Page 7 of Shattered Dreams

Richard

4 years later

I walked through the old service station that went out of business a couple of years back. The set up was great, and the foundation felt good.

Dad finally kicked off a year ago. Most people were sad when they lost a parent. Not us. We were happy that the bastard was dead.

I don’t know if he grew a conscious or what, but he managed to leave Ma set. She’d never need to worry about money again.

And he left us seed money. In my mind, I knew it was blood money.

Sorry for all the ass beatings and hospitalizations.

Jeremy came through the back door as I walked in the bay door. We both stopped and slowly smiled at each other.

I’d been waiting for this moment all my life.

“What do you think, Rich?” He bit his lip as his eyes traveled along the work benched walls. “I mean, there’s plenty of space where we would work on multiple cars.”

“Ah yep.” I’d noticed there were three dedicated places.

I turned and looked at the enormous picture window that showed off the front of the shop. That would be a perfect place for customers to wait and to have a desk monkey. Libby was standing by the counter, running her hands over it.

Her wheels were spinning about this place, too.

She looked up and saw me staring. Libby popped a thumbs up and smiled.

“Hey, Jere?”

“Yeah?” He walked closer.

“I think this is the one.” I shoved my hands into my pockets and took another look around.

“I’m with ya’, brother.”

“There’s just one thing missing.” Spinning on my heels, I look at the third workbench set up.

“Coop.” Jeremy walked over and bumped into me, “Now that dad’s gone, I know he’ll come home.”

Nodding, I looked over at him. “You’re right.”

We turned to see Libby talking animatedly with her hands and the real estate agent nodding along. She motions with her head to us and they come out of the front, entering the garage.

“Gentlemen, your office manager is very knowledgeable and persuasive. I’ll turn your offer in and see what the sellers think.” He holds his hand out to shake and exits through the bay.

Libby holds up a set of keys. “I told him we’d lock up.”

I watched him back out and pull away before looking at Libby. “So? What did you say?”

“Well, I told him I’d been watching the market, and this place had been on the market for close to two years. The ad was correct about what it has but wasn’t so correct about the conditions. I made him an offer of twenty-five less.”

Jeremy chuckled. “Are you sure they’ll accept?”

“Yep. And the best part? That twenty-five less can be what’s used to get the few things fixed and, since it would be a cash deal, you could have almost immediate possession.”

“How did you learn so much about real estate?” I shook my head.

“Pops.” She shrugged. “He likes to flip houses.”

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