He’d thought he’d kept the surprise off his face, but David had forgotten his grandmother was at the table.
“They haven’t talked to you, have they?” she asked.
Gabe and Ron both looked guilty, but they were seasoned veterans in the business world, so they recovered quickly.
“We’ve heard about this virtual reality system you’ve brought in. How does that work? And how does it help the team?” Ron asked.
David launched into a description of the VR system that Dare and Corvus had put together and how the team was using it. It piqued Gabe’s interest.
“I don’t know if that’s something we at the studio might be interested in, but I’d like to talk to you about it sometime.”
“Of course,” David said. “We’ll have to find some time to do that. We may want to get some of your technical guys
together with the inventors.”
There was a pause in the conversation, so David changed the subject.
“Recruiting is going well.”
“We heard that you and the other freshmen have been active. What is that game everyone’s playing?” Gabe asked.
“Fortnight.”
Bryant, USC’s recruiting coordinator, had embraced the new class’s efforts to get to know potential future teammates. He’d given them a list of the top fifty players around the country who they wanted for the next class.
Each one of them had four or five recruits they were to follow.
Bryant helped the guys out by sending them each high schooler’s stats for their most recent game, plus other information like who was in their family, birthdays, and the like. That allowed them to personalize their messages.
Chuy came up with the Fortnight idea. In the game, there was a Battle Royale mode. It was sort of a Hunger Games-esque mode in which you could either lone-wolf it or team up as a Duo or a Squad of up to four. His teammates and the recruits all loved it.
The big plus was that you could talk in-game with the other players. It gave the recruits a chance to ask questions about what it was really like at USC.
“Bryant told me that it’s made a big difference. When the coaches hit the recruiting trail, doors are opening that they used to have to work to get into. Tell your guys thank you,” Gabe said.
“I will. Tell Bryant to check out this kid at Lincoln High.
He would help with depth at quarterback,” David said.
“That’s your little brother?” Gabe asked.
“That’s the one. I worked with Bud Mason in high school, and he helped me improve dramatically. This last summer, Bud coached Phil.”
David explained who Bud was. He had coached quarterbacks in the NFL for many years, and his claim to fame was the old Raider teams that liked to throw the ball deep.
“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll talk to Bryant,” Ron promised.
David knew if Ron or Gabe called and suggested a player, the USC coaching staff would at least take a hard look. He was confident that Phil was worth a flyer.
“Have you guys started looking for Coach Merritt’s replacement?” David asked.
“It’s still the early days, but we’ve started a task force,”
Gabe shared.
“If you want my advice, I would look for proven winners.
During my recruiting process, I talked to a lot of head coaches. The ones that stood out have a system that starts freshman year and develops their young men into starters.
Alabama and Wisconsin come to mind. They are consistent winners because of those systems, and they simply reload each year,” David shared.
The hidden message was USC was either feast or famine as far as wins went. A team like Wisconsin might not make it to the national championship, but they would be in the conversation as the winner of the Big Ten West each year.
Alabama was a whole different beast. Having the best talent and a system … meant they won national championships.
“If you had to pick two names you think we could get, who are they?” Ron asked.
“Matt Styles at Kentucky, and my up-and-comer is Bo Harrington at Western Michigan. Full disclosure, I consider both to be friends. Bo was hired to turn me into a quarterback before he got the job at Alabama,” David shared.
David firmly believed that both Matt and Bo could take the talent at USC and get it to perform well enough to win
the Pac-12 every year.
“Harrington was already on our list, and we’ll look into Styles,” Gabe said.
◊◊◊
After dinner, Ron wanted a quick word.
“The merger is almost done,” he said to let David know where they were with Morgan Fletcher Investments. “One of the details we need to work out is the loan you gave Holistic Wealth Management when they bought you out.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“I’d like to pay it off and buy your shares of the company.
I would buy them for what we project your shares will be worth in five years,” Ron said as he handed David a paper.
David read the figure and wasn’t sure what to do. If he weren’t careful, a huge chunk of that would be given to the taxman. Even so, it was more than he had earned to this point in total.
“Capital gains are going to kill me.”
Ron barked out a laugh.
“I thought only old people like me worried about that,”
he said and then got serious. “I can have our wealth management people work something up to help mitigate the impact.”
“Do that, and talk to my dad. In the end, he’ll have to okay it.”
“Your dad’s a sharp man. You did well when you entrusted him with your businesses,” Ron said.
That was high praise. It made him wonder if Ron was buttering him up for some reason.
“When do you need to know?” David asked.
“We have some time. I just need to know if you’re open to doing this.”
“I only have one question: why pay a premium? You could buy the stock on the open market for less.”
“It helps me because I need to make this move to solidify my standing in the company. If I went the open market route, I would have to make filings with the SEC to declare my intentions, which would announce them to the world.
Technically, I might get slapped on the wrist for doing this, but the fines are nothing,” Ron explained.
“Still,” David pushed back.
“I plan to marry your grandmother,” Ron admitted.
David connected the dots. This would be a way for him to move some of his wealth to her family. David figured if Ron could give fifty million dollars annually to USC, he could afford this.
“If you convince my dad and keep the tax bill to a minimum, I’m in,” David agreed.
Now no one could complain when he bought himself a fleet of planes.
◊◊◊
David and Crystal were in a good mood when they returned to the hotel. They walked in on what only could be called an orgy. Their friends had all decided on some naked fun.
Alex was with Wren, Chloe was being double-teamed by Lars and Jim, Taylor was giving Chuy head, while Big Cat and Rachel were still partially clothed and making out.
Crystal took his hand and led David to their bedroom.
Inside, they found Emily.
“Sorry. I just needed somewhere to go,” Emily said as she got up from one of the beds.
She’d been watching TV as she hid out.
“You can stay. David and I were just going to watch some streaming video,” Crystal said.
Mr. Happy made a formal protest to the big brain that David should get rid of his new girlfriend and go out to the party and join in.