“I’ll start making those arrangements today,” she said with another sigh. “Are you sure you shouldn’t talk to Laura about this before making a decision?”
“She told me to upgrade my plane to one with a bathroom,” he replied. “That’s all I’m doing.”
“Did she know it was going to cost four point eight million dollars to do that?”
“We never talked about that part,” he admitted.
“Perhaps you should?”
“She’s out on tour right now,” Jake said. “In the middle of the grind, you know. I don’t want to bother her with trivial details.”
“Trivial details?” Jill nearly screamed.
“Don’t worry about Laura,” Jake said dismissively. “That’s my job.”
“If you say so.”
“I do,” he said. “Now, about that twenty percent down payment. How much are we talking for that?”
“You can’t do that math in your head?” she asked, irritation and disbelief in her tone.
“I’m sure I could if you gave me a minute, but since I know you have the figure right in front of you, go ahead and lay it on me.”
“Twenty percent of four point eight million dollars is nine hundred and sixty thousand dollars.”
Jake nodded thoughtfully. “That is a lot,” he admitted yet again.
“Yes, it is. A little more than you can just pull out of your wallet and slap down on the table. In order to come up with a lump sum like that I would have to cash out a number of your certificates of deposit, some of which may not be at their maturity date yet since I recently had to do that in order to put down the outlay costs for your home.”
“And that means I would have to pay a penalty, right?”
“That is correct,” she said.
“Hmmm,” he said thoughtfully. “That’s kind of a bummer.”
“Not exactly the word I would have used,” she said.
“Oh well,” he said. “Go ahead and start moving forward on this thing anyway. I’ll find a way to come up with the down payment without you having to cash anything out.”
“How are you going to do that?” she asked.
“By swallowing my pride,” he said.
“Come again?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Just get the ball rolling. I have nothing going for the next few weeks, so if you can arrange for us to go to Bogota to check out the plane, this would be the ideal time.”
“Us?” she asked. “You want me to go with you?”
“Haven’t you always wanted to go to Colombia?” he asked. “I hear it’s beautiful there.”
“No,” she said. “I’ve never wanted to go to Colombia.”
“But you will, right?” he asked gently.
“Yes, Jake,” she said, resigned. “I will.”
Ten minutes later, the phone rang at Pauline’s house. She was just finishing up her own breakfast and watching Tabitha—aka Satan’s Master—chomp down her pancakes with maple syrup. She answered the phone herself.
“Paulie,” her brother’s voice said in her ear, “it’s Jake.”
“Hey, bro,” she said. “What’s up?”
“I’ve had a change of heart,” he said.
“About what?”
“About the Tsunami Sound Festival.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised. Her brother rarely changed his mind about such things. “What brought this on?”
“A Colombian drug lord,” he told her.
She raised her eyebrows. “How’s that?” she asked slowly.
He chuckled. “Never mind. It’s a long story. Anyway, call that suit up and tell him that if he’s still willing to pay me one point two million to open for Matt Tisdale ... well ... I’m in.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll do that. I’ll do it as soon as Tabs if finished eating her breakfast.”
The End of Book IV