Drilled - Jayne Rylon Page 0,32
have kissed him. “He can definitely hook you up. Hell, your shop might even be a good tie in with the folks that come out here because of our reality show. Seems like it might be the same crowd.”
“You’re right.” Giovanni leaned in, not at all casual anymore. “Do you have a portfolio you could show me? Or maybe I could hire you for a mock-up? When is the soonest your crew is available given that they’re all-in on Hot Rods right now?”
Joe hesitated, but Mike subtly knocked his boot into his friend’s and Joe squared his shoulders. “Hot Rods is my first official project on my own. It’s something I’ve been mulling over for a while but never really got the chance to try my hand at until Eli told me what he was envisioning and couldn’t find anywhere else. So what you’ve seen at Hot Rods is pretty much my entire portfolio, but we could set up a time to meet and I could do some sketches for you. We could see where it goes from there, if you want.”
Mike hadn’t realized Joe was interested in pursuing design. Why hadn’t he said anything? Maybe because he didn’t have time to chase his dreams when he was obligated to working with the Powertools day in and day out. He glanced around at the rest of his crew, and Neil whipped his gaze away. He’d known! But he hadn’t spilled either. The crew didn’t do secrets. Things would fall apart if they did. Had it already been starting without him realizing it?
Shit, maybe it really was time to rethink things. What else had Mike missed while he was so busy trying to maintain the status quo? What about Neil, James, Devon, and Dave? Were they putting aside aspirations or being held back by being grunts all these years? And what would they do as they got older when swinging a hammer, crawling over roofs, and hauling heavy loads no longer suited them as well?
The problem was that back home, they didn’t have access to a market like they would in Middletown, which was easily ten times as large. But the rest of the crew had roots there, and Joe had them here. How could they get past that? Maybe they couldn’t, but Mike’s vision could become Joe’s reality. He’d be glad to help the guy every step along the way to make it come to life if that’s what he wanted too.
“Well, it looks like the happy throuple is about to make their entrance, but here’s my card. Give me a call next week and we can set something up.” Giovanni passed his info to Joe.
“Thank you. I will do that. It was great to meet you.” Joe tucked it into his pocket then patted the fabric over it as if to make sure it was safe.
“Same goes. Enjoy the party.” Giovanni wandered off toward his gorgeous and much-younger date.
Kason knocked his shoulder into Joe’s. “So…what do you think? Would you like to stick around for more than the summer? I know Eli and Tom love having you here.”
“We do.” Eli looked like he was holding his breath.
Truth be told, so was Mike.
Joe stammered, “Uh, I don’t know. We’ve been so caught up in making right now work that we haven’t made any decisions about the future yet. Things are going great with Morgan and Devra. Morgan showed me a real estate listing for the empty storefront next to the restaurant where she could expand either temporarily, more long term, or with some sort of franchise-type situation. If I can get it together with the construction stuff…it seems like I might be dumb to ignore what’s right in front of me. Nothing is written in stone yet, just…possibilities. I guess I need to talk to Morgan some more. Seriously, though, thank you for that. It means a lot.”
“No trouble at all. You guys really are amazing at what you do. I’ve seen what you’ve built here at Hot Rides and the draft you gave Kyra, Ollie, and Van for something a bit bigger and more permanent than their campervan, which, by the way, I’ve told them I’d like to pay for as a wedding gift. Besides, your work at Hot Rods makes me think I might need to do some renovations at my own place. Maybe a serious upgrade to our old fishing cabin on the waterfront. You know people would be lining up to sign with you and the