He ended up doing all of them and having a great time. Kallie graduated at the end of his freshman year, and he went and sat with the entire group like we’d all done at Angelica’s graduation years before. She graduated with honors, and looked absolutely beautiful in her cap and gown. We were incredibly proud of her. As I said, she’d gotten into UCLA on full scholarship and although it was close, she was moving into the dorms in the fall. She got to walk as one of the first hundred of her class due to having such high honors. She’d missed being valedictorian by only two spots, but didn’t seem to mind at all. The girl who was valedictorian was one of her best friends, and they were going to room together in the fall.

After she’d walked (to the accompaniment of air horns and shouts from all of us) we took her to a really nice dinner to celebrate. She was positively glowing and all of us were really proud of her. She got financial gifts from everyone as well as some personal ones, and Alice and I gave her the check for what amounted to about a fourth of the college fund Kit had left her. “Make sure you use that for educational expenses, now,” Alice warned. “Like a mini fridge for your dorm or something. For juice and stuff, not beer.” Kallie just rolled her eyes, along with the rest of us.

That summer, Charlie had a few swimming camps, but we managed to schedule a family vacation to Paris since Kallie loved it there so much. We went for almost a month, mostly because Alice had been scheduled to do a couple of book speeches anyway. While we were there, we met with Shane and Jenny, who were there with Ryan and Chelsea, one of the girls they’d eventually adopted. Shane had a photo shoot for some magazine I can’t remember the name of and Jenny had a couple book talks to give herself, since she and Alice always seemed to release new novels at about the same time.

We had a great time over there, and to this day Alice and I have a picture of all of us in front of a little French café on the wall of the family room. I felt like it was a great stress reliever, and Kallie was so happy to be there that it was good to see. We figured she deserved it after all the work she’d put in during her senior year and the rest of her schooling too. By the time we got back, it was almost time to move her into the dorms.