Junior Year Box Set

“I’ll talk to your mom and get her out there. In the meantime, I’ll have Caryn and your mom work up plans for the home,” Dad said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“If we do buy it, you might not move into it for five or more years, if ever. Do you rent it, flip it, or fix it and flip it?” Dad explained.

“We’ll have to think about that. What’s the other idea?” I asked.

“I want to expand the management portion of your business and offer it to other people. Since I’ve been working with you, I’ve had several people call, wanting me to be their manager. When I was with Craig, it was easy because he and I were more friends than anything else. I learned a lot working for Craig because of his hijinks, and I can promise you I never want another client like him.

“Something else I’ve learned is I’m not the guy to run the business. I talked to Frank Ingram at IDC – Public Relations. He and his partners have an interest in collaborating with us. They would buy in, and Frank would run it. They would also be our in-house public relations firm. I’ve talked to Kendal Miller, and she’d be interested in joining us,” Kent said.

“Do you have a business plan?” I asked.

“Not yet. Caryn said you had to approve it before we could spend resources on putting one together.”

“If Kendal and Frank are involved with it, I’m fine with looking into it,” I said.

“Not going to ask your old man what he thinks?” Dad asked.

“If you were against it, you would’ve stopped them from asking me,” I said.

I looked out the window, and it was a perfect summer day. I suspect my wistful look ended the meeting.

“We’re losing him. There’s nothing else that can’t wait till next week,” Caryn said.

“What about the Japanese thing?” Megan asked.

“Oh, yeah. That would make us enough money to pay for some of this,” Caryn said.

“Did Saul get me the TV deal?” I asked.

“Yes and no. They said your character was too scary. Ratings have gone through the roof, but they’ve had to put warnings on some of the episodes. Instead, they want you to do a romance. The good news is that it’ll be filmed in the States. It’s about a girl going off to college; she meets a guy and instantly falls in love with him. Saul said he didn’t think it would be too much of a stretch for someone of your talent,” Caryn said.

“Saul can kiss my …”

“David!” Dad warned. “Do you have any numbers?”

She slid the contract over to Dad.

“Yes. He can do this one.”

“Make sure that’s in dollars and not yen. I got tricked by that once already,” I admitted.

“Nope, dollars,” Megan said.

I was starting to love Japan.

◊◊◊

I sent Zoe a text that I was free of my obligations. She said that she was working with the horses and could use my help. I drove the Demon because … why wouldn’t I? Right before I was at the entrance to the park, something told me to slow down. It was good that I did because there was a speed trap just over the hill that I would’ve blown by.

I made sure I used my turn signal to enter the park. I didn’t want to give them any reason to give me a hard time, or worse, a ticket. Mom had made noises about what would happen if I were reckless when driving the Demon.

I pulled into the Pearson farm and found the three amigos sitting on the porch, drinking iced tea. They were sweaty and had obviously been working.

“Look who shows up once we’re done,” Phil commented.

“You’ll learn that’s the sign of a good leader,” I informed them.

I ignored their catcalls as I strolled to the barn to find Zoe. She had a halter on one of the young horses she was training to sell.

“Take him to the rounding pen while I finish up here,” she told me.

“Hello, big boy. What’s your name?” I asked as I let him smell me.

“That’s Casey. He’s my star pupil,” Zoe said.

“Come on, Casey,” I said and clicked my tongue.

He followed me out of the barn. The gate to the rounding pen was open, so I walked him in and took off his halter. I could tell that Zoe had been working with him because he waited until I’d gotten to the center of the pen and then began to circle it. Uncle John had taught me with cows that they had two pressure points you wanted to focus on. The first was the nose since the cow would follow that. The other was the back hip to get them moving.

With Casey, I used the same pressure points to get him to change directions. I would click my tongue to get his attention and then raise my hand toward his nose to get him to turn towards the fence. As soon as he reacted, I would drop my hand, because you didn’t want to constantly push him. Each time he turned for me, I would praise him.

“That’s a good boy.”

I could tell he was losing connection with me when he was further out from me, so I shortened the distance between us. Zoe came out to find Casey making small circles around me as we got to know each other. Of course, when he saw her, he ignored me and trotted over to the gate.

“You’re going to have to get other people to work with him,” I observed.