The Summer Getaway: A Novel(70)

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yes. She’ll be amazing, but she can’t afford medical school without huge loans. Is that fair? Why do I get a new car after college when Enid gets stuck with over a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of debt?”

“It’s not fair. She has a different family, and they don’t have a lot of money. It’s just life.”

“I don’t like it.”

He smiled.

She glared at him. “You think I’m naive.”

“A little, but it makes you likeable. Kip can’t have been happy you left.”

“He wasn’t. He thinks I’m leaving him.”

“Are you?”

“No. I love him. I need to think, and not just about him.” She glanced at her brother, then back out the side window. “Dad never intended to buy the kayak business. He told me he wasn’t going to spend that kind of money so I could learn on the job.”

Austin glanced at her. “But he helped you come up with a plan.”

“I guess he wanted me to feel good about my senior project. I’m not sure he was thinking.” She still couldn’t reconcile all the time and energy he’d put into their discussions only to tell her it was all a lie.

“He said I was spoiled, and while he was happy to overpay me and give me a title I didn’t deserve, the rest of it wasn’t happening.”

Austin reached across the console and squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry. Dad can be an asshole. Look at his cheating.”

“And sleeping with my fiancé’s sister.” She blinked away tears. “I don’t know what’s real anymore. I believed him. I trusted him. I thought we were a team, but we weren’t. Imagine what he was saying to Zafina about it all.”

She sat upright and swung to face her brother. “What if Zafina told Kip? Did he know Dad was just stringing me along?”

“Kip wouldn’t do that.”

“Are you sure? He was married before and didn’t tell me. Compared to that, this is nothing. He could know.”

“Don’t go looking for trouble.”

“I don’t have to. It’s right there in front of me.” She covered her face. “He’s probably talked to his parents about it. They’re all thinking I’m some little princess who expects to get married at a country club where the deposit for the ballroom is fifty thousand dollars.”

Embarrassment and humiliation made her squirm. “Why did I trust him?”

“Dad or Kip?”

An excellent question, she thought glumly. Right now she couldn’t trust either of them.

“I’m going to ignore all my problems until we get to California,” she said.

“Uh-huh.”

She shoved his arm. “I mean it. Now tell me why you wanted to talk to Dad.”

“No way. You’ll freak.”

“I don’t freak.”

“You freak all the time. You’re incapable of emotional maturity.”

“You can’t talk to me like that. I nearly died from cancer.”

“More than a decade ago. That’s the best you have?”

She grinned. “I use what works. How about this? I’ll keep my freak-storm inside.”

Austin looked at her, then returned his attention to the road. “I want to go to college.”

“That’s hardly freak-worthy. It’s also something you should have thought of six months ago.”

“I wasn’t ready. I’m still not. I need the year. But I’m going to apply.”

She sensed there was more to his announcement.

“I want to join the navy. Through ROTC.”

“What?” Her voice was louder than she’d expected. She cleared her throat. “What?”

“Freak much?”

“That was volume, not freak. We’re not a military family.”

“I know, but that could change. I’ve been thinking about UC San Diego. If I can get in, I’ll join ROTC.”

Her brother in the navy? “You want to fly jets? Like that old movie?”

“I want to captain a destroyer.”

She stared at him. “Are you serious?”

“Yup. Mom doesn’t know.”

“Oh, I’ll let you tell her. That will be a freak-storm for the ages.”

“She’ll be fine with it.”

Harlow laughed. “Uh-huh. Have you met our mother? You joining the navy? She’s going to lock you in a closet and never let you out.”

“You’re wrong. She’ll be okay with it. Dad wouldn’t listen.”

Suddenly Austin’s quitting made sense. “That’s what you wanted to talk about,” she said.

“He’s good ignoring us.”

“He is. So what’s the plan?”

“I’m going to hang with Mom and Lillian for a while, then head down to San Diego and talk to a few people. If everything works out, then I’ll ask Lillian if I can move in, get a job and establish residency.” He glanced at her. “That way college is a lot cheaper.”

He sounded confident, she thought. “You’ve been thinking about this.”

“I came up with the idea senior year, but I knew I wasn’t ready, so I waited. By next September, I’ll be anxious to go. In the meantime, I should be able to get a job with a charter company.” He grinned. “And work on my surfing.”