”No, geez, Lauren.” He rolled his eyes and frowned. ”I’ve been good. Real good actually. But this news is not public knowledge yet.”

Bob stared at me with sincerity and hurt in his eyes.

”Okay. I’m sorry.” He was a good friend. He’d known me all my life and even though he had a penchant for getting himself into shit, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.

He nodded letting me know we were all good.

”Walk with me. We’re having a good month. How’s the used inventory?” I would keep the topic to business until we got to my private office.

”Good turn over, only a handful over sixty days, but we’ll get rid of them in a hurry.”

”Great. I want a list of them. I may trade out with the Jeep store, but until then, I want a two hundred dollar bonus on them.”

”Got it.”

Bob followed me into my office. I shut the door behind us and crossed my arms as I leaned against it. ”Okay, so…?”

”So,” Bob started as he moved to the window and stared out across the lot. ”Word is old man Dallenbach is ill and wanting to sell. I thought it was just rumor until Smitty overheard one of the bankers that service their cars here talking about working on a loan for someone to buy out both stores. I knew you’d thought about adding another store, but i don’t know if this is what you want. Anyway, I wanted you to hear about it quick.”

”Thanks Bob. That’s very interesting news. I’d actually thought of buying a store out of the area, but this changes things. A Ferrari store and a Northwest Car Agency? Hi and low end cars…its perfect.” I quickly sent off texts to my banker and lawyer warning them that I was jumping on this in a hurry. If the banker was already working on a deal for someone, there might not be much time. Ernie Dallenbach and my father had a long history of not-so-friendly exchanges, but he had always been nice to me. Then again, my father had quite the abrasive personality most of the time anyway.

”Whatcha gonna do?”

”If you’d excuse me Bob, I have some business to attend to.” I smiled and threw him a wink as I dialed Dallenbach Motors.