Love's Gamble. Theodora Taylor

and phone off the desk, slipped them into the back pockets of her bell-bottom jeans and was all set to go. Back in the day before she became Jakey’s guardian, she wouldn’t have dreamed of leaving the apartment she used to share with her best friend, Sunny, in anything less than full makeup. Back then, even her most casual looks were chosen more to accentuate her assets than for comfort.

      But now that she’d retired from the Benton Revue, she’d pretty much stuck to a wardrobe of her mother’s old seventies-era clothing throughout the summer. Her mother had been a seamstress along with Sunny’s grandmother for the Revue, and she’d taken excellent care of even her most casual clothes. True, seventies and early eighties vintage wasn’t the most glamorous look, but wearing these clothes made Pru feel closer to her mother, even though she was no longer here.

      “Actually,” said Jake with an apologetic wince, “I was hoping maybe we could go down to the storage unit and do some upkeep on Dad’s car.”

      “Oh...sure,” Pru said, quickly resetting.

      About twenty minutes later, they were pulling the cover off their dad’s black ’55 Thunderbird.

      Back when they’d been forced to downsize in order to keep Jakey in his school district, Pru had paid for storage space and an additional garage unit for their dad’s Thunderbird. He’d inherited the car from his own father, and Pru had grown to highly value it. Not just because it was a much sought-after collectible, but also because it was Jakey’s unspoken inheritance. Their happy and healthy parents hadn’t been prescient enough to take out a life insurance policy, but her father had left this car behind. And that was why Pru had remained diligent about its upkeep all these years. She made sure that she and Jakey did the necessary work to guarantee the car would stay in good enough shape for Jakey to drive it someday.

      However, this particular trip wasn’t really about their father’s Thunderbird. Asking her if they could go down to the garage unit to do some upkeep on their dad’s car was Jakey’s way of telling her he needed to talk. Over the years she’d been his guardian, she’d guided him through first dates, first breakups, major disappointments and lost friendships over the hood of that car.

      “So what’s up?” she asked Jakey as he lifted up the Thunderbird’s hood.

      “I dunno,” Jakey mumbled. He fiddled with the oil cap for a few seconds, then he said, “It’s stupid.”

      “Okay, maybe,” Pru answered. “Tell me anyway.”

      More fiddling. “I don’t even know why I’m bringing it up. It’s not going to happen. I know it’s not going to happen.”

      Despite her increasing curiosity, Pru casually walked over to get the motor oil from a nearby shelf. “You know I don’t believe in ‘not going to happen.’ Not when it comes to you. I’m your big sis, remember?” She handed the motor oil to him. “Whatever you need, just tell me, and I’ll figure it out. I always do.”

      “Yeah, I know you do, but...” He trailed off. “You know what? Never mind. Let’s just finish this and go to the mall.”

      He reached to take the motor oil from her, but she held on to it, refusing to let it go.

      “No, tell me, Jakey,” she insisted, dropping all pretense of feeling casual about this conversation. “Are you in trouble?” she asked, real alarm flaring up inside her. “Whatever it is, I’ll figure it out, I promise you. Just tell me.”

      “No, I’m not in trouble!” he said, rushing to reassure her. “It’s more a good thing...I guess. An opportunity. I...um...got off the wait list to BIT.”

      Pru’s eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline, her first thoughts going to Max, who’d received and wasted a degree in marketing from BIT. “BIT? You mean like the Boston Institute of Technology? That BIT?”

      “Yeah, that BIT,” Jakey answered with a sheepish smile.

      “Oh, my gosh, Jakey! That’s wonderful!” She put aside the motor oil and hugged him. “I didn’t even know you applied there! That wasn’t on the list you showed me!”

      “Yeah, I didn’t want you to waste your money,” he said. “So I used some of the money Aunt Sunny gave me for Christmas to pay the application fee, and I got wait-listed. But I guess they must have decided to take me off the wait list because I got an email that I was in two weeks ago.”

      “Two weeks ago?” Pru repeated, her mouth dropping open. “And you’re just now telling me?”

      Jakey shrugged. “It’s not like I can go. They gave me a financial-aid package, but it’s not a full deal like UNLV. It also doesn’t cover room and board or books or the flight out there. There’s no way you could afford it. It was stupid of me to even apply. It’s just... Dad used to talk about me going there, and I already know I want to become an engineer. I thought I should at least try to get in. For him.”

      Pru completely understood. Her parents had both come from poor backgrounds and her father had used education as a means to break through to the middle class, earning his degree and becoming a high school math teacher. He’d carried big hopes and dreams for Jakey not just following in his footsteps but going even further than he did. He would have considered Jakey getting into a big math-and-science school such as BIT a dream come true.

      “Dad would have been so proud of you,” she told him, her eyes going soft with fond memories of their father. “You’re going to BIT.”

      He shook his head. “It’s too much money.”

      “How much?”

      “Too much?”

      “Just tell me how much, Jakey.”

      So he did, and the number made Pru a little breathless. That was over five times what she currently had tucked away in savings for Jakey’s continued education.

      But still she said, “You’re going to BIT.”

      Jakey shook his head again. “There’s no way you can get that much money together before the school year starts. I was thinking maybe we could ask Aunt Sunny, but Dad was always saying...”

      “...remember what ‘make ends meet’ really means,” she finished for him.

      Their father had grown up in Vegas and seen too many friends from his old neighborhood succumb to both credit and gambling debts. He hadn’t believed in buying anything on credit, not even cars. Back in the day, Pru hadn’t dared ask her father for money—even when she’d blown through her entire paycheck with more than a week to go until she got paid again. It just wasn’t worth receiving one of their father’s long “neither a beggar nor a borrower be” lectures.

      Jakey was right. Besides, there was no way she could pay Sunny that amount back, even if she was willing to borrow as opposed to work for money. She’d have to find another way to get the money. One that wouldn’t involve a huge debt load on her part. But how?

      The answer hit her with a sickening thud, crashing all the way down to the bottom of her stomach.

       Never say never. That’s what I always say when it comes to money. You never know when you’re going to get hit with a rainy day.

      “Pru? Pru?” her brother said.

      Pru blinked.

      “Are you okay? You just went real quiet.”

      “Yeah, sure. Better than okay.” She pasted on a smile for her brother’s sake. “I’m just wondering if they’ll be selling winter coats at the mall yet. You’ll need one for Boston.”

      Jakey’s whole face lit up with a goofy smile. “Probably not. We should probably just concentrate on getting a few things for camp and order the coat online.”

      “That’s a great idea. Do you...um, mind if I go make a phone call while you finish this up? I’ve got a possible client I need to touch base with. Then we’ll go to the mall.”

      “And