Chapter 54

I didn’t get to tell Dad about everything till breakfast the next morning. I came home to an empty house, and a note, ‘Hope you did well, text me the results, having meeting with Meredith, will be home late, don’t stay up waiting.’

I didn’t bother asking if it was a date or a working meeting, based on the spring in his step, and the smile on his face at breakfast, I guessed both. I recognized that my own recent experiences told me that he’d gotten lucky, and prior to my trip to England I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

“So Susie and I are going to be the new school cooking team,” I concluded.

“I’m glad you worked to make a friend not an enemy,” Dad commented.

“I think we will be fine as long as I ignore her inability to self edit. If it gets annoying I’ll challenge her to a cook off again.”

“How did you know what size to get her? Did her Mom help?”

“I had some help, but that’s all I want to say about it.”

His eyebrow went up, but he smiled and nodded, respecting my request for discretion. “How’s geometry going?”

“I’m ahead of the accelerated schedule. Mr North, my Geometry teacher, says that I’ll finish early and take the test as soon as I can. That way he can get me into the class and have me take the first quarter final in Algebra 2 to gauge if I’m behind, and by how much.”

“I don’t get the smile on your face when you talk about taking back to back math finals, even if they are just first quarter.”

I just grinned bigger at him, “I’ve got Mom’s math talent, and cooking ability. I think you are just jealous.”

He snorted, “Ok, math whiz, how much did we get for the second set of five coins?”

I perked up, “Is that the reason for your meeting?”

“That was discussed, and I got a new check.”

“How much?”

“Guess,” he challenged.

I thought for a second of cheating, and asking Adam, but decided against it. “3.2 million.”

“4.1” he said triumphantly.

“Wow!”

“I know, right? There were two very rare coins in that group. The buyer included a letter requesting that we just send him everything, he’ll buy the ones he wants, and then arrange an auction for the rest, no commission taken.”

‘Can we trust him?’ I asked Adam.

“I believe so.”

I asked Dad, “What guarantee do we have that he won’t resell for a higher price what he buys from us.”

“Anything he purchases goes into his private collection, all of our coins would only increase his collection by about 1 percent.”

“Can we put in the contract first right of repurchase at the original price if he chooses to sell them in the next five years?”

“Probably, the guy would’ve shown up personally to beg to see the collection in its entirety if Michaela hadn’t threatened to blacklist him. That’s why he sent the letter.”

“I’m fine with that, but we probably should talk to a tax guy to see if doing it after the new year wouldn’t be better.”

“I’m way ahead of you. A good portion of the second sale is going to taxes, but the rest of the coins are being classified as investments, so that when we sell them, we can move the funds into a pre tax investment fund. We won’t get taxed until we remove the money from the fund.”

“That’s awesome. With the way you set things up, we have the income from the two trusts to pay for everything we need.”

“I also restructured those a bit. You’ve got 750k now in trust, so you are looking at your credit card being paid at at least $750 a month. The food, gas, and general purchase budget is now generating at least $2000 a month, and the rest is dumped into the house budget, which will take care of the utilities and remodel work.”

“The general budget is that credit card we both have?”

“Right, the one with the great cash back that dumps into your Amazon account.”

“It’s our Amazon account, but yeah.”

“I’m switching to a different card for the remodel, it offers a higher cash back for places like Home Depot and Lowes. It’s marketed for contractors who can get a refund they don’t have to share with the client.”

“That’s great, where does that extra go?” I asked.

“My date night fund.”

That brought me up short, and entered a topic I really didn’t want to discuss. I took a deep breath, “If it gets serious you’ll tell me right away, right?”

“Of course, and don’t worry, I still don’t see myself getting remarried anytime soon, but, I wouldn’t mind a nice date now and then.”

“Meredith?” I asked.

“She’s fun, but really intense. I might call Tammy, I’ve still got her number.”

I snorted, “She still has your number, the way you eagerly took hers.”

He just smiled, “You’ll be gone to college soon, it’s a big house to be in all by myself, family home or not.”

“So, Atwood House, Atwood Estate, or Atwood Manor?”

“I haven’t decided, when I do, it’ll be obvious with a big sign out front.”

I chuckled as I wiped up the last of the syrup with a crepe. Dad had decided to make breakfast, and practice his new dish.

At school Captain met me at the parking lot, “Sam! Thanks for the thing you dropped off, it was delicious.”

“You’re welcome, I appreciated the help you gave me.”

“Sorry I wasn’t there, I’ve got a job in the afternoons after school, and on weekends now.”