Nantucket Red (Nantucket Blue) Read Online Free PDF Page B

to Polly, and he hadn’t mentioned me. He took a sip of his beer, staring at it for a second before beginning. “A lot of folks send their kids to public school and save for college. That was our plan, but Cricket peed her pants every day of her first three months at William McKinley Elementary.”
    Alexi pointed at me and cackled, checking to see who else had caught this comic gem. Polly pulled him close to her and he giggled into her skirt.
    “Well, it’s true,” Dad said. “We hated the idea that Cricket didn’t like school. So we visited Rosewood, Kate’s alma mater, even though we knew we couldn’t afford it.” Mom smiled, nodded, and drained her glass. “And Cricket cried when it was time to come home. She said, ‘I can’t go home, Daddy. School’s not over yet. ’ So, Kate and I made a decision. That weekend we sold our brand-new minivan so that she could finish kindergarten at Rosewood.”
    I remembered the day we sold the van. I think I was so excited that we were going to start taking the bus that it never occurred to me we were broke.
    Dad continued, “We kept saying just for elementary school, just to get her on the right track. But Cricket was doing so beautifully. ‘Daddy,’ she’d say when I picked her up from school, ‘guess what I learned today?’ As teachers, it made our hearts sing.
    “So then we thought, let’s take out an extra mortgage and get her through those horrible middle-school years. You know, cliques and first bras and all that.” I instinctively crossed my arms in front of my chest. More cackles from Alexi. The rest were quiet, listening. “And when high school came around, well, I think we all saw today how much a part of that school she was.” He turned to me. “We couldn’t take you out, no matter the cost. I don’t think they would’ve let us. You were practically running the place.” He shrugged, grinning, acting out his helplessness in the face of my success. “We took out another loan.”
    “Sorry,” I said. I don’t know how I had thought two teachers were paying for my expensive private-school education, but I guess I hadn’t wanted to think about it, and they’d never asked me to.
    “I’m not saying this to make you feel bad. Let me finish. We just hoped, year after year, that it would all pay off. We crossed our fingers with each tuition check that we were making the right decision. We bet on you, Cricket.” Here he drew a shaky breath, held it, looked at me, and glowed. “And man, did we hit the jackpot. Honey, I couldn’t be prouder of you. Brown University. Member of the lacrosse team. The Ivy League! This is my daughter,” Dad said, wiping his eyes, raising his voice and pointing to me like I’d just won an Oscar. “My brilliant, beautiful daughter!”
    “Thank you,” I said as I handed my lemonade to Aunt Phyllis and threw my arms around Dad as everyone clapped. I buried my head in his chambray-covered shoulder and smelled his Old Spice. Alexi tried to come between us, but my dad told him this was a father-daughter moment.
    “We didn’t realize you weren’t living in the dorms,” Rosemary said a few minutes later. “That’s why we got you the monogrammed sheets. So you wouldn’t lose them in the school laundry. They’re for an extra-long twin bed.”
    “I love them. And I think that’s what I have, anyway.” It wasn’t true, but I knew monogrammed things couldn’t be exchanged.
    “But the dorms are such a big part of the college experience,” Jim added. Dad had told me that Jim came from a very poor family in Boston, and that he had worked in a hardware store to put himself through law school at night. “It was an experience I made sure Polly had, since I didn’t get to.”
    “And I’m grateful, Dad,” Polly said, patting her dad’s back. “Poor Dad. He paid so much, and I was, let’s say, very social.”
    “And it wasn’t exactly Brown,” Jim said.
    “I know Hamilton isn’t Ivy League,” Polly said,