They listened to me as I explained everything, then let me take the lead as we embarked on the actual repairs. Happiness and contentment filled me as I got my hands dirty in my favorite way. It was refreshing and exciting to be in a garage again, doing what I’d always loved. I didn’t even realize how long the three of us had been working when Darren’s phone trilled an alert. He wiped his hands before looking down at the phone.
“Ah,” he said. “Quentin ordered lunch. Time to eat.”
Gus immediately put down the tools he was working with and started for the door of the garage, but I kept working. Darren just said his brother ordered lunch, not who it was for, and I didn’t know if I was invited. I didn’t want to be presumptuous or create an awkward situation, so I just stayed where I was and kept going. But Gus walked behind me and clapped a hand down on my shoulder.
“Come on, Kelly. There are some sinks over here where we can wash up,” he said.
I smiled as I followed him, and we got cleaned up for lunch. Ten minutes later I was sitting at the edge of a picnic blanket in the big green field, my legs stretched out in front of me as I ate pizza and chatted with Quentin. A pretty woman with a round belly and big eyes came out and dropped down beside him, sighing happily as she rested her head on his shoulder. Everyone was so comfortable, so casual, it shocked me. But I was beginning to believe I was going to be permanently surprised by the people at Freeman Racing.
13
Darren
In the first two weeks Kelly worked at the complex, we fell into a steady routine. It became second nature to us pretty quickly. It felt good to have not just predictability, but reliability. I knew I could absolutely rely on her to be at the garage first thing in the morning, ready to tackle any challenges set ahead of her. I could also rely on her to have incredible insights about my bikes and my performance I never would have thought about. I had always considered myself fairly well versed in the mechanics of the bikes and even convinced myself I knew them in some intrinsic way nobody else did. But having Kelly around proved me wrong about that.
She was unlike all the other mechanics who had been on the complex for years. Not that they weren’t smart and skilled, which they absolutely were. Instead, it was as though she was able to explain things to me in a way they had never been able to. She could get past my subtly arrogant bullshit and tell me bluntly what I was wrong about, what I needed to do, and how she was going to make sure my problems went away so I could get things done. I trusted her and depended on her to keep me in check and stop me from getting in my own way, which I so frequently did. Being the quiet one of my brothers wasn’t just about being surrounded by three older siblings who were too loud and intense to let me get a word in edgewise. I had always simply been one to keep to myself, to be more of a lone wolf, reluctant to really trust or lean on anyone. I preferred to do things on my own and was usually holed up by myself in the garage tinkering away or doing lap after lap around the practice track rather than engaging with anyone.
Kelly broke me of that. She wouldn’t let it happen, and I could already feel myself better for her being there. We got into the rhythm of starting the morning talking about the repairs that were needed on which of the bikes. Many people were under the misconception that we only had one or two bikes. With only two riders in the company, a lot of people, even fans, thought it was just the two machines and that’s what all we had to deal with. What they didn’t realize was each of us actually had several bikes to ensure we had the proper equipment for each situation we might encounter. Racing bikes were different from exhibition bikes, which were different from show bikes. And we had multiples of each kind to ensure we were always prepared.
That didn’t even include the bikes on the complex for the side business of restoring and repairing them to sell. That was one of my oldest brother’s most brilliant ideas when he took over the company. Fans and motorcycle enthusiasts were constantly champing at the bit to purchase a bike we worked on. It was incredibly successful and brought in a huge amount of money. Some of my favorite memories of the company involved partnering with local charities and using bikes we restored, and I rode a few times as auction items for fundraising. It was always fun to come up with new ways to customize the machines and make them more appealing. But it was also a lot of work.