“Bye, Callum,” Sawyer knelt down and kissed the top of the toddler’s head, and then Ford did the same.
When they were both in the car, Sawyer said, “How about we do lunch just the two of us. We can drive up to Aspen and make a day of it, scope out the competition…”
“I like the sound of that, but we’ll have to let Savie know to come over here, I don’t want them at the house alone. Even with the alarm system, I’m just not comfortable with that yet.”
Sawyer nodded, agreeing with him.
He was about to text Savie when his phone started to ring. Since they were in his car it connected to the Bluetooth, and Drake’s name showed on the dash of his car.
Ford said, “Hello?” after pressing the button to connect the call.
“Hey, Ford. So... I have a bit of a situation here,” Drake said.
Ford groaned and looked over at Sawyer to see his reaction. Since the phone was on the speaker, he was able to hear. “Okay… what now?” Ford braced himself for the worst.
“There’s been some flooding at the construction site. The crew has spent the morning bailing out the affected area of the dig. We may have to rent pumps to get this drained quicker and not set us too far behind. I’m sorry, man, I really don’t know how this could have happened.”
“It’s just water. Shouldn’t we be fine?” Ford asked.
“Well, not exactly. It’s a little more complicated than that,” Drake said slowly.
Ford rubbed his brow, and told himself not to panic.
“What aren’t you saying? Sawyer spoke up.
Drake’s reply was careful as though he was thinking over each word as he spoke. “There are tool marks on one of the pipes that has been uncovered already.”
“And not from anything your men were doing,” Ford checked. “Could it be an accident?”
“No,” Drake’s voice was vehement. “That’s what we thought at first. I was going to work longer to get it done and had planned to hire the equipment out of pocket. That was, until we saw the damage. Once that was discovered, I knew I needed to call and let you know what was happening here.”
“You don’t have to do that, Drake.” Sawyer was quick to chime in. “Accidents happen.”
“I know, but you gave me a shot. I don’t plan on screwing it up. And this doesn't appear to be just a normal accident”
Ford smiled at that. Drake had always been so serious when they were growing up.
“Thank you for saying that. We truly appreciate you coming on board,” Sawyer said.
“Except…” Drake’s stopped.
“Except?” Ford prompted.
“Well… you remember the sign that was vandalized when we first met?“ Drake sounded hesitant bringing it up.
Ford remembered that all too well. “Yeah… I mean, yes, of course I do.”
“Looks like it could be more of the same. The trailer has some colorful words splashed all over it, and someone deliberately moved a pile of sand inside the entrance after breaking the lock. I’m sure you can imagine what kind of mess that made.”
“Larry!” Ford burst out before he could catch himself.
“Larry what?” Sawyer asked, but Ford held up a finger asking him to wait.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both happened over the weekend when no one was here. Could be unrelated, but I’m thinking not,” Drake stated matter-of-factly.
Ford felt the same. The likelihood of it being an accident was slim to non-existent, but now was not the time to think of that. The question was, what were they going to do to stop it? “Yeah, I’m thinking the same. Okay. We’ll be there in ten. See you soon.”
“See you then,” Drake hung up.
Ford immediately turned to Sawyer.
Why are you so confident it’s Larry, and why did you say again?” Sawyer asked.
His brows drew together at Sawyer’s words, then Ford remembered. “Crap, I never told you what happened. It was back when you were avoiding me.” Ford hoped teasing would distract Sawyer. His hands around the steering wheel had tightened, and that’s when Ford knew his boyfriend was pissed.
“Don’t try and distract me, babe.” Sawyer saw right through him, so Ford decided to get it over with and proceeded to tell him.
“It’s honestly not that big of a deal. We handled it. Drake cleaned the sign and got it back up the next day. Honestly Drake and I may be wrong. There’s no guarantee that all of this is related.”
Sawyer glanced his way, taking his eyes off the road for a second. Ford noted his lips were pulled tight.
“But it’s possible,” Sawyer said. “Which means that we may need to hire a guard or two for the night.”
“If you think it’s necessary,” Ford replied.
Sawyer put his hand out and Ford took it. “I’m so sorry I left you to deal with everything on your own. This is my fault because I didn’t handle this project or my relationship with you the right way.”
“It’s water under the bridge, babe.” Ford squeezed Sawyer’s hand. He’d apologized, and one thing Ford had learnt from his parents was if you said you’d forgiven, you didn’t bring it up again. “Let’s just get to the construction site and see how bad the damage is.” Ford sighed, “I hope it doesn’t put us behind schedule.”
“Larry is turning out to be more of a nuisance than expected,” Sawyer sounded pissed. “He was recommended by a company we used in New York.” Sawyer’s voice said heads were going to roll for that.
“I’ll leave you to handle that, babe. We’ve got a great contractor now.”
“I love you.” Sawyer brought their joined hands up for a kiss.
The vandalism was easy to spot the moment they arrived. From the car, they could see the words that had been written everywhere on the trailer walls with red paint.
When they got out of the car, Ford could read Sawyer’s annoyance on his face even though he tried to hide it.
Asshole, motherfucker, cocksucker were the nicest words that graced it. Like cocksucker, the others showed Ford the depth of
