Page 23 of Violent Little Thing

“Is this the first time that he’s done something like this?” I asked.

She looked away. “Not quite.”

I pulled into my spot in front of the shop and wasn’t surprised to find no one in yet.

Fridays were half days, and we started around ten and closed around three. Plus, the mechanic that worked for me had finished up his job early yesterday evening, allowing him to come in on time today and not worry about getting his job done before the weekend.

“Where’s Kenny?” she asked.

“We switched to half days on Friday,” I said. “He’s not in yet.”

“Oh.” She hesitated.

I got out and individually rolled the doors up on the shop.

The eighty-by-eighty building was built pretty damn good. When you were hot, you opened all of them, so you had a great crosswind. When it was cold, you only used the small entry door to the right of the farthest roll-up door.

The entire shop had been well insulated from the cold—almost a necessity in the mountains of Montana.

Ol’ Pop Kensington had done a good job designing the building for max air flow and heat retention.

“You give Kenny an inch, and he’ll take a mile.” Charleigh followed me from door to door. “You want me to go turn the compressor on?”

I shook my head. “We have no jobs today. Kenny fixed up the last one last night, and then he’s taking over until I get back.” I chuckled. “And you’re right. Kenny’s a good worker…if you make sure he is.”

“I can’t believe that you’re just going to let him run this place without you.”

I scratched at my jaw. “I actually was thinking about selling it to him.”

Her brows rose. “You do know that he asked to buy it from Pop, and he said no? Kenny’s…”

“Fully capable.” I chuckled again. “I think your family just thinks that he’s not, so they don’t put much stock in him. But he is fully capable. He always gets the work done that I need him to. He is never late doing anything. The only thing that’s making me hesitate in selling it to him is I don’t think he can afford to make the payments. I think he needs to establish himself a little more.”

Kenny was Charleigh’s cousin. He was eighteen and a half, wild as could be, but worked hard.

When Pop had sold me this place, Kenny had been wild and carefree. At seventeen, that was expected.

But I could tell that he’d grown up a lot since I’d been the owner. Kenny was solid and would continue to get more solid the more he matured.

I didn’t see him fucking this up.

He was also about to get a trial by fire, seeing as I would start my job as majority owner Monday morning.

Beau was going to walk me through everything, sticking with me until he was expected to return to the school early next year. Plus, he’d help me navigate the board, dealing with the rest of the owners—his dad and sister—and introducing me to the teams.

Though he could really only help with the Cowgirls.

The Condors weren’t something he dealt with on a daily basis, so I’d be going in there blind as a bat since his father was the one who did the day-to-day dealings with them.

Though he’d promised that I’d be fine.

The board for the Condors and the Cowgirls were the same. And, according to Beau, they actually had a brain in their head and didn’t like Seraphina all that much.

Kenny arrived within ten minutes of me, giving his cousin a huge hug that lifted her off her feet.

Charleigh smiled for the first time since she left her old job behind.

“Who keeps blowing up your phone?” Kenny asked as he set his stuff down on the toolbox beside her phone.