It was Presidents’ Day weekend, so we’d be in New York for three days. Adrienne had arranged some jobs for me. She hadn’t told me who they were for or what I’d be doing, but it would be something I’d enjoy. If Adrienne said it would be fun, I was in.
“Let me call my mom and ask,” Zoe said.
It was interesting to see the progression of the conversation from Zoe’s end. She started out excited, then things took a decided turn. She got up and walked into the bedroom, and the discussion seemed to get heated.
“Fine!” I heard as a final retort.
I stepped into the bedroom and found Zoe red-faced and breathing heavily.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
Of course, I recognized it wasn’t all okay, but I’d learned it’s sometimes best to get the conversation started so a girl can vent. She gave me a look that I didn’t think I deserved.
“I have to go home,” Zoe announced.
She stomped out to the living room and put her coat on. If she was going to be a brat, I was more than happy to drive her home. We got into the Charger and drove off. She didn’t say a word to me the entire way. When we got to her house, she just jumped out and ran inside. Well, I guess that’s what I get for trying to be nice.
I had to turn in the Charger tomorrow, so I decided to go for a drive. I would miss this car. It was every motor-head’s dream. It was heavy enough that it didn’t get all squirrelly when you pushed it into turns. The Charger was quick and powerful. If you wanted something that would outperform it, you’d need to spend twice what you’d pay for the production version of the Charger, or heavily modify something else. The only knock I had on the Charger was its brakes. I’d planned to upgrade them in the spring.
I pushed the pedal down and felt myself being pressed back into my seat as the Charger began to pick up speed. After my driving classes in LA, I was much more comfortable aggressively driving this beast. I had a blast racing through the county park’s ten-mile serpentine road. Hardly anyone ever drove it, so I wasn’t worried I would run into any traffic. The Charger didn’t even twitch when I would throw it into the corners.
When I hit the countryside, I looked for the nearest county road. If I was going to have some fun, I didn’t need a ticket—the county roads weren’t patrolled much, and I loved driving them. They were laid out in a grid that ran north/south and east/west in one-mile increments. Unlike LA, where I wasn’t sure any road was truly straight, you didn’t need a GPS to figure out how to get somewhere. Washington was the nearest town to ours, and it was eight miles north and three miles east. All you had to do was drive north and then turn right at the eighth intersection. Three more and you would be at the edge of town.
With no crops in the fields, I could see for what seemed like miles. I let the Charger have its legs and was soon well past a hundred miles per hour. Even though there was no traffic, I made a point to slow down near a farmhouse. Farm dogs were often territorial, and I didn’t want to hit one just doing its job.
I drove from one end of the county to the other before going home. I needed to get all my stuff out of the car. In the trunk, I had a gun safe and first aid bag. Well, ‘first aid bag’ was probably a misnomer. Tami had bought it for me, and it was more of a paramedic bag. It had anything and everything you would need in an emergency that could be put into such a kit.
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When I got home, I cleaned out the Charger. Getting the gun safe out was a chore; I expect they wanted to discourage people from stealing them. After I was done, I grabbed the chicken and pie and found Dad watching college basketball. State was playing Iowa, and it didn’t look good for the home team.
“I knew you were my favorite son,” Dad said as I put the food on the coffee table.
“What did Jack suggest we do with my money?” I asked, finally ready to hear what was suggested when Dad and Caryn spoke with Jack Mass.
“What did you and Bev talk about?” Dad asked. While he and Caryn had their meeting with Jack, I was meeting with Bev to ask for her help in bringing Brandon to justice.
“I’ll tell you and Mom about it when I get everything figured out.”
Dad just nodded.
“Jack talked to Caryn and me about your financial situation and made several recommendations. The first was to set up an emergency fund. He said we needed to have three to six months’ expenses put into savings. Caryn should have that number from the accountant this week. He called this our reserve or rainy-day fund. Jack suggested we put it into CDs that we can cash out when needed.
“He then advised that we reduce the amount of cash we have in the checking account. We only needed to keep enough there to operate for the month. Jack suggested we keep another three months’ expenses in short-term investments. Once the new businesses start showing a profit, you can reduce that.
