1
Dillon
Looking out my office window at my hometown of Cherry Springs, I felt a sense of peace overcome me.
It was good to be back.
Usually, I took a week every summer to go down to Camp Gabriel Lewis, my cousins football camp, to help get it ready for the incoming campers, but this year, business had kept me away.
Instead of having fun in the sun with my family, my twin sister, Jasmine, and I had split up to look at expanding our company. Jasmine had gone to Seattle, while I had gone to San Francisco. And, while she’d finished up her trip in time to head to camp, I’d been delayed in San Francisco.
Luckily, things had turned out well on my trip, and it looked like an expansion to San Francisco would be a good move. I needed to gather my notes and put together a proposal for the board, but I was feeling confident.
Lewis Sporting Goods had been in our family for generations, and the board consisted of my parents and Reardon’s dad. When our grandparents had passed, they’d left the company to all four of their sons, but Gabe’s parents ran the local bar and grill, and Serena’s parents had moved away years ago. They still owned shares of the company, but were now silent partners, and didn’t sit on the board.
It was the same with my cousins, who were more like brothers and sisters, since we’d all been raised together. When it came to the business, they’d chosen to do other things and leave Lewis Sporting Goods to Jazzy and me.
Gabe, our oldest cousin, had been an NFL player, but was now retired and focused on his family. Reardon, the person I was closest to, other than Jazzy of course, was the lawyer in our small town and had just started a family of his own. Serena, our youngest cousin, moved away during middle school, but had come back for vacations and holidays, and was a very talented artist.
While our cousins had followed their passions, Jasmine and I had been happy to take over the family business. It wasn’t always easy, but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Picking up the phone, I pressed the button to my executive secretary.
“Carol, do I have anything pressing this afternoon? I haven’t been to my house yet and wanted to drop off my bags and freshen up. I’ll be back later to play catch up, but if there’s something I need to be here for, I can stay.”
“You have a four o’clock with Laurel Turner, but I assumed you’d come here first, rather than go home, and kept your afternoon clear.”
I grinned and said, “You’re the best.”
Carol had been with our company since I was a little boy, and she probably knew me just as well as my own mother.
“Don’t I know it,” she quipped, then disconnected.
I chuckled as I hung up, then frowned when the name of the appointment penetrated.
Laurel Turner.
That name brought up plenty of memories, none of them good.