Chapter 12

For reasons that she didn’t fully understand, Dana was so happy that her breakfast with Alice and her dad went so well.

The two girls met the elder Fairbanks at the restaurant and the trio enjoyed a wonderful breakfast. They discussed school, tennis, how Alice liked writing for the school paper, how the Fairbanks clan was surviving with their Dana away, and other random topics. It seemed to end all too quickly for the tennis player, as Alice headed off to her ten am history class.

In the car on the way to LAX, Irwin and Dana rode most of the way in comfortable silence. As Irwin, turned to go towards departures he broke the silence saying, "You are making good decisions bumblebee: your grades are strong, tennis is going well, and you seem to be making wise choices about your friends."

Dana beamed at her father, "Thanks dad. It means a lot."

Irwin said "Let’s plan on going out to dinner after you pick me up on Monday. There is something we need to discuss that was not appropriate to talk about with company present."

This caused the teen to give her father a confused look, "Is everything ok? Is someone sick? Is mom still doing okay? I know grandma passing…"

"Dana…"

"… it really hurt but she seemed to be doing okay last time we talked…"

"Dana…"

“It’s not Howie is it? He’s…"

"Dana take a breath!"

Dana stopped and took a breath.

Irwin just shook his head ruefully, "One of these days you are going to have to learn to let people answer your questions instead of going on and on bumblebee."

"Well?"

"Yes, everything is okay. You mother and I attended the reading of your grandmother’s estate yesterday. And it seems your grandmother made some changes in regards to your trust."

"Oh," the teen replied with a shrug. She knew her grandparents had set up a sizable trust for her and her brother when they were born. She didn’t really care all too much about it other than she knew it would help finance her tennis career until she was able to attract sponsors. But on the whole she wasn’t too worried about it.