Chapter Six

PACKED AND BRIMMING with excitement, Joey finally stepped out into the hallway of her parents’ house. To her right, she could hear the radio in her mom’s bathroom playing the KEZ morning show with Beth and Bill, familiar voices she’d heard most mornings for as long as she could remember. Instead, she turned left and found Betty in their shared bathroom, brushing her teeth and looking adorable in mismatched pajamas and braces.

“Hey, kiddo,” Joey said, realizing a little too late she never would have called her sister that.

“Hey, it’s the graduate!” Betty spat one last gob of toothpaste into the sink. “Doo do doo do doo do doo…and here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson!” she sang, in her best Simon and Garfunkel impression.

“You know that’s about an older woman who seduces her daughter’s boyfriend, right?” Joey laughed and opened her arms to Betty for a hug.

“You know I don’t care, right?” Her sister bounced toward Joey to accept the offer.

“I do.” Joey petted her sister’s curls.

“Hey, you okay?” Betty asked, still resting her head on Joey’s shoulder. “I mean, it is a big day.”

Joey took a step back and stared at her sister.

She knows, Joey realized. If she wasn’t sure before, she definitely was now. Everyone in her family knew what was coming tonight and she’d missed all the signs. For someone as smart as she was, she’d been pretty oblivious.

“I’m more than okay,” she said, pulling Betty in for a hug. “I’ve got the best little sister in the world.”

Betty tried to laugh this off and pull away, but Joey wouldn’t let her.

If this is our last day together before everything changes, I’m going to cherish it.

“Aww! My girls,” Joey’s mom said, coming into the hallway. “Am I interrupting a moment?”

“Do I hear my girls all gathered?”

Joey laughed as her dad’s voice boomed from his office and he stepped into the space, filling the doorframe. Then she tried not to cry realizing how young he and her mom looked.

“Hey, how about we go for a walk?” she said, her voice cracking just a bit.

“That’s what I was going to suggest!” Her dad clapped her on the back. “Gotta get those pre-graduation jitters out, don’t we?”

“Nah, I’m not nervous,” Joey lied. “I’ve got my speech all prepared.”

“Even better!” her dad said.

The four of them scattered to get shoes on and Joey took a minute to look out of the side window in the family room. Sure enough, Dan’s car wasn’t in the driveway. She had hoped suggesting the walk herself would get them all out early enough to catch him, but it looked like he’d already left for the day to put his proposal plan into motion.

As sure as she was that she was supposed to be following an alternate plan, the thought of Dan’s disappointment tonight left her full of dread. He was her best friend in the world, and she loved him more than anything, save the three kids they’d created. Even knowing where things were headed, could she really knowingly change both of their lives like this?

“Spying on your booooyfriend?”

Her mom’s singsong voice floated into the room as she dropped her hands from the blinds.

“Do you know where he is?” Joey asked.

“Oh, er, is he not home?”

“He’s not,” said Joey, impressed with her mother’s commitment to not give up Dan’s secret.

“Maybe he’s out getting ready for his own graduation?” Her mom was good. In addition to taking care of everything for Joey’s graduation that day, Dan was probably also out picking up his own cap and gown. His graduation was the following day, thus her mom managed to avoid telling what she knew and also not lie.

Before Joey could come up with another way to get information from her family, Betty and her dad walked in, all ready to go for their walk. And thus, out they went.

They took the same route Joey remembered them taking before, but this time, she tried to really notice all the little things. The way her dad smiled at the three of them, clearly beaming with pride. Or the way she and Betty could harmonize just right on each song their mom called out for them to sing. It was effortless. It was the same energy she’d carried into her own family with Dan and as much as she was trying not to think of her kids, she couldn’t help but picture their faces as she walked.

She knew in that moment she couldn’t run away with Taylor that night, and just happened to have the realization right in front of Taylor’s house. She wondered if she was maybe just supposed to talk to Taylor, to acknowledge the valentine for once and for all. Maybe that was the closure they both needed, then she could go find Mary Fate and go back to her real life.

“Hey, guys, I’m going to stop and say hi to Taylor for a sec. I’ll catch up,” Joey said, stopping in her tracks.

“Okie dokie,” her dad said. “We’ll head to the end of the street to grab the mail and circle back this way for you.”

As the rest of her family went off without her, Joey walked quickly up to Taylor’s house. She was on a mission and knocked three times before she could change her mind.

Taylor answered the door, still in her pajamas, and Joey flashed back to that night in camp. Joey had finally caught up to Taylor, height-wise, but Taylor was even curvier and more beautiful than she’d been before. She’d tried not to look at her for four years as they got through high school, but she couldn’t help gaping at her now.

“Hey, Joey!” Taylor said. “Excited for tonight?”

“Oh, er, yeah,” Joey said. “You?”

“Nervous. But yeah. Excited, I guess.”

“Can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Oh sure.” Taylor stepped aside. “Come on in.”

Joey walked into Taylor’s house and immediately regretted it. The news that she wasn’t going to run away with her would sound insane. Asking about the valentine seemed borderline cruel, all of a sudden. Why had she come up here?

“I think I know what this is about,” said Taylor. “I was hoping Dan would talk to you.”

“Dan?”

“Yeah, about the mix-up? He said he’d let you know.” Taylor was searching Joey’s face for some kind of understanding, but it most certainly wasn’t there, so she continued. “The London School of Creative Writing is connected to my conservatory. They sent a letter to Conquistador to let us know we’d both been offered full scholarships, but yours went to his address. He brought it to me because he thought there was a mix-up, but I said I already had mine, so you must have applied too.”

Every ounce of oxygen in Joey’s body seemed to leave her at that moment. Dan knew about London? She’d been offered a scholarship and he hadn’t told her?

It didn’t make sense to her until suddenly it did. He hadn’t proposed because he was eager to marry her. He proposed so that she wouldn’t leave.