Junior Year Box Set

“I was wondering if you’d be interested in a job. I’m in desperate need of someone with your skills,” I said.

“Why would I want to make a change? I already have a good job.”

I smiled because I hadn’t been hung up on yet.

“It’s simple: your skills aren’t being utilized in your current position. I can offer you a ground-floor opportunity that would allow you to work in diverse industries. And you would have the flexibility to run things however you want.”

“Would I have to take a pay cut?”

“I don’t know. What are you currently making?” I asked.

She told me, and I smiled again. Devin Range was a cheap bastard.

“Caryn, I can guarantee you’ll make more than that. We might also tie your compensation to how much my business increases under your watch. You can make as much or little as you want, based on how you help me build the bottom line.”

“I don’t know. I need to think about it,” she said.

“Why don’t we do this: I send you a plane ticket, and you spend Thanksgiving at our house? You talk to everyone and get a feel for the job. Frankly, I don’t know everything you’d need to do. I’d hope you could help figure that out for me,” I said.

There was a long pause.

“David, are you doing this to get even with Devin?” Caryn asked.

I decided that I needed to be honest with her. We didn’t need our business relationship to start off with a lie.

“Yeah. A part of me needs to balance the scales, so to speak. But that part of it is just a happy coincidence. Honestly, I need your PA skills in the worst way come the first of December. That’s when I go to LA to shoot my new movie, and my first movie will premiere after the first of the year. While I’m in LA, I want to see if acting is a viable career path for me, so I’d need your business skills to help me with that. I also have other business interests like the family farm, photo resales, and two charities I created.”

“Okay. That’s enough to get me interested and make it worth a trip to your home. I trust that you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone who might be tied to Range Sports,” she said.

I agreed, and I had a big smile on my face when she hung up. Now I had to tell my mom and dad. I probably should have done that before making the offer.

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Somehow, I found my way to the Pearson farm. I seem to have fallen into a routine. I might have to shake that up when I came back. Then again, my trips to their farm were always relaxing. I knew how hard farm life could be, but I could see myself as a gentleman farmer, especially if I had someone like Zoe as my wife.

As I pulled up, I saw two horses saddled up and ready to be ridden. I got out of my car, and Zoe came out of the barn.

“I hope you’re okay with going for a ride,” she said.

Seems I really was predictable. I wasn’t sure if that bothered me or not. Then she kissed me, and I forgot all about it. We rode the horses to the farm that was for sale. Zoe stopped at the edge of the woods and got off, so I joined her.

“There are a couple of bags in the saddlebag,” she said.

“What are we doing?” I asked.

“The walnuts have all dropped. We need to gather them before they soften and go bad,” Zoe said.

If walnuts were left on the ground for too long, they would mold. Zoe showed me how to pick out the best nuts. When they drop, they looked like green balls. The outer husk had to be removed to get to the nut. She gave me a hammer and chisel to knock the husk off. She would go bag up the walnuts and then dump them for me to dehusk. It was a lot of work for the little we collected. I would guess that when we were done, we each had about a five-gallon bucket’s worth.

When we returned to the barn, she dumped them all out at the horse-cleaning station and used the hose to clean the nuts. Zoe gave me the job of using a brush to knock off the worst of any debris left on the shells. She then had me gather them all up in buckets and put them into a dryer. Zoe told me that the nuts needed to be kept at 95 to 100 degrees for 3 to 4 days. After that, she would bag them up and throw them in the freezer.

It was a shame how many nuts would go to waste on the farm with no one around to take care of them.

“So, what do you plan to do with your bounty of nuts?” I asked.

“Put them in nice colored foil bags with ribbons on them and give them as Christmas gifts.”

I smiled at her ingenuity. She had spent an afternoon and had much of her Christmas shopping done. That was a much better gift than something you bought at the store. Little things like this were what attracted me to Zoe. Well, that, and she was pretty cool.

I wrapped her up in a bear hug and kissed the top of her head. Today had been another great day hanging out with Zoe. If I weren’t careful, I might end up with an honest-to-God girlfriend.

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Chapter 9 – So How Soon Can You Start Monday November 16