“Name’s Dan Sullivan. I moved here three months back with wife and two kids. She is working at Walmart, but so far I’ve been struggling to get anything. I’m a fully qualified mechanic and have worked at the same place for thirty years. The boss died, and his son sold the place, so that left me out of work.”
“That’s a fucker. Seems a lot of kids these days don’t want to follow on from their fathers, or mothers if it comes to that. Come on in and let’s talk.”
An hour later, and Dan Sullivan is our signed-up new mechanic. He’s forty-nine, has been married since he was twenty-two, and his kids are twenty-five and twenty-one. They are both in the military but come home when on leave. Neither have themselves a permanent woman and according to Dan his wife Synthia wants to know nothing about their dalliances. I reckon Dan will fit in perfectly, I’m sure.
I watched him check over the Ford Bronco that is here for the first time. I’m more than happy with his judgement, and it’s his first job tomorrow when he gets to work.
As we are closing for the night, Dan who has hung around and been cleaning the garage, stops working when Clem asks what his kids are called.
“The oldest is Conroy, named after Synthia’s grandfather. But Banner is named after a banner that my wife was studying when she was pushing him out. The shit she was being given had her thinking something or another, that nobody knows if I’m being honest with you. She was asked what his name was, and she spluttered Banner Sullivan and that was it.”
Now, we all laugh at the way he got his name, but it is a good name, regardless. “It’s a good thing she didn’t see something else, or it could have been difficult for Banner to live with.” Clem laughs, and you can bet we throw out some guesses that have us all holding our knees while tears flow with laughter.
Slapping Dan on his back, I watch as he walks away, and turn to Clem. “What happened with Lou?”
“She said to leave it with her and she’ll look into it tomorrow. She had a client with her and then she was going to show a place to someone. But she said she’d get the best deal she could for us. She’ll come around with the key for us to look before we put any offer in on the place.”
“That’s a good idea because if it has a lot of work needed it may outprice itself,” I say, and rip the sign from the garage door, throwing it into the trash as I pass. But nod to myself that I don’t need to ask Whitney now about a sign, and it looks like we got ourselves a decent mechanic without trying.
“I reckon Dan is good for us, Myles. He knew what he was doing with the Bronco. Let’s see if he sorts it out tomorrow. Was he happy with the salary you offered?” Clem locks the office and throws my jacket at me.
“Yeah, I offered him all the standard rates that I’d seen when doing the research previously. He’ll get health insurance too, which we all know is a biggie when you take on a new job. If he’s as good as we think and he helps us get more work through the place, then we can increase that salary accordingly.”
“Agree, and we both know what it's like working only for the bottom line. He has a wife to support because she’ll not be on a huge salary at Walmart that’s for sure. But youknow what we think, Myles, any salary is better than no salary.” Clem grins, “I think we should introduce them to Whitney, Maylee and Oren. What do you think?”
“I think we want Dan to stay working for us…” we both bust out laughing at that comment, but know I’m only joking, and it’ll happen because our women are far more involved than we’d like to admit.
Chapter 8
Maylee
Oren is in bed and thankfully sleeping soundly. He’s enjoying school now that the teachers are making sure the bullying has stopped. Most days Myles drops him at school and I pick him up. I made sure my job knew I would leave in time, and if they didn’t like it, the job would be gone. I would always put Oren first, and if needed I’d start my own law firm.
Lying on the couch, legs out and feet resting on Myles's thighs, I smile when he rubs my feet subconsciously. It’s just one of the things I love about him. He takes care of us without realizing it.
“What did you decide about the place next door?” I ask.
Myles turns his head and looks at me. “Well, Clem spoke to Lou, and she is going to look at getting us the best deal on the place she can. She’s going to get the key for us to look around. Then we can see how much damage, if any there is.”
“Any idea of what it’s selling at?”
“No, I didn’t ask. Probably should have, but you know Clem is good at dealing with that sort of thing. Whitney is good friends with Lou now, and you know her well enough. You’ve all had nights out. What do you think of her helping to get the place?”
My response is simple, “She’ll do what she can. Lou is a great person, and she knows her job better than her boss. If anyone can get you a great deal on that building, she will.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind us using our savings to buy the place? Clem is happy to go fifty-fifty as we always have.” Myles is watching all my reactions during this conversation, and it tells me he’s worried about how I feel.
“Myles, the money in the bank is for us to use when and if we need to. The garage needs expansion. You’ve talked about it for months. Stop talking and start doing.”
“I've got a new mechanic.” Myles fills me in on the man and his wife. He sounds nice and will fit in easily. “He starts tomorrow officially, but you know when I said he had the job he stayed and put himself to cleaning any mess he found in the garage.”
“That tells you he’ll be committed. That he’s not a young man, and I mean in his twenties or thirties says to me he’ll be grounded. As you just said he had years with his last employer, so he’s stable. A good third mechanic will offset costs because he’ll take up the slack that you have had.Which means any customer that had gone out of town because you couldn’t fit them in, won’t have to now.” It makes sense to me to have another mechanic, and by the sound of Dan, he’ll fit in perfectly.
“We’ll see, but I was thinking of inviting him and his wife Synthia over at the weekend.”
“Great idea. I’ll get Whitney in on it too, and we’ll have a table of favorites.” I grin because I can imagine a rack of ribs, mac and cheese, pizza, fried chicken, hot dogs, and desserts like brownies and apple pie.
“Come on, let’s get to bed. We are both at work tomorrow,” Myles says as he moves my legs and stands from the couch. Holding his hand out for me to take, I stand, give him a seductive smile, then make a run for it, leaving him chuckling behind me.
