“I’m thirty years old. I’ll take mature, but not old,” he explained, indignantly.
She laughed straight out at his outrageous explanation, and barely had the car stopped in front of his house before he shoved open his door, stepping out into the brisk night air. He made a show of wrapping his jacket around him as he bent his head back into the car.
“You know, I used to like you.” He hurriedly slammed the car door to stop her from getting the last word.
Greer started around the hood to hear Marisol’s window lowering. She cackled with laughter. He liked the sound. Halfway up the walkway to his front door, he heard, “Love you, Greer.”
He shot her the finger then a smile over his shoulder.
She stayed until he made it inside the house. He gave another giant yawn. Maybe he was a little old. Greer abandoned his Scruff plans. He needed to be in the office early tomorrow anyway.
Chapter 6
Five days later
Ducky had managed to hold his excitement until a few steps outside the rotunda of Secret’s Dallas high rise. “I can’t believe Tristan Wilder offered me a job.”
His little brother was enthralled by the tour of Secret’s floor after floor of data centers. Donny had doubted the wisdom of bringing Ducky along with them today. What a mistake that would have been to leave him behind. Their rage-against-the-machine brother spiritedly spoke Dylan’s and Tristan’s language just like Dallas had hoped.
“You aren’t leaving us,” Dallas said. Ducky had turned the unexpected offer down on the spot, but Dallas liked seeing Ducky proud of himself, and it had been quite a surprise for all of them.
“So, what do y’all think?” Donny asked, the last one through the revolving door. Dallas looked up at the bright sunny sky, letting the warmth of the early spring sun bathe his skin.
Dallas didn’t want to add negativity. They’d had a great meeting, but the cash they had hoped to receive had never fully materialized.
“Having our social site as an app of Secret’s will give us a better interface, and we get to keep all our privacy and company focus and policies in place. Just the use of their servers alone could change things. We could never afford something like that up there.” Ducky pointed to the building where the data centers were housed as they started for the parking lot across the street. “Another positive thing, users can access their Secret profiles to access our network. So, less logins and hassle for our customers. I can’t see any reason not to join forces. They said they wouldn’t charge us anything for three years. We’ll know by then if we can make it work.”
“I’d hoped they wanted to invest cash,” Donny said his piece, ignoring Ducky altogether. He spoke Dallas’s truth aloud, making the weight of their load feel a little heavier than before. Why did no one want to invest money in them? BikeBro was growing into a substantial business.
Dallas grabbed the back of Ducky’s suit collar to keep him from stepping off the curb into oncoming traffic. His brother was too excited to pay attention to something as trivial as traffic lights and street signs.
“Tristan offered a lot of money to buy our company. That has to mean they see value,” Ducky said.
True. Tristan’s reasons for wanting to buy over investing were solid. He had the procedures in place to move the product forward. The three of them, and their lack of knowledge in just about everything other than running classes and the social site, would be a hindrance he didn’t have time for. Dallas couldn’t fault the logic. As far as the business went, they did have a steep learning curve to overcome; he saw it in them every day.
“Hey, guys!”
The three turned in unison to see Dylan jogging toward them, his hand raised, trying to gain their attention.
“I’m glad you didn’t get too far. I was inspired by you three. I want you to give me a couple of days. Let me run your business through the investment groups I’m involved with. If I can’t find anyone interested, let me see how much money I can come up with. I think the box is a good way to get people moving from home. I like adding the getting fit concept to the Secret brand. And that mirror of yours is going to change things in the physical fitness industry.”
After hearing those words, the heaviness in Dallas’s heart instantly lifted. An ease he hadn’t felt in months made him smile and quickly prompted him to extend his hand to shake Dylan’s. “Thank you, sir. BikeBro has been our whole world for a long time now.”
Dylan continued shaking all their hands, grinning or maybe laughing at each of them in their enthusiasm. “There’s something else. I want my branding team at Wilder to get a hold of your logo and polish it up. I took a look at your YouTube channel, and I’d like to see if we can do some brainstorming together to come up with a name for your company that will encompass all your different products and services. You’re more than a stationary bike streaming box. You have the social site and the mirror. You’re fully integrated and interactive.”
“It took us days to agree on the name BikeBro,” Ducky said, sounding disappointed. “But most people don’t know we’re brothers and that’s why the name fits us. I guess we can change it though.”
“If you don’t like what the branding team comes up with, there’s no harm, and I’ll instruct them to work closely with the three of you to keep your vision. Sound good?” Dylan added.
“Yep.” Ducky nodded his head vigorously. Apparently past any concern for the name change. Any hope of taming Ducky’s thick, longish locks broke when the ends sprang outward, bouncing back into his regular chaotic look.
“Yes, sir,” Donny answered with his military tone lacing each syllable. Dallas could almost hear the back of Donny’s dress shoes snapping together.
“So, I’ll be back in touch.” Dylan walked backward toward the building, adding, “Dallas, I’ll call you, correct?”
“Yes, that’s fine.” Both men nodded in agreement. Dylan turned away and took off jogging back to the building.
As all three of them stood there staring at the retreating Dylan, Dallas decided right then and there that the highs and lows of owning his own business were more stressful than monitoring a gym full of hyperactive, obstinate first graders.
“I’m not gonna lie, I left our meeting disappointed,” Donny muttered as he watched Dylan disappear back inside the building. “We didn’t get the cash we needed.”
“Do you think he can get it?” Dallas asked, afraid to hope, but doing just that.
“I don’t know, but this was the best meeting we’ve had. Their advice is incredible. I’ve got my work cut out for me,” Donny said. He turned away and started back for the street corner.
“The most important thing to me is their concern regarding the lack of classes. We’ve gotta increase the class loads. Maybe I can get someone other than Skye in the evenings. Do you think adding an additional two classes a day will help for now?” Dallas swiveled on his feet, following behind Donny.
“Cari said she’ll teach a class at night if she gets moved to days. She should know soon,” Donny said absently.
Cari teaching an evening class would help. “I don’t really need to sleep. I can add some overnight classes to get more recordings. We need more content for YouTube anyway. Maybe we can upload two videos a week,” Dallas said.