I had a good time dancing with everyone. I spent about half my time dancing with Nancy. While we were slow-dancing, she told me she wanted to go back to the Ranch and bring in the New Year there. I was all in favor of her plan.
Caryn was being hit on, so I had Greg, Uncle John and Dad all dance with her. Mom even dressed down one guy who wouldn’t take no for an answer. I was taking a break, and walking back to the table with Nancy when Caryn grabbed me and took me to the middle of the dance floor. She kissed me right through the song. When it ended, everyone had seen it, and I could see some men were grumbling. She then led me back to the table, and we collected Nancy to leave.
To the world, it looked like I had taken two women home. When we got outside, Caryn thanked Nancy for my use and went home alone. We talked Devin’s driver into taking us back to the ranch. Devin wouldn’t need him for a couple of hours, so he agreed.
“THANKS FOR INVITING me. I’ve had a good time, and enjoyed getting to know your family,” Nancy told me.
We had started a fire and were cuddling on the couch. Nancy was unbuttoning my shirt.
“So, since I won the bet ...” I started.
“I don’t think so. Caryn told me what happened.”
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“Call it a draw. Why don’t we just make love, since it’s our last night?” Nancy suggested.
It was the perfect setting to say goodbye. We made love in front of the fire and took our time. I think we were trying to remember every part of the other person. Deep down we knew this was possibly the last time we’d have sex. When we finally finished, we just held each other and fell asleep.
I had put on a romantic radio station and came awake as they were counting down for New Year’s. I thought back to last year. I remember thinking, ‘Well happy frickin’ New Year!’
I smiled. Yes, ‘Happy frickin’ New Year!’
Sophomore Year: Spring
DESCRIPTION: Sixth book of A Stupid Boy Story series.
It’s the oldest story under the sun. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy does anything he can to impress girl. The problem is, the girl the boy has liked since first grade may want other things, like date other boys. With that in the back the boys mind he has other things to worry about. He’s landed a role in a movie that is about to change everything.
The boy must learn to handle the attention it brings and try to live a normal life. He still has important stuff to do, like play baseball for his high school team.
Interlude
Sandy Range
My brother will be the death of me, I swear.
Devin and I have had to become close because of the loss of our father. Devin’s had to be both a big brother and father to me. I sometimes wonder about the father part, since he is only six years older than I was. To keep me out of foster care, he had to agree to take responsibility for me.
At the time, he was overwhelmed. We had the ranch and then the sporting goods business. Add to that a little sister who was grieving. He had to go from hunting or riding horses as his day’s focus to running a business. It was a good thing Dad had made sure Devin knew what was going on because he had troubles at the beginning with Dad’s company president.
Bill Hutchens felt it would be best to sell off parts of the company. It turned out those were the most profitable parts. Mr. Hutchens made a deal with our biggest competitor with the understanding that he would reap a huge windfall and job after the deal. If Devin hadn’t been aware of what was going on in the business, Mr. Hutchens might have gotten away with it.
Mr. Hutchens was let go and Devin had to take over the company. The first thing he did was bring in his best friend Lou and put him in charge of research and development. I think it was just so the two of them could play with all the equipment they made.
Dad had focused on what he thought our core business was. It was all related to outdoor activities you could do locally, like hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking. Devin wanted to expand to include all sporting activities. Dad had been ultraconservative, which meant he had large cash reserves on hand. Devin used most of that money to expand the business.
One of the things he wanted to do was start to advertise our new lines of products. One was a youth line. Since Devin considered me a kid—thank you very much—he asked me who I thought would be a good pick to be the face of the line.
Devin had signed a contract with Ford Models and they’d sent over possible candidates. While they were all good-looking, none of them felt right. That was when I saw this cute young guy on TV. It turned out to be David Dawson.
I FIRST MET DAVID IN Chicago. Ford was having an event and invited Devin and our board of directors. I was Devin’s plus-one. I wanted to meet our potential new youth-line face, David.
I’d never met someone that suddenly gave me butterflies in my stomach. To the point I couldn’t put a coherent sentence together. I made a complete fool out of myself when I met him. Then he asked me to dance. I was ready to throw my panties at him and offer to be the mother of his children. I had it bad.
Then my big brother decided to be a big brother. A combination of David being a perfect gentleman and my brother’s antics saved me from doing something stupendously crazy. I know it never would have worked, but the good news was that this meeting was the beginning of a friendship.
David also was exactly what we wanted for the face of Range Sports. He was young, athletic, fun-loving, and looked perfectly at home in our gear. Our marketing department loved him. For that matter, Devin loved him.
David and Devin became friends because of their love of sporting equipment. Yes, David was younger than Devin was, but that didn’t seem to matter. It also helped that David has a brain. He helped us in London when the models Ford sent didn’t seem to work out. He set us up with Adrienne’s new modeling agency, and thanks to him she did some modeling for us. David was also Lou’s crash test dummy.
They’d built a jet water board that had the two of them giggling like schoolgirls. Devin suggested that David try it out since he was the face of their target market. Lou proposed that they film the whole thing and use it on the website to drive sales. What they got was national TV exposure when David broke it. I’ve never seen Devin look so cowardly as he did after talking to David’s mother. I wish I’d been a fly on the wall for that conversation.
AT CHRISTMAS, DEVIN disappointed me when he went after David’s date, Nancy. I don’t know what made my brother think he could just take David’s girlfriend. It was especially awkward with David’s family there. We’d had such a nice Christmas, too. It was the first time since my dad passed that we’d had a house full of people for the holidays. What really pissed me off was that they seemed to accept us into their family, and then my horndog brother goes and ruins it.
I knew something was up by the way David acted. He was normally a happy, outgoing guy, but I could tell something was bothering him. I finally cornered him and he admitted that Devin was hitting on Nancy. David had brought her to see if there was anything between them. I could see the attraction, but she wasn’t right for him. She was too old, to begin with. There were some other problems, but it wasn’t my place to point them out. David was smart enough to figure it out.