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for his sixteenth birthday . B ut they had made it clear that since they had purchase d it, they weren’ t opposed to taking it away if Reece ever gave them a reason to do so. However, Beth Hildenbrandt had an entirely different idea about what qualified as
     ‘a reason’. But most of the time Reece felt like the only reason his dad had gotten
     him the vehicle was so that he could threaten him with it.
    “Fine,” Reece said. “The keys are upstairs in my jacket .”
    Looked like he ’d be texting Adam, begging for a ride in the morning. Again.
    Landon huffed at him once more . As if this answer surprised him? It wasn’t the fi rst time Reece ha d give n up the rights to his Navigator without a fight.
    Besides, he had a hunch his mom wasn’t clued into this conversation yet.
    She actually got why he didn’t want to play.
    He bounced off the couch , heading to his room.
    “Reece,” his d ad said in a warning tone.
    “What? What else are you going to take away? Are you going to ground me because I don’t want to play?” he asked as he threw his hands up in frustration.
    Landon’s face was hard. Angry. He had control issues. As in, he thought he needed to be in
     control of everything. A ll the time. It was worse for Reece now that his sisters were out of the house. The crazy thing? Reece thought his dad really did believe it was because he knew what was best for everyone. In his own warped way, he was looking out for his kids by being this way.
    But he was wrong.
    And Reece was done with it.
    “Dad? Remember how you practically stood over me, watchi ng me fill out the application to Northwestern ?” Reece was quiet a minute. He enjoyed the questioning, surprised look that settled on his dad’s face. He could tell his dad had no idea where he was go ing with this. “You remember,” Reece needled because there was no way he’d forgotten . “The application that you personally mailed last month ?”
    Landon had gotten a hold of Northwestern’s early dec ision application. He had been adamant that this was the school Reece would be attending . H e wanted the paperwork done as soon as possible.
    “What about it , Reece?” Landon was livid now. He knew something was up.
    Reece shrugged. “You probably shouldn’t be holding your breath for my acceptance letter.
     I called the Admission’s Office and withdrew my application the other day .”
    He hadn’t wanted to part with this information yet. But he was furious enough with
     his dad, that he couldn’t help himself.
    Landon’s words were slow and deliberate when he said, “You did what?”
    “I’ve never wanted to go there. Maybe I don’t want to leave the state. I’ve never wanted to go into business.” None of this should’ve been news to Landon . Y et he looked at Reece like he had no idea what his son was talking about.
    “Reece,” he ground out, “you’re done with that girl. There’s nothing holding you back.
     There’s no reason for you not to go.”
    “That girl has a name!” Reece shouted. “And it was never because of Cleo that I didn’t want to g o!” It wasn’t entirely true. He had already not wanted to go. Cleo had just given him one more reason for wanting to stay.
    Reece’s grades had always been higher than average and Cleo studied a lot , too. That meant last year, so had Reece. I t had significantly raised his GPA. Making it pretty likely he would get in. Too bad
     he didn’t want to go.
    Landon ignored his outburst . “Okay,” he said, making it sound like he was conceding. Reece knew he wasn’t. He was just taking a minute to redirect. To find a new line of attack.
     “ Northwestern might be out. Maybe you can apply along with everyone else…But if you can’t, if they
     won’t allow it after withdrawing, you have to have some business sense.”
    Reece opened his mouth to protest. Wondering why he even bothered. Up until now, he hadn’t said much. He’d just let his dad think he was going to have his