and seventy-two envelopes to pass out to the kids I was working with when they moved onto campus that weekend. Each one was filled with several hundred dollars in gift cards to Publix, Walmart, Target, and a few different restaurants, plus three hundred in cash. She’d somehow managed to raise more than a hundred thousand dollars in less than a week, but she shrugged it off like it was no big deal and seemed more concerned that her son hadn’t been around to come with her so she could introduce us. Gofigure.

I enjoyed the hell out of handing them out, that was for damn sure. Running around campus, trying to hunt down all the foster kids was a bit insane, but it was more than worth the effort. Especially when I found two of my favorite incoming freshmen, Emily and Kyle, in the parking lot. “Hey, guys! Everything okayoverhere?”

Kyle was the first to spot me when he turned around and answered, “Yeah,everything’sgood.”

“It’s a big day. I was just having a moment,” Emily added as she got out of the car and moved nexttoKyle.

“A big day in a totally different way for you two.” I grinned and widened my eyes at them while wagging my brows, thrilled that they no longer had to keep their secret. It’d been torture watching the two of them around each other and waiting until they could finally be together. As foster kids living in the same group home for the past little while, they would have risked being separated if anyone had caught on to how they felt about each other. “Since you can finally come out as acouple.”

“When exactly did you clue in to our secret?” Kyle asked, narrowing his eyesatme.

“Right about the time you strolled into one of my after-school presentations and asked me if it’d still be possible for you to use the waiver if you started a year late since you hadn’t applied in time yoursenioryear.”

Emily nodded, but Kyle didn’t get what I meant even though it’d made his feelings for her super clear to me at the time. “How’d that give us away? A ton of the other kids there were asking questions about theprogram.”

“You missed all the application deadlines, which told me you hadn’t been thinking of going before then and something must have changed your mind. When Emily’s eyes lit up like you’d just given her the best gift ever, I put two and twotogether—”

“And came up with the pair of us,” he finishedforme.

“Yup,” I confirmed. “From then on, it was impossible to miss the way you guys just seemed drawn to each other. You didn’t even need to be looking at each other to seem like you were still connected.” And it’d made me wish that I could find someone who cared about me as much as these two did with eachother.

“Maybe now that you’ve got so many of us enrolled in colleges across the state, you’ll take a little more time for yourself and find the guy who’s going to look at you the way Kyle does me,” Emilysuggested.

---