“I hear Caryn is working for you now,” Devin said.
“She’s been exactly what I needed. I was sorry to hear that things didn’t work out for her at Range Sports. When I heard that she was open to possibly move, I had to snatch her up.”
It was fortunate our teacher came in at that moment. Devin didn’t seem happy to have lost Caryn.
“I’m Bill Scott, and you must be Devin Range and David Dawson. They told me that you’re both wanting to improve your driving skills and have security needs,” he said before starting.
“I’m an actor, and Devin owns a sporting goods company,” I said.
“I also understand you both drive Dodge Charger Hellcats. That’s a lot of car,” Bill said.
We both nodded and smiled.
“The average driver only uses about forty percent of a car’s capabilities. We only have three sessions to get you improved. Our goal is to get you to sixty percent or better after three days. We’ll start with a short classroom session and then get you behind the wheel with a personal driving instructor. We believe you’ll learn best by doing. Does that sound good?” Bill asked.
He then showed us a PowerPoint presentation on the Security Driving Triangle. It described the three pillars of driving: the driver, the vehicle, and the environment. Bill talked about how those three aspects of driving are critical in the real world. His presentation highlighted just how technical the act of driving was. Thanks to his talk, Devin and I gained a better understanding of the three components. These were the factors of success or failure in behind-the-wheel emergencies.
After the classroom session, we were taken out to the track. Bill was going to be my one-on-one driving instructor. They had a Charger just like mine. I now understood why Devin was here. He’d provided the cars.
“We talked about several things in the classroom. What we want you to learn is how to handle this car. You’ll see that there are only orange cones on the track. That’s so if you make a mistake, it doesn’t have to be serious,” Bill said.
“I’ll try not to run any of them over.”
“What would be the fun in that?” he asked with a grin.
The first thing he taught me was how to smoke the tires. I was in heaven. The Charger wasn’t designed to be anything but what it was, an American muscle car. It was a throwback to when people wanted to go fast. Bill showed me how to handle the beast and what to expect. He gave me the confidence not to hold back. That’s not to say some of the big orange cones weren’t toast, but Bill made driving fun.
My fear had always been that with as much power as there was under the hood of the Charger Hellcat, I might lose control of it. Bill pushed me until I did and taught me what to do when it happened. It’s one of those situations where knowledge breeds confidence, and that translates to performance. By the end of class, I had us screaming around the course. I could hardly wait for tomorrow’s class.
Fritz met me at the car.
“Let me drive,” I said.
“Not only no, but Hell, No! I just saw you driving. Rita would kill me if I let you loose on the streets of LA,” Fritz said.
We were giving Devin a lift to his hotel. He came out.
“He won’t let me drive,” I complained.
“Thank you,” Devin said to Fritz. “Did you see that maniac?”
“You both suck,” I said and got into the car.
On the ride home, Devin wanted to talk about us.
“I was hoping we could be friends again,” Devin said.
“You have a strange way of being my friend. I bring a girl with me, and you try to snake her from me. I don’t have any friends that would do that,” I snapped.
“Nancy was all wrong for you, and you know it. When you get older, you’ll understand things better. You need to get over your snit. I was doing you a favor. I believe she’s going out with one of your other friends now. It’s not a big deal,” Devin shot back.
“Don’t take me for granted. That ‘I’m older and wiser’ line is just bullshit. I don’t care what age you are, you don’t go after someone else’s woman and expect them to just take it. You didn’t do it only once, did you?”
“David … I’m sorry about Nancy. I shouldn’t have done that,” he admitted.
“Why didn’t you say that at the time? Why did you tap-dance around it and blame her for misunderstanding your intentions? If you’d apologized and manned-up, I’d still trust you.”
“I agree, and I’m sorry. There’s no good excuse for what I did. I felt awful when you left, and Sandy was all over my ass about it. I honestly didn’t know how to fix it. The worst part was Nancy would have been the perfect woman for me, but I messed that up, too.”
“I agree; when you pushed your affections on her, you were never going to win her over. Nancy saw the light and was embarrassed when she realized how you’d played her. There was no coming back from that,” I said.
“I did it again in New Orleans, didn’t I? But we both know you had no feelings for Cora,” he said.
“You know that now, but at the time you thought you could just snake another girl from the dumb high school kid,” I said.
“I never thought of you that way. You’re far from dumb. Truth be known, I was a little jealous. You always seemed to have the perfect girl on your arm. I mishandled the whole thing. There was a near-revolt on my board when they found out I’d fired you. That was an expensive lesson.”
“I bought a farm with that money,” I said.
“Can we talk about Caryn?” he asked. “Did you go after her to hurt me?”
“A little, but I really needed someone. You letting Cora treat her like dirt made it easy.”
He looked out the window, and we watched the traffic.
“I messed that up. Caryn was way overqualified to be doing what I had her do. She has a ton of potential. Do right by her,” Devin said.
“She’s shown that I need her for much more than just to manage me. I plan to put her in charge of everything as soon as she’s up to speed. I have big plans for Caryn,” I admitted.
“So, she’s happy?”
“Yeah, I believe she is.”
“Do you think we can work at being friends again?”
I thought about it. I’d always liked Devin. It was his immaturity when it came to women that caused friction between us. He would be so busy with his divorce from Cora I was sure he would leave my women alone.
“Yeah,” I said. “Do you have an ironclad prenup in place?”
“Why does everyone ask that?”
My eyes got big.
“If everyone’s asking you something, shouldn’t you at least wonder why? Did you at least have her investigated?” I asked.
“You’re just being a jerk,” he pouted.
“If I hadn’t asked, I’d feel responsible if something happened. I really hope that ‘everyone’ is wrong,” I said.
“Yep, jerk,” Devin said.
“Just saying,” I said and held up my hands.
I’d tried. Only time would tell for both Cora and me, as far as Devin was concerned.
◊◊◊
Chapter 25 – Best Christmas Present Ever Tuesday December 29
When I came back from my run, Mom and Dad were sitting on the patio, drinking coffee. The paparazzi had figured out I’d moved to the beach house. I took my shower and met my parents and Fritz for breakfast. Mom had made an enormous Spanish omelet.
“Do you have to deal with that all the time?” Dad asked.
“It’s a daily occurrence. I just assume that someone has a camera on me whenever I’m in public. In retrospect, I should’ve listened to Uncle John’s warning. This really has changed the way I live,” I admitted.
I spotted the goofy guy from Hollywood Central.
“Want to see how this works?” I asked.
Mom and Dad gave me funny looks. I ran down and let him in.
“Here’s the deaclass="underline" I feed you breakfast, and you don’t film inside the house or my parents,” I said.