Maybe next year.
Could Lily go to private school?
Not necessary.
Could he take a week off?
Absolutely not.
Now the noise stopped.
Ryder expected joy.
What he felt was silence.
Beautiful silence.
His next decision was to put the majority of the money somewhere he could not casually touch it.
Theodore approved when he heard.
“I knew I picked correctly.”
Ryder frowned.
“I could still make terrible decisions.”
“Please don’t. It would damage my reputation.”
They had coffee three weeks after the transfer.
This time at Mrs. Patton’s diner.
Theodore ate eggs and toast.
Mrs. Patton refused to charge him.
“You helped Ryder.”
Theodore said, “I can afford breakfast.”
“So can I.”
“Then one of us is being irrational.”
“That would be you.”
Theodore looked at Ryder.
“Terrifying woman.”
“Told you.”
Theodore asked what Ryder planned.
“Expand.”
“How much?”
“Not much.”
Theodore looked disappointed.
“Define not much.”
“Second lift.”
“That’s not expansion. That’s maintenance.”
“Alignment station.”
“Better.”
“Two technicians.”
“Three.”
Ryder looked at him.
“It’s my garage.”
“Correct.”
“So stop running it.”
“I’m offering free wisdom.”
“Worth what I paid.”
Theodore smiled.
Ryder eventually hired three.
But slowly.
First was Luis Mendoza, twenty-six, who had been working at the chain shop on Route 11.
Good technician.
Tired of being pushed to sell services.
During the interview, Ryder asked one question.
“A customer comes in convinced she needs new brakes. You inspect them. Pads have sixty percent left. What do you sell?”
Luis answered, “Nothing.”
Ryder nodded.
“When can you start?”
Second was Nate Collins.
Twenty-two.
Recently out of community college automotive training.
Excellent hands.
Weak confidence.
Third was Keisha Morgan.
Thirty.
Electrical diagnostic specialist.
She had spent six years being treated like a receptionist every time customers walked into her previous shop.
On her first day, a customer entered and asked Ryder if “the girl” could get someone to look at his charging system.
Ryder pointed at Keisha.
“She’s the best electrical tech in the building.”
The customer blinked.
Keisha smiled.
“Pop the hood.”
Six months after Theodore’s visit, Callaway Auto had two new lifts, updated diagnostic equipment, a proper alignment system and a waiting room with decent chairs.
Ryder kept the old sign.
Lily complained.
“We have money.”
“So?”
“It looks terrible.”
“Your mother picked it.”
Lily stopped.
“Oh.”
Ryder looked at the faded letters.
“We can repaint it.”
“No.”
Lily shook her head.
“Leave it.”
So they did.
The most important change started with a customer named Shonda Bell.
Shonda was a nursing assistant at a retirement home twenty-seven miles away.
Her minivan needed a water pump.
She had two children.
The repair was seven hundred eighty dollars.
She had two hundred.
“I get paid Friday.”
Ryder knew the old choice.
Install cheap parts.
Payment plan.
Carry another balance.
Maybe never get paid.
Now there was another option.
He looked at Jonathan.
“Can I start something?”
Jonathan had learned that those words usually created paperwork.
“What?”
“A repair fund.”