Page 59 of Sparrow

I tell Bruce I’d love to see the books and start to follow him out of the bakery, but Penny stops me before I can leave.

“Come back tomorrow,” she whispers. “I’ll teach you to make those cinnamon rolls Mars loves so much.”

And though I know I shouldn’t, though I know this is just one more way the town is going to end up thinking it gets to keep; me, I hug her and tell her that I’ll be here at 7 sharp.

Just in time to start making the breakfast batches before they go into the ovens.

Mars

The world outside has been dark for several hours by the time I decide I’ve stared at enough numbers.

I’m trying to do some of the accounting for the shop, and none of it is going right. ever since I opened the place, it’s been successful. We have some of the most talented mechanics in town in the Black Oaks, and that made it easy to bring them into the garage and even make the business the official club career. And it’s always worked even better than I hoped. We ride together, work together, and play together, and each thing makes us stronger as a group. Everyone has specialties in the shop, and that makes things even smoother.

It’s been a dream come true.

Until last year, when that stopped. Suddenly the customers started drying up and work got scarce, and no matter how much I looked for an answer, I couldn’t figure out why. The problem is, when the garage starts to get slow, it’s bad for business... and worse for the crew itself. Morale starts dropping when there’s not as much money, my men start to question their choices, and some of them end up taking on small jobs, which means they’re not available when I need them.

Even worse, they might start turning to illegal activities. And I won’t hear of that. I know a lot of MCs run guns and drugs and even humans, but I’ve never allowed that for the Oaks. We’re good family men.

We do things the right way.

And that’s a whole lot easier when the garage is performing the way it’s supposed to.

Last week, I would have said I didn’t know how to get that back on track. Hell, two days ago I would have said that.

But yesterday, Arden came into my shop and put in a whole new process, and suddenly the place feels like it actually works again. And of course the minute she did that, the other pieces fell into place. We had a backlog of work because we weren’t finish projects as quickly as we were supposed to. That backlog meant projects were falling between the cracks and people were going other places. I own one of the best restoration shops in the state, but once people started realizing we weren’t making deadlines, it damaged my reputation.

And when I stopped fixing cars from Wood as quickly as I had, people from town started thinking they couldn’t count on me.

But with Arden’s faster process...

We might be able to save everything.

I don’t know if we’ll be able to do it in time to keep everyone on board, though, and that’s what I’ve been going over tonight. Cash is very short and I have payroll coming up, and as much as I hate the idea of letting anyone go, I’m not sure I’m going to have a choice.

We need more customers, and we need them quickly.

I wonder if Arden has any thoughts on the matter.

The idea brings me up sharp, mostly because I’ve never sought out advice from anyone in my life. I turn it over again and again, looking for holes in the concept, but no matter how much I examine it, I keep coming to the same conclusion.

Arden’s new in town, sure, and doesn’t know much about running a garage. But that means she’s coming in with fresh eyes, and twice the brain I have. I watched her tease Orion when he was working on the Chevy and then figure out exactly how to fix something, and then I watched her reorder the shop in the space of three hours to make it more efficient and keep the men happy.

She’s got a whole different way of looking at things, and that changes everything.

I wonder how much she knows about marketing.

I get up and leave my desk before I can dwell any more on it, but when I try to open the door to my shop, it’s stuck.

I frown. That can’t be right. I built this house myself and every line and angle is perfect. None of the doors should stick.

I push it harder, but with no luck, and then put my shoulder down and bang against it.

Someone cries out on the other side and suddenly the door flies open, like I’ve just dislodged whatever was keeping it ‘stuck.’

I surge out, surprised by the sudden freedom of the door, and almost trip over someone laying on the ground. I manage to step over them and hit the other wall, then spin around, ready to shout at whoever was standing right in front of my door, but bite my tongue before I can say anything.

Arden is scrambling up from the floor, looking both embarrassed and surprised, and I put a handout to help her