Part 2
“Dad.”
Calvin stayed in his chair. Behind a car with its hood raised, Tessa quietly set down a tool.
Nathan looked around before coming farther inside. The old calendars were still on the wall. The tire rack still leaned a little to the left. He rested his fingertips on the edge of the office doorway, then took them away.
“You’re keeping busy.”
“What brought you?”
Nathan drew a breath through his nose. “I wanted to talk about what comes next. For you.”
A low sound came from the stairs.
Rook stood above them, tail moving in short, hard strokes. Nathan glanced up.
“Since when do you keep a cat?”
Calvin waited.
Nathan shifted his attention back to his father. “There’s a firm buying property around here. I’ve spoken with them. They’re interested in the garage, and their offer would give you a good retirement.”
From behind the raised hood, Tessa looked toward Calvin.
“No.”
“You haven’t heard the amount.”
“Don’t need it.”
Rook started down the stairs. Nathan watched him come, then tried again.
“This building takes everything you make just to keep going. You can’t keep working like this forever.”
The cat reached the bottom step and hissed.
Nathan backed away. “Would you do something about him?”
Calvin pushed his chair back and stood.
“The shop stays.”
“Dad, I’m trying to give you a choice.”
Rook crossed the floor and stopped between them, fur lifted along his spine.
“You’ve said it,” Calvin told his son. “Now go.”
Nathan looked past him, jaw working. A wrench slipped from the fender cover where Tessa had laid it. The clatter made Nathan turn.
“Who’s that?”
“Tessa. My apprentice.”
Nathan’s mouth tightened at the word. Tessa bent to retrieve the wrench.
“I’m here another couple of days,” Nathan said. “At the motel. You have my number.”
Calvin gave no answer. Rook advanced one pace, and Nathan left through the bay.
That night Calvin lay awake beneath the quilt Evelyn had bought when the apartment was still full of things she meant to change. A pale rectangle from the streetlight lay across the ceiling.
He heard claws catch briefly in the quilt.
Rook had jumped onto the bed. He stood near Calvin’s feet, testing the unfamiliar surface, then turned twice and settled.
Calvin lifted his head.
“You’ve got an opinion on him, I take it.”
The cat’s answer was a faint vibration through the mattress. Calvin lowered his head onto the pillow and listened.
By the next morning, Rook was waiting beneath the kitchen table while Calvin buttered toast. In a few days the cat had learned exactly where crumbs were likely to fall.
Footsteps came up the back stairs. Calvin kept reading the paper.
Nathan opened the door carrying a briefcase.
“I knocked downstairs.”
“Wasn’t downstairs.”
Nathan pulled out a chair. Instead of sitting immediately, he set a packet of documents beside Calvin’s plate.
“They emailed everything last night. It’s three times the property’s market value. They cover the closing expenses and the transfer. You wouldn’t have to arrange any of it.”
Calvin turned a page.
Nathan sat and spread out the offer. “A smaller place. Less work. Money left after buying it. Just look before you decide.”
“Already decided.”
“You don’t have to stay here.”
“I want to.”
Rook jumped onto the counter. Nathan frowned and waved a hand toward him.
“Off. Come on.”
The cat backed toward the bread tin, hissing. Nathan made another impatient motion, too close this time. Rook sprang to the floor and stalked through the doorway.
Calvin folded the newspaper with both hands.
Before he spoke, Tessa appeared on the stairs. She stopped when she saw the papers covering the table.
“Am I early?”
“Pickup in the third bay,” Calvin said. “New plugs.”
She nodded and went back down.
Calvin followed. Upstairs, Nathan began calling people, asking questions about inspections, permits, and how quickly a sale could close. His voice reached the garage in pieces.
Tessa had set out the tools but hadn’t touched the engine.
“Didn’t want to start wrong,” she said.
Calvin picked up the plug socket.
“Good reason to wait. Watch.”
He demonstrated slowly, then let her try. She struggled with the angle, stopped, and repositioned her hand. Calvin stood beside her without taking over. They checked the gap on each replacement and started the threads carefully.
Nathan came downstairs near noon and leaned against an unused bench. His tie was loose now.
Tessa bent over the engine, lips pressed together as she concentrated.
“Mom used to do that,” Nathan said.
Calvin’s hand stopped above the tray.
Nathan pointed lightly toward his own mouth. “When she was figuring something out.”
Calvin checked the plug Tessa had installed.
“Another little turn,” he told her.
Nathan stayed a moment, then moved away.
Later, after going out for lunch, he returned to find Rook asleep on the duffel he’d left beside the office desk. Nathan had brought it in intending to change out of his suit before driving home. Instead he stood over it, unsure how to reclaim it.
“Well,” he said quietly. “That’s inconvenient.”
Rook opened one eye.
Nathan remembered a little piece of plain chicken wrapped in a napkin from lunch. He held it low and waited rather than reaching toward the cat.
Rook rose, sniffed, and stepped close enough to take it. He ate with his back half turned to Nathan, then climbed onto the bag again.
Nathan left the duffel where it was.
At dusk, Tessa packed up and went home. Calvin returned to his invoices. Through the office glass he could see Nathan standing beside his vehicle, keys in his hand, not yet getting in.
Rook sat in the window between them.
Calvin lowered his eyes to an invoice and added the same column twice.
Nathan extended his motel reservation. The following morning he arrived carrying three coffees and looking as though he’d rehearsed something in the parking lot.
Tessa was beside Calvin, helping with a transmission. Nathan held out a cup.
“Black. Unless you’ve changed your mind about that, too.”
Calvin kept his wrench on the fastener. “Had mine.”
Tessa accepted hers with both hands. “Thank you.”
Nathan put the untouched cup on the office counter. Rook, sitting nearby, inspected it but made no objection to Nathan’s presence.
“I brought something else,” Nathan said.
He opened a tablet and showed Tessa a sample appointment page. A customer could choose a time, describe a problem, and attach a picture. Confirmations and reminders went out automatically.
Calvin reached for another tool.
“Phone still rings.”
“This doesn’t replace the phone.” Nathan angled the screen so his father could see. “It saves you stopping in the middle of a job to answer it.”
Tessa leaned nearer. “Would it keep the old repairs, too?”
“Service records, parts, invoices. You could search by customer or car. There’d be a backup.”
Calvin nodded toward the office. “Cabinet’s got all that.”
“And how long does it take to find something in it?”
“As long as it takes.”
Nathan pressed his lips together, then returned to showing Tessa the form. She asked enough questions to keep him occupied for the next hour. Calvin didn’t join them, but he didn’t tell them to quit.
Beth came in late that morning with a small bag of cat supplies tucked under her arm. Rook greeted her from the counter with a slow closing of his eyes.
“I see he’s acquired a management position,” she said.
“He’s not the only one,” Calvin muttered.
Beth glanced at Nathan and Tessa bent over the tablet. She set down the bag and came to Calvin’s bench.
“Any trouble I ought to know about?”
“Depends which one you mean.”
Her smile faded into a more careful look. “I meant the cat.”
Calvin wiped his hands. “He’s staying.”
“I wasn’t asking whether you’d return him.” She waited, then added, “The easy ones aren’t always the ones that fit.”
Calvin looked toward Rook. The cat was washing his chest while Nathan explained a digital filing system a few feet away.
“Apparently.”
Beth checked the bowls, left the supplies, and didn’t ask anything more.
Nathan spent the afternoon entering sample appointments. Tessa tried the system whenever Calvin didn’t need her. Near closing, Nathan found his father washing at the utility sink.
“About Mom,” he began.
Calvin kept his hands under the water.
“I know I wasn’t here when she got sick. There isn’t a good excuse for—”
“Enough.”
Nathan stopped.
Calvin shut off the faucet and turned, water running from his fingers.
“Coffee and a screen won’t settle that…”
To read the rest of the story – CLICK the NEXT button 👇👇👇