Shooting for the Stars by Sarina Bowen Page B

some great ideas. Yeah! I’ll check. Bye!” She hung up the phone and beamed a smile at him. “You do know how to edit video, right?”
    “Who doesn’t?”
    “Um, lots of people? But I guess the better question is whether you’re okay with taking on an extra job for the mountain. Do you have the free hours?”
    Free hours were just about the only things that Bear had plenty of. “I think I can fit it in,” he said, giving Anya a wave goodbye.
    A training video . Bear’s head was full of ideas before he even reached the parking lot. He’d been shooting footage on the snow for years, but it had never occurred to him to charge for his services. It had always been a hobby.
    But video was probably something the mountain needed more of, right? In fact… Bear turned around and went back inside. “Hey, Anya?” he called, striding toward her desk.
    “Back already?”
    “Just one last thing. Those marketing clips on your website are pretty old, right? Has there been any talk of replacing them?”
    “Sure.” She shrugged. “But we were going to talk about it after we get the whole website redesigned next month.”
    “All right.” Bear cleared his throat. “I’d like a chance to pitch you guys on any new footage before you hire someone else.”
    “Okay,” she said, grabbing a pen. “I’ll add it to the agenda of our next staff meeting.”
    “You’re the best.”
    She waved a hand dismissively. “I know.”

    Bear went home feeling happier than he had in weeks. In the alcove which his father referred to as his “office,” he entered his hours at the mountain onto a time sheet. Working part time for his father was currently his only income. His condo in Utah had been on the market for more than half a year, but there hadn’t been any nibbles. If it didn’t sell soon, he’d have to lower the price, wiping out the nest egg he thought he’d accumulated there. Another tricky decision to add to his list.
    It was a pretty long list. And numero uno was a doozy: find something else to do with your life.  
    Today, he might be one step closer.
    When dinnertime arrived, Bear looked into the refrigerator, pulling out some deli meat and a jar of mustard. He was a twenty-nine year-old guy living with his father like a loser. But it was the only way to keep expenses down.
    “You’re whistling,” his father pointed out when Bear walked into the kitchen. “Got a date?”
    “Nope. Got something better.”
    “What’s that?”
    “An idea.”
    “Uh oh.” His father chuckled. “I’d better brace. That’s what you said when you wanted to enter your first snowboarding competition.”
    The subtext of that statement was: and look how that turned out. But Bear was in too good a mood to let his father’s jab take him down.
    “So are you going to tell me what it is?” his father pressed.
    “I want to make a film. Several films, actually.” Some of them would be practical things, like the videos for the resort. But there was really no reason to stop there. He’d always enjoyed photography and camera work. “I’d be good at it.”
    His father gave a dry chuckle. “You need a job , son. That’s a hobby.”
    Bear said absolutely nothing. It wouldn’t matter if Martin Scorsese himself asked Bear to work on a film, his father would never see it as legit. It would be a waste of breath to try to convince him. Bear spread mustard on two slices of bread and promised himself that he wouldn’t engage with his father on the topic of the future.
    “I requested another application for that accounting course. It came in the mail today.”
    Bear kept the flinch off his face. “I still have the last one you got me.”
    “Fill it out, kid. The semester starts in January.”
    Never in his life had Bear exhibited an interest in accounting. But his father had latched on to this idea a few years ago because the accountant who did his business taxes every year charged a lot of money. “You definitely want some of that,” was