Chapter Twenty-Two
“Come on, Teddy. Can’t you help a girl out?” If Deb could finagle this, she’d be golden.
“You know what you’re asking? TJ Garner hasn’t competed in more than ten years. I love the guy, but, Deb, this is the big time.”
She got up and shut her office door. “Give me a break, Teddy. It’s not the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup or even the X Games.”
“We draw some of the most famous freeskiers in the world. Even though I want to help you out, it’s a by-invitation-only event. Just twenty-three people made the cut this year.”
“Get us an invitation, Teddy.” She wasn’t backing down. The White Crush Invitational was the perfect contest to promote Garner Adventure. Hosted at Sierra Resort, just twenty miles down the road, the event included everything from big-mountain skiing to backcountry slopestyle. Camera crews from as far away as Switzerland trekked in to film the competition. “You owe me.”
She’d set him up with his wife, one of her best friends from high school, while volunteering at a World Cup event at Squaw many moons ago. Teddy had been one of the organizers, and Bonnie, a competitor. Now he ran White Crush and wielded enough power to get anyone an invite to compete in the all-day event. But Ted was right; White Crush wasn’t your basic slalom race. It was extreme skiing at its finest. The kind with so much razzle-dazzle that it made people want to buy stuff, at least to Deb’s thinking.
“You’re planning to wear me down, aren’t you?” Ted laughed.
“I don’t think it’s much of a stretch, Teddy. It’s not like TJ can’t hold his own. He was winning all the major junior freestyle competitions in high school and was on the World Cup circuit by the time he was nineteen.”
“He’s been out of the game a long time.” Teddy let out an audible sigh.
“What would be the harm? Worse comes to worst, he wipes out. End of story.”
There was a long silence. “I suppose I could get him in as an honorary local.” A lot of invitational-only events let in a few community contestants as a goodwill gesture. “Just know, he’s the first to get cut if we go over time or the weather turns bad.”
“I can live with that.” She wanted to jump up and down with excitement. While it wasn’t the Olympics, it was a significant contest, with plenty of publicity behind it. It was grander in scheme than what Karen had suggested. But Deb’s philosophy was, go big or go home. This kind of event would put Garner Adventure and its gear on a world stage. Especially because Deb planned to dress TJ from head to toe in the exclusive skiwear GA sold. “Thank you, Ted.”
“Remember,” Ted said, “he’s mostly there as a ceremonial nod to the Sierra Nevada. A native son, so to speak. I’m emailing you the entrance form now. Make sure you get it back to me by the end of the day.”
“I will.” She knew how last minute this was. But the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
After Ted, she called Jillian to see how the changes for the online store were coming. The last few days had been a whirlwind. Sales were practically nonexistent and TJ was growing more frustrated. Sometimes she wondered if he kept her on because of their newfound relationship, which was going a hell of a lot better than their retail endeavor. Still, she could see the toll their lousy sales were taking on him. TJ took everything personally when it came to the business, and she could tell he felt like he’d let his family down.
She wanted so much to fix it for him—and to be good at something meaningful. Something she could be proud to call a career.
“What’s going on?” TJ knocked and poked his head inside.
“Something big.” She pumped her fist in the air. “You need to call a meeting. We need all hands on deck for this one.”
“What is it?” He sat in the big upholstered chair and stretched his legs out in front of him, and her girl parts lurched.
For a second, she considered crawling into his lap, but they were trying to maintain professionalism at work. Plus, he still hadn’t told Win, who’d been making himself scarce these days. He had Britney and a baby to deal with.
“I want to tell everyone at the same time. But I think this might make the difference in sales.”
“Does it have to do with the website?” He leaned forward, and Deb could tell she’d piqued his curiosity.
“Nope. Sponsorship.”
He tilted his head. “You found someone big?”
“I sure did,” she said. “When can we have a meeting?”
He tugged his phone out of his pocket and checked his calendar. “If we can get everyone here, I can schedule it for this afternoon. That work?”
“Yep.” She bobbed her head at his phone. “See if everyone can make it.”
He crooked his finger at her. “Come here.”
She crossed the floor and he pulled her down on his lap and kissed her. His hands shimmied under her blouse, turning her insides to liquid heat.
“The door’s open, you know,” she said. If they kept this up, no telling what Darcy or one of the others might walk into.
He let out a frustrated grunt. “Let’s run up to your place for a quickie.”
In the last couple of days, they’d been doing a lot of that. TJ Garner had become downright irresponsible. They’d been together every night and had even managed to sneak in an hour here and there of skiing. Sometimes she’d wake up with TJ lying next to her and reach out to touch his skin or his hair just to make sure he was real. She’d always been of the theory that if it seemed too good to be true, it probably was. But everything with TJ kept getting better.
“Text everyone to see if they can come to the meeting first.”
He grinned and scooted her off his lap. “You sure you don’t want to tell me first?”
“I’m positive.” She wanted to surprise him. And she wanted everyone to know that she’d finagled a spot in White Crush on her own, with no help from TJ. And that she could do the job and wasn’t just a Bennett living off the kindness of a Garner.
He studied her face. “Deb, I’m really impressed with how invested you are. But there’s a chance that no matter how much we try, we won’t be able to save it. It’ll kill me to concede defeat, but at some point, you have to cut your losses. It’s good, sound business.”
The subtext was, he’d have to cut her. She got it. GA couldn’t continue to keep her on the payroll if her division bled money faster than a knife wound. But she worried that it would change the dynamic of their relationship. How do you fire your girlfriend—she was pretty sure she was his girlfriend—without causing a deep rift in the balance of things? That was why she had to turn sales around.
“I know. But I think I’ve come up with a plan that’ll at least give us a fighting chance.”
“I can’t wait to hear it.” He got up. “Let me call in the troops.”
Three hours later, she sat at the head of the table in GA’s conference room. Everyone, except Win, had come. She cleared her throat and made her big announcement to a round of loud applause and cheers.
Gray squeezed her arm affectionately. “Way to go, kiddo. That’ll be tremendous PR for Garner Adventure.”
“I can’t believe Ted Jordan went for it,” Colt said. “It’s BIO. I think Win got an invitation to compete five or six years ago, but it’s mostly for guys on the circuit.”
“I guess it helps that they’re holding it here this year,” Josh chimed in. “Dad’s right; you can’t buy better marketing.”
Deb beamed. “I’ve got big plans to promote the brand the day of the competition, right down to what TJ’s going to wear.” Listen to me; I sound like I actually know what I’m doing. “Then we’ll prominently display everything TJ wears in the contest on the website.”
“I love it!” Mary clapped.
“I wish I had my snowboard ready.”
“Because it’s all about you, Josh.” Colt smacked his brother upside the head.
“Boys.” Mary glared at them sternly.
“Delaney’s looking for a designer who can do a prototype of the tent jacket,” she said. “Who knows, it might be ready in time to promote on the website, too.”
“I’ll help with whatever you need,” Darcy volunteered.
“I’ll take you up on it, Darce. And by the way, the competition comes this year with a thirty-six-thousand-dollar purse. I mean, if we win it.” The contest would be tough, with some of the top extreme skiers in the country, but even after all these years Deb thought TJ was a force to be reckoned with. He was the most consistent freeskier she’d ever seen. Even though he didn’t compete anymore, TJ could still huck a ninety-foot backflip and shred the backcountry like a snow god.
Everyone looked across the table at TJ, who’d been conspicuously quiet. Caught up in everyone’s excitement, Deb hadn’t noticed until now. But he was glowering and looking angrier than Deb had ever seen him.
“TJ?” She forgot herself and reached for his hand.
He jerked it away. “It probably would’ve been a good idea to check with me first, don’t you think? I don’t compete anymore,” he said and walked out, slamming the door behind him.
* * *
TJ took his bike to Misty Summit and spent a couple of hours careening down the mountainside in the snow. It was his answer to therapy. Speed and nature. And it was better than biting Deb’s head off, which he supposed he’d already done. He knew she was just trying to help, but she shouldn’t have made the commitment for him without asking first.
The last thing he wanted to do was relive one of the worst experiences of his life. It might’ve been more than a decade ago, but on that day, he’d not only lost a slot on the U.S. Olympic team but he’d lost a dream. One missed jump had ruined his chance to qualify. His overall score was one point shy of making the team. And Win got the spot that otherwise would’ve been TJ’s.
He was done competing.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. More than likely one of his buttinsky brothers, but when he checked caller ID it was Deb. He didn’t have anything to say to her, so he let it go to voice mail. How could she know him so little as to think he’d want to make a fool of himself in front of his family, friends, and the best freeskiers in the world? When he was fortunate to have time to ski, it was purely recreational. These competitors had been training for years.
He rode for another hour and went home. Let someone else worry about Garner Adventure for a change. Around eight, there was a knock on his door, and when he peered through the peephole it was Colt, holding a six-pack of beer.
Great.
He opened the door and swung his arm across the threshold, ushering Colt in. In the kitchen, he got down two pilsner glasses and pulled out one of the beers. “You here to lecture me?”
“I’m here to see what the hell that was at GA. Deb’s trying to do something to help the business and you were an ungrateful child.”
“She should’ve talked to me about it before submitting my name.”
“What’s the big deal?” Colt grabbed one of the beers, twisted off the top, and shunned the glass, drinking it straight out of the bottle. “You spend a day big-mountain skiing. I can think of a lot of worse things to do.”
“I don’t compete anymore.”
Colt stared him down. “You don’t compete or you’re afraid to compete?”
“I don’t have time to compete. I run a business, Colt. I run it because no one else in this family can be bothered with the day-to-day crap that makes the trains run on time. Why does everything always have to fall to me? Why don’t you compete, or better yet, Win?”
“Because you have the best chance of winning.” Colt put his beer down on the counter and gave TJ a long, assessing look. “Why is it that everyone knows that except you?”
“Bullshit!” TJ said. “You and I both know that if anyone of us can even place in the White Crush, it would be Win.”
Colt laughed. “Seriously, what is it with you and our youngest brother? Win’s good, maybe even great. But you’re the fucking maestro of the mountain. Sometimes I think you sabotage yourself just so you can put on this loser act of yours.
“Do what you want,” he continued. “No one is forcing you to compete. But know this: We’re not going to keep financing a losing venture. If you and Deb can’t save the online store in the next couple of weeks, we’re voting to close it down. And TJ, as much as I love Deb, we can’t keep her on just because she’s your girlfriend. You’ve already promised Darcy a promotion. There isn’t room in the company—or on the payroll—for two if there’s no store. This is a business; we have to run it like one.”
TJ had always run it like a business. He’d been the one to dedicate his life to growing their profits, not Colt or anyone else. For that reason, he resented Colt’s self-righteous speech. Colt wasn’t the boss; TJ was. But he couldn’t deny the truth. Without the store, Deb held a position the company simply couldn’t afford.
He’d fix things some other way. But not by skiing in the White Crush. He’d given his blood, sweat, and tears to GA; no way was he giving his soul.