Caleb looked at her for a moment. He did not use the opportunity to revisit February. He did not quote her words back to her.
He did not perform the vindication that the situation technically offered him. He said, in a level voice, that she had seen what the building looked like and made a call based on what was visible, and that he had made a different call based on what he believed was underneath. He said that they had looked at the same thing with different equipment.
Then he extended his hand. She shook it. He turned and walked back to where Owen was standing and said something to him quietly and they both looked at the empty floor where the Pantera had been displayed. And then they started talking about the Camaro.
By the end of June, the complete financial picture of Merritt Restoration & Auto Works looked like this. Total revenue from vehicle sales in the Barrett-Jackson consignment had reached $398,000. The three lots of land acquired behind and adjacent to the original garage had, following the formal public announcement of the phase two infrastructure program in May, been independently assessed at a combined value of $520,000. Approximately three times what Caleb had paid for them.
Active restoration contracts, including a commission from Diana Ashford for a vehicle she had sourced independently and wanted Caleb's team to bring back, along with two additional contracts from clients in her network, totaled $145,000 in confirmed work. The total net asset value of the operation, accounting for equipment, property, outstanding contracts, and the two remaining restorable vehicles still in process, was estimated to exceed $1 million.
Owen Parker had been offered a formal 20% equity position in the company, which he accepted without the need for a long conversation. Caleb submitted a building permit application for a permanent structure on the consolidated lot, a proper multi-bay facility with a dedicated paint booth, a climate-controlled storage bay, and an office wing. He named the project on the application documents Merritt Auto Works Building One.
He went back to the garage alone on a Thursday evening in early July after the crew had left for the day, not to work, just to stand in it. The roof had been fully replaced in April. The concrete floor had been cleaned, patched, and sealed.
The roll-up door operated on a new motor. The electrical system was entirely new. The space was organized, lit, functional, and for the first time since its construction, genuinely alive.
He walked to the eastern corner, the one where he had pressed his hand against the wall on the morning of his first day inside, the morning of the tarps and the flashlight and the notebook. The wall there had not been repainted. The original concrete block, spotted with rust stains from the old roof and darkened with age, was still exactly as it had been when he first touched it.