Her CEO Stalker and Her Second Chance Mate (Adelaide) novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Briar

One month later

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It had been a month of taking it easy, and the ribs weren’t giving me trouble anymore. I could

breathe easier and had returned the wrap to Carter. He didn’t comment on it, besides that I

should still take it easy, but I could do light work. He had helped me a lot around the house

over the last month. I hadn’t asked him to do a damn thing but he was always finding random

things to do. Turns out, he was quite handy. The truck had been repaired within a week. I had

spent a lot of my free time at the shop going through months of invoices and matching things

up to the jobs the guys had done..

They had been standoffish at first, but Byron seemed the most friendly and versed in the

paperwork. He answered my questions politely and unbothered. He seemed happy for the help.

By the end of the month, I had three months‘ worth of paperwork sorted out and the payroll

fixed for the guys on all those jobs; I had several more months to go through. They came in

today in lighter moods, obviously, the checks hitting their bank accounts had been noticed.

How they had managed only on their hourly rate until I showed up, I wasn’t sure, but they

sure were dedicated to their jobs, and that told me something about their character and their

bond with Jake. Today, I brought in muffins to celebrate, and they had devoured a dozen and a

half in an hour. It seems I found a way to get a moral boost. I made a mental note to add more

baking supplies to my shopping list. Todd and Knox were even chatting with me a bit as I

asked about their families. I wondered if I’d ever meet them.

It was when I walked a service bike into the empty bay, where they all stopped what they were

doing to stare.

“What are you doing, Briar?” Byron asked.

“Getting my hands dirty, what does it look like?” I sassed, as I went about changing the oil

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Chapter 75

and checking everything Jake had taught me to do, to maintain a bike. I was well aware of

their eyes upon me, assessing everything I did to ensure I was capable. I was insistent on

proving I could help, even in the smallest of ways. If I could take some of the services off the

workload, we could catch up faster. That meant more money in their pockets. It also meant

the business wouldn’t go stale; nobody wanted to wait three months for an oil change.

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I was worried that if we didn’t start taking new mods and services, we would lose clients.

Carter OK’d me for easy work. I was pushing it a little by pushing bikes around but he could

go fuck himself if he thought I was gonna keep sitting on my ass and let Uncle Jake’s business

or these guys jobs drown.

Knox walked past me to get something off the inventory shelf. That was another thing I

insisted on: cleaning up the bays and organizing parts. It took us a day and much fussing to

do it, but in the end, it made parts ordered for specific bikes easier to find. Less digging meant

less wasted time, allowing jobs to get done faster.

“Seems you know what you are doing, so what are you going to do with your bike?” Knox

asked.

I had left it uncovered so I could remind myself each day why I kept going.

“Finish it and ride it,” I said, honestly, as I fought with a bolt. It finally gave way, and the oil

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