Colby’s brows went up. “What’s ‘better than we hoped’ mean, in actual numbers, boss?”
“Look for yourself,” Hank said.
He opened the folder and turned it so they could read. Bree slid in beside him, close enough that her thigh pressed against his; her presence grounded him more than the coffee in his hand.
Brian whistled. “Damn. They know they’re sitting on a problem.”
“They know they’re sitting on an opportunity,” Bree said. “They want more people to stick around instead of treating this place like a long weekend.”
Colby scanned the second page, lips moving as he did mental math. “Taxes stay low for the first two years. Step up after that, but capped increases. That’s not bad.”
“We’d be buying the building outright,” Hank said. Saying it out loud made the idea more solid. “No lease; no landlord deciding they want to sell out from under us.”
“Three units on paper,” Colby murmured. “Ground floor shop, back bay that could be separate if we ever needed it, and upstairs.” His gaze flicked to Bree. “You still good with making that studio yours?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I am.”
Hank watched the way her hand tightened around her sketchbook. She looked scared and determined at the same time. He’d seen that expression on Marines going into a raid; he’d never expected to see it on a painter heading toward a mortgage.
“So this is the part where we talk percentages,” Brian said. “Who owns what.”
“I figured we’d split the shop three ways,” Hank said. “Equal partners. The studio upstairs is Bree’s. We can figure out how that works on paper so the city stays happy, but I don’t want her space getting tangled up in arguments about dyno schedules.”
Colby leaned back, considering him. “You’re coming in with the biggest cash chunk,” he said. “Prize money plus savings. You okay with an equal split?”
“I didn’t get here alone,” Hank said. “You two kept me upright and fast. I won the Cup because my bike ran like it was supposed to and because there was someone in my ear keeping me from doing anything too stupid. I’m not interested in being the guy who owns everything and barks orders.”
Brian grinned. “That’s sweet. You’re still going to bark orders.”
“Probably,” Hank said. “But I’d rather do it to partners than employees.”
Brian tore off a piece of pastry and popped it in his mouth. “All right. I’m in. I’ve been half living in this town for three seasons anyway. Might as well get a proper address.”
Colby nodded slowly. “I want to walk the building again with Jason,” he said. “Get a better sense of what his ‘that’s an easy fix’ face means. But yeah. I’m in. We’re going to need an excellent accountant and a lawyer who doesn’t scare easily.”
“The mayor had a list of people who’ve handled business sales in town,” Hank said. “We can talk to a couple, see who feels like the least painful option.”
“Least painful is a high bar,” Brian said. “You’re trusting lawyers with your future.”
“Careful,” Bree said. “Their future involves my paintings. I need contracts that don’t make me want to light them on fire.”
Hank nudged her knee under the table. “We’ll let you vet the language.”
She smiled, but her thumb still stroked the edge of her sketchbook. He knew her head was half at this table and half in Milwaukee, in the house where her parents had just hung up the phone.
“Did you tell your folks about this idea?” Brian asked Bree.
Bree glanced at Hank; he tipped his head, giving her the choice. She took a breath.
“They were… okay,” she said. “Sad. Worried. But they listened. I told them about the building and the studio. And about using some of Bryn’s insurance money for the build-out.”
Brian’s calm expression sobered. “Was that a hard sell?”
“It was a hard start,” she said. “But my dad said she’d like it. That she hated I hadn’t painted her yet.” Her mouth quirked. “He also wants pictures of the warehouse and said something about gravity, which made little sense, but it was sweet.”
“Parents rarely make sense,” Colby said. “It’s part of their charm.”
Hank watched Bree’s shoulders; they were relaxed in a way he hadn’t seen since the first night. She’d just taken one of the hardest conversations of her life and walked out of it standing.
