Page 231 of Share with Me

“Good idea. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Can you teach anything else other than violin?” Ned asked.

“Piano.”

“There you go. It’ll hold you over until you can teach violin again, right?”

Ivan tried to remain stoic. “If I can get enough students.”

“How many did you have?”

“Forty.”

“That many.”

“It took six years to build that up.”All gone now.“Their parents all wanted their kids to take violin lessons from someone who’d gone to Juilliard and toured the world for two years. But now…”

“Now you find new students. Have you prayed and asked God to show you who your new students are?”

Ivan wondered how much to say. Well, why not? “Been thinking of targeting adult students.”

“Not a bad idea, son. My wife, for example, has been wanting to play the piano all her life. You could teach her.”

“Teach Brin’s mom?”

Ned chuckled. “Don’t look so startled. A student is a student.”

“Right.”

“She has friends who might want to take lessons too. Group lessons. Individual lessons. Whatever is suitable, right?” Ned drew back from the table. “Leverage your portfolio. Twelve years of strings, son. Put all that resume to good use.”

“Yes, sir.”

“A lot to think about. As your financial advisor, I’m recommending you talk to my accountant.”

“Oh, I can’t afford that.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m being selfish here, Ivan. I want to make sure you don’t drag my daughter into debt.”

“I won’t. Don’t worry.”

“We have fewer than two months left before the wedding. I want to know that you have a sensible financial plan going forward.”

Ivan chewed slowly to avoid having to answer Ned’s question. Too bad for him, Ned was patient. He waited until Ivan swallowed the piece of cod.

“Uh, yes. I need to figure out how to pay off my debts and increase my income.”

“Talk to my accountant about the first part,” Ned said. “But increasing income. That’s my department. Let’s brainstorm. You have a good idea there about looking for new students.”

“I don’t have a choice.” It would be bad form to steal students back from their new music teachers. Ivan knew he had to find new students. So far all his students had been kids who might or might not want to continue music past middle or high school. Most music teachers would target younger students. He could serve older ones. “Besides, some people at church told me they wished they had taken violin or piano lessons when they were younger.”

“Or at least paid more attention when they had taken those lessons.” Ned snorted.

“I hear you.” Things were churning in Ivan’s mind. “Someday I could expand my studio, add instruments, teachers, workshops, maybe even scholarships for students to go to college, that sort of thing.”

“Scholarships?” Ned asked for a refill of his drink. “Maybe I could help with that.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly accept—”

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