Country Club Living - Rafe Cameron

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Long Drives

The day had come for Ivy to finally leave for Harvard. Ever since she started high school this had been drilled into her brain that it was her dream, but in reality, it was her father's dream. He wanted her to become a successful lawyer and take the world by storm and while she certainly had the brains to do so, Ivy lacked the passion. She recalled watching countless episodes of Law and Order and Suits in an attempt to brainwash herself and ignite a fire inside her that never came, even with characters like Rachel Zane that resonated with her and looked just like her on-screen. She had lost count of the times she had watched Legally Blonde and while she loved the movie, Ivy knew she would never be a kick-ass lawyer and fashionista like Elle Woods because her heart wasn't in it, and she just wanted the fashion part.

Dior and Chanel were the true loves of Ivy's life, she was fortunate enough to be in a position to afford clothes like that but that didn't matter. She could style an outfit out of a trash bag and some dollar store flip flops if she had to, and everyone knew it too. Over the past two years - despite getting into Harvard, one of the most prestigious schools in the country, her greatest achievement was sneaking into a fashion show in Milan during her time abroad and every one treating her like she belonged there. It's not like she couldn't have gotten on the guest list with the connections her father had or that she couldn't have afforded to be there, but the sheer fact that she had managed to get in on just confidence and her look alone gave her greater pride than any acceptance letter could have.

But there was no time to change decisions now. She was now 5 hours into the 12-hour drive in the van holding the last of her things that she was taking with her, the rest of her stuff in either her mother's new house or dotted around at her father's. Her uncle Isiah had taken time off to help with his sister and niece's moves and foundations were being built to restore the broken relationship between the Jacob's siblings. It would take time, but both knew that they each had love in their hearts for one another despite any difficulties that they had faced. However, they couldn't just return to each other's lives like the past 20 years hadn't happened. Both knew it would be a long process but they were happy to have each other back in their lives. Especially Alexis.

With her daughter off to college and a divorce finalising Alexis couldn't help but feel lonely in her new home, she hoped that with her new business ideas she would be kept busy enough to keep the loneliness at bay. It was the first time since she had time to herself since she was just a bit older than Ivy. Alexis had grown up with two parents with a loving relationship and a father that treated her mother like a queen regardless of the castle they lived in. She didn't have much as a child but what their household lacked in material things it more than enough made up for in love. When she was around 16 her father had a heart attack and tragically passed away. Her mother was never the same since, she always tried to put on a brave face for her children, but it was almost as if there was a light inside her that had turned off. After this began the rebellious streak. With Isiah just a year older than her they bounced off one another's energy and channelled their teen angst and grief into less than favourable decisions. The siblings would smoke pot and drink excessively keeping their grieving mother at home worried sick until they stumbled through the door as the sun began to rise, the pair had a lot of pent-up anger that usually resulted in brawls in the street, bloody knuckles and a lot of hair-pulling on Alexis' end. They ended up one another's best friends, it was like everyone else was too scared to befriend them. But it didn't matter, they had each other – and Ward – Ward was their neighbour growing up and stayed friends with the two due to a lack of friends on his end. He was kind of nerdy and quiet in middle school which caused a lot of kids to pick on him and the Jacob's siblings didn't like this and as a result, kept him close in an attempt to protect him. When Ward began to make something of himself he started to introduce Alexis to a lot of his new friends and business partners and then she met Leo and the rest unfolded through time. With her newfound alone time, she had been reflecting on the traumas she had gone through and just never addressed. Had she kept her first child maybe she would have stayed in the cut with the father of the baby? Maybe he would've turned out to be a better father than Leo had, and she would've been able to savour the last years of her mother's life by being close to her. But as she looked at her daughter in the moving van discussing the best pancake topping with her uncle she felt an immense sense of happiness and pride wash over her. Her daughter was on the way to Harvard, she wouldn't have changed that for anything.