While this avalanche was small in comparison, all those memories flashed back in an instant.
“We need to find him,” David worried.
“Let me check his signal,” Leo said.
They all had avalanche transmitters strapped to their chests as a safety precaution. David noticed that Leo didn’t seem too concerned, which helped calm his nerves a bit. Their guide bounded down the hill when he found Phil’s signal and then slowed when he got close.
“I think I found him,” he announced.
He pulled a small folding shovel from his backpack and began to dig down. Luckily, Phil wasn’t that deep. When they pulled him out, he was slightly shaken-up but okay.
“Did you catch that on your GoCam?” was the first question Phil asked.
“I think so. I’ll download it and send it to your mother at lunchtime, dumbass,” David said.
The look on Phil’s face was worth the whole trip.
They were served lunch on the side of the mountain before their next run.
“You should be in charge of planning stuff more often,” Lexi told David as she sat next to him.
David noticed the rest of the group had left the two of them alone. He paused a moment to take in all the frozen nature before them.
“This is pretty special,” he agreed.
“You know that I like you, right?”
David’s head came around, and he raised one eyebrow.
“I like you, too.”
She just smiled at him.
“Anything else?” David asked.
“No. I just wanted you to know that.”
“Welp.”
Lexi laughed because that meant he didn’t know what to say to her declaration, and she swiftly reached over to snag a large cookie from his box lunch. He wasn’t happy she’d stolen it, but when he started to protest, she just smiled at him.
’Well, hell,’ he thought as he let it go.
At least she hadn’t declared her love again.
They got in six runs before it was time to fly back. The group was exhausted from skiing and snowboarding. Doing it when you sank past your knees was more work than slopes that had been packed down by snowcats and the multitude of skiers who’d done the run before you. But it was a good tired.
Lexi cashed in when Miles turned into a hard-ass fun-sucker and wouldn’t let David jump out of his helicopter. Apparently, there had been some fatal heli-skiing accidents in the past. The Canadian aviation authorities had become rather vigilant in enforcing their safety regs, as Miles explained it.
The bus picked them up, and they went to finish packing. Lexi had called their jet service and confirmed that the aircraft was ready for their flight back. The plan was to fly to LA that night. Tim and Wolf would catch commercial flights back to Oklahoma later on Friday.
Everyone else was ready by the time the five were done packing and the bus was waiting downstairs. David did a circuit through the house to make sure no one had left anything. It was good that he did because he found Allard’s wallet. David had to shake his head because he suddenly realized that a final walk-through was something his dad would have done. When did he become the responsible one?
On the flight back, the week caught up with everyone. It didn’t take long before David found that only he and the crew were awake. The flight attendant made David a pastrami on rye and a cup of coffee, so he didn’t join his trip-mates in slumber.
David wanted a chance to think about their vacation and what awaited him when he got back.
His first thought was about Joey and Greg. If she took the job, they would quickly find out that rent in LA was not cheap. A place that would hold a family of five in a good neighborhood would be at least five times more expensive than what they would pay back home. If they were made to pay first and last months’ rent, plus a security deposit, that could become pricey in a hurry. And that was before the cost to move, turn on utilities, and the odds and ends that came with a new place.
While David didn’t want to horn in, he would talk to his parents to let them know that if Greg needed help, he would step up. He’d been blessed to have earned enough money that he could act as a backstop if required. In the past, his parents had been hardheaded about stuff like this. Dad felt Greg was his responsibility, and if Greg was in a bind, then Dad would take care of it. If that happened, then David would just give his dad a bonus, for some random reason, as his CEO.
That made him think about the businesses he’d sold. David had let himself be bought out because he had neither the knowledge, nor the time, nor the inclination to run a business. He’d been bought out by Grace Davenport, the former CEO and owner of L-Brands. Grace had, in turn, gone national with the all-inclusive wealth management company.
She’d sent him an email notification that she wanted him to attend a board meeting. David had been granted a seat on the board since he still owned nearly ten percent of the company, making him a minority owner. He’d designated his father to man the position until after David graduated college. So David was surprised at her request.
She had scheduled it after school was out for the spring but before summer school started. He would have to talk to Lexi to make sure the date didn’t interfere with the launch of his James Bond movie. It was slotted to be in theaters Memorial Day weekend, the last weekend in May. As of now, it was the lone heavyweight movie that would open over that three-day holiday.
Then David’s thoughts turned to football. He had some general goals in mind but no idea how to accomplish them. That was when the lightbulb went on: he needed to create a project plan. David got his tablet out and began making a list of his goals. That was something his uncle had taught him when they’d shaped his life goals, and it translated to many different applications.
When he started to break down each goal into specific tasks, it began to look doable. By the time the pilot announced they were on final approach, David was happy because he now felt like he was back in control. He was ready to return to USC and get started on his quest to bring the USC football program back to its glory days.
Developmental Editors: XofDallas and Bud Ugly
Line / Copy Editors: Bud Ugly, TheMikeBomb, Zom, and Old Rotorhead
Continuity Editor: Rusty
Last One Through: Bud Ugly
Chapter 56
David
“He’s in there,” Phil said.
David had crashed on the pool house couch after their arrival in Malibu. He heard a thundering herd of little feet as they ran in.
“Uncle David, Uncle David,” Kyle and Mac cried out in unison, giggling as they scampered up to his reclining form.
David played like he was asleep right up until they were almost on him.
“Rawr!” he yelled as he jumped up.
Kyle and Mac ran squealing, wanting their uncle to chase them. Nate, Greg’s youngest, ran right to him. David scooped him up and turned him upside down. When his shirt fell away from his tummy, David gave him a raspberry. Nate giggled in turn and squirmed when it made a loud farting noise.
David set him loose so he could help chase his siblings.
His mom called to him from the second-story window as they fled outside.
“Don’t get them wound up,” she ordered.
“That ship has sailed,” David called back as he returned to the game. “Rah!”
She made a disgusted noise as she shut the window.
“Rat,” David said when he found and slugged Phil in the arm.