"And I don't think I'm the only one." She looked up at him. Wowski was not a man who said unnecessary things. Plenty of someone whose words when they came are worth waiting for. "Thank you, Ray," she said.
"Well, thank me," he said. I'm being selfish. I'd rather have someone good working here than keep losing months to people who aren't. She smiled at that a small smile. A real one, the kind that reached her eyes before she could manage it.
It was the first time anyone in that garage had seen her smile. Ry saw it. He didn't say anything about it, but he saw followed her to the parking lot aggressively. He came out behind her at a pace that made it clear he wanted a word but wasn't forcing the conversation. Haley heard his boots on the gravel.
She turned before he spoke. I'm going to be straight with you. Cole said. Good. She said I prefer that.
Marcus told me you're carrying something. Didn't tell me the details. That's not Marcus's way. But he said something was happening with the property. There's your family shop.
Haley was still. She had her tool bag in one hand and her keys in the other and she was looking at Cole with an expression that was not defensive more evaluating the look of someone deciding how much of themselves is safe to put in a room being handled. She said by who? She paused by me. Alone so far.
Cole looked at her for a moment. The evening was coming in cold and fast the way October evenings do. Plate had that particular quality it gets just before it gives up completely. There's you don't have to handle everything alone. He said oh that Haley said I also know that I walked in here 2 days ago as a stranger with a bruise on my face and a tool bag.
I fixed your motorcycle. I came back and fixed two more today. That's 3 days of knowing each other. I know. Cole said I'm not in the habit of trusting people based on 3 days.
She said that's fair. Cole said, "And I'm not asking you to." He put his hands in his jacket pockets. I'm just saying that if it gets to a point where you need someone besides yourself to know what's happening, I'm here. Oh.
Haley looked at him. She had the look of someone who wanted to say yes and had been burned by yes enough times to be careful about it. I'll keep that in mind, she said. She got in her truck. Cole watched her pull out.
He stood in the parking lot for a moment in the cold, watching the truck's tail lights turn on to Route 9. Then he looked up and down the road. No blue truck tonight. He'd been looking for it since Haley had come in this morning. He'd noticed her checking the road when she arrived.
He'd said nothing about it, but he'd been looking in there tonight, which meant either they'd given up, which he didn't believe, or they'd gotten smarter about where they parked. I went back inside. He called Marcus. She was here all day. Cole said when Marcus picked up the real thing, Marcus.
She's not just good. She's exceptional. I know that. Marcus said, "Tell me what you know about her situation." A pause on Marcus' end.
Reluctance. Exactly. More like the pause of someone ordering their words. I mean, that she's been she that she's been approached three times about selling the Morgan property. Marcus said last approach wasn't an approach.
It was a threat about three weeks ago and a place to pick up her truck. I'd been keeping it in my barn for a few days because something had happened that scared her badly enough that she didn't want it sitting at her house overnight. Cole said nothing. He was listening the way he listened to engines completely. Her bruises, Marcus said more than she has now.
Told me she'd fallen. She said it the same way she says everything flat. Posed looking right at you and I looked right back at her and I said, "Haley, I've known you since you were 11 years old. Glimmers, you've never fallen." And she said, Marcus paused.
Oh, I know, Marcus, but I'm not ready yet. And I understood that. Let it go because she's right. She's not the kind you push. We'll tell you when she's ready and not a moment before.
Cole was quiet for a moment. He said, "Man named Garfield Puit." Marcus said, "You know him?" Cole's expression didn't change much. Something in his eyes went very still.
"Garfield Puit," he said. "I know of him." Cole said he's been buying up commercial properties on the south side of town for about 2 years. A plan for a development corridor started at the highway exit and he's been working east. Property is right in the middle of what he needs.
I know. Marcus said Morgan wouldn't sell. He turned Puit down twice before he got sick. He's turned him down since. And Puit is not accustomed to being told no.