Page 40 of Break My Heart (The Haydon Falls #2)

Sawyer

‘Hey, Sawyer.’

I look up and see Gina coming out of the brewery. She’s changed out of the dress she had on at the competition and is wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a long black cardigan over it. A cold breeze blows and she quickly closes the sweater around her as she walks up to me.

‘Gina, I’m so sorry.’

She shrugs. ‘It’s not your fault. You didn’t do this.’

‘You know who did?’

‘That guy, Tom.’

‘The guy I went to high school with? The one who owns the print shop?’

She nods. ‘A man reported seeing Tom’s car here when it happened and someone else said they saw him driving off after he destroyed the place.’

‘Are the cops going to arrest him?’

‘They just did.’ She nods toward the building. ‘The cops who are here now are in there collecting evidence. I’m sure they’ll be able to prove Tom did it, but I doubt anything will happen to him.’

‘It will. We don’t let shit like this happen in Haydon Falls, and if it does, we don’t let whoever did it get away with it. I don’t know if I can get them to do anything to Wade, but I’ll try to get his account shut down.’

‘Wade? What did Wade do?’

‘He’s the one who was making those posts online, telling people not to come here. He just admitted it to me. He said he did it to make sure he didn’t lose his job.’

‘Why would he lose his job?’

‘He thought if you stayed in business, everyone would come here and Kanfield would have to close.’

‘Why would he think that? I had almost no customers.’

‘But you did before he started posting all that shit online. The week of your opening, he overheard people talking about Gs, saying the beer was—’ I stop and clear my throat.

‘The beer was what?’

I stand up straighter. ‘Okay, this is hard for me to admit, but I’m just going to say it.’

‘Yeah? Go ahead.’

‘People were saying your beer was .?.?. better than mine.’

She slowly smiles. ‘They really said that? That my beer was better than yours?’

‘Yes, at least that’s what Wade overheard. He thought if he didn’t do something, everyone would come here and he’d be out of a job. Since he moved here for the job, he didn’t want to lose it.’

She tilts her head, a slight smile still on her face. ‘Do you think they’re right?’

‘Who?’

‘The people who thought my beer was better.’

‘I don’t know. I’ve only tried two of your beers. ’

‘And? Were they better than yours?’

‘Shouldn’t you be inside with the cops? What if they have questions?’

‘Sawyer, tell me the truth. Do you think my beer is better than yours?’

I let out a sigh. ‘Okay, yeah, it is, but I’m working on mine to make it better.’

‘Wow.’ Her brows rise. ‘I can’t believe you actually admitted that.’

‘I’m not afraid to admit when someone does something better than me.’

‘Are you kidding? You hate admitting when someone’s better than you.’

‘Yeah, well, maybe I’m growing up and figuring out that not being the best at something means I need to work harder. Since you moved to town, I’ve reworked three of my beers and they’re all better than they were before. That’s why you can’t leave.’

‘Sawyer, you don’t need me around to make better beer. You just need to keep working at it. It took me a long time to make mine good. It takes practice and trying new things.’

I step closer to her. ‘Gina, don’t go. You like it here. Don’t let those guys run you out of town.’ I point to G’s. ‘You can fix this, make it just like it was before. And with Wade not posting all that shit online, your customers will come back.’

‘It’ll take months to fix all the damage. I can’t wait that long. I need money to pay my bills.’

‘You’ll get money from your insurance.’

‘To pay for the repairs, not to pay for rent or other living expenses. And it’ll take forever to get the insurance money.

I’d need the money now if I wanted to fix the place up and reopen.

Even if I started the repairs next week, it’s going to take a long time to get it back like it was.

It’s really bad in there. Tom took a knife to the wood on the bar, broke all the light fixtures, spray-painted the floors.

He must’ve been here for hours to do that much damage. ’

I want to kill Tom. I’ve never liked him, but now I hate him.

‘What if I found a way to get the place fixed faster?’

‘How am I going to pay for it? I can’t start on the repairs until I get the insurance money.’

‘I’ll pay for it. I’ll loan you the money.’

‘Sawyer, I couldn’t ask you to do that.’

‘You don’t have to. I’m offering. I’ll loan you the money and when you get the insurance check, you can pay me back.’

‘Even if I agreed to that, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know who to hire that could fix this.’

‘Lucky for you, my cousins own a construction company.’

‘They live in Chicago. They’re not going to come up here for a job.’

‘Nash is going to be living here for a few months. He can do it.’

‘He doesn’t have time. He’s fixing up that house for your parents.’

‘The house can wait. And I don’t think repairing this place will take as long as you think. Nash works fast and he has relationships with suppliers. He can get stuff quickly. And if Nash’s brothers come up and help on the weekends, the work will be done even faster.’

‘But—’

‘Just let me ask him. If he says no, we’ll figure something else out.’

As I’m telling her that, two trucks pull up behind me. It’s Nash’s truck and my dad’s. They get out of the trucks, along with my mom, Callie, Nick, and Lyndsay.

‘Holy shit,’ Nash says, looking at the mess in the parking lot.

Lyndsay gasps. ‘How could someone do this? ’

My mom races over to Gina, hugging her. ‘Oh, honey, are you okay?’

‘I’m fine. I wasn’t here when it happened.’ She pulls back. ‘What are you all doing here?’

‘Matt came by the orchard and told us what happened,’ Nick says.

My dad shakes his head. ‘We don’t allow this kind of behavior in Haydon Falls. It isn’t right.’

‘Do the police know who did it?’ Callie asks.

‘It was Tom,’ I say, looking at my dad. ‘You better never hire him again.’

‘You know I wouldn’t. I had no idea he was capable of this.’

‘It wasn’t just him going after G’s,’ I say. ‘I found out Wade was the one putting all that stuff online. He thought G’s was taking too much of our business so he tried to convince people not to go here.’

‘You know they’re friends, right?’ Nick says.

‘Who?’

‘Tom and Wade. I’ve seen them around town together and Wade was hanging out with Tom at the print shop when I went there to pick up an order.’

‘They must’ve planned this together,’ I say, shaking my head. ‘They were always talking at the bar, but I didn’t know they’d become friends. I can’t believe I trusted Wade and the whole time he was doing this behind my back.’

‘You guys didn’t have to come all the way here,’ Gina says. ‘It was really nice of you, but you can go. I need to get to work cleaning this up.’

‘You will do no such thing,’ Mom says, putting her arm around Gina. ‘All this can wait until tomorrow. You come back with us and relax, then later we’ll have a nice dinner and you can get a good night’s sleep in the guest room. ’

‘Martha, I’m fine. Really.’

‘C’mon,’ Callie says, smiling at Gina. ‘It’ll be fun. You can help Lyndsay and me make cookies. They’re for the daycare kids who are coming to the orchard on Monday.’

‘Yeah, you should join us,’ Lyndsay says. ‘And when we’re done, we can watch Callie try on her wedding dress for the millionth time.’ She smiles at Callie.

‘Hey! I only do that because I’m pregnant. I have to make sure it still fits.’

‘I know.’ She laughs. ‘I’m just kidding you, but you have to admit you like trying it on.’

Nash puts his arm around Callie and kisses her head. ‘It’s okay that you’re excited about the wedding. I am too.’

Callie blushes. ‘Okay, stop talking about me. Gina, you have to come over. Do you really want to be alone at your apartment after this?’

‘I guess not.’

‘Then it’s settled,’ Mom says. ‘Go get whatever you need at your apartment and meet us back at the orchard. Sawyer, you go with her to make sure she doesn’t change her mind.’

‘Mom, I don’t think—’

‘Sawyer Allen Kanfield!’ she says, putting her hands on her hips.

I roll my eyes. ‘Yeah, fine, I’ll go.’

Gina looks back at the building. ‘I don’t even know where to start to clean this up.’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Nash says. ‘I had a dumpster reserved for the Carson house. I’ll have it delivered here instead.’

‘Thank you,’ she says, looking relieved. ‘Just have them send me the bill.‘

‘She’s hoping to get the place fixed up soon so she can reopen,’ I say to Nash. ‘How long do you think the repairs would take?’

‘Can I go inside and look around?’ Nash asks Gina.

‘Yeah. Go ahead.’

‘I’ll go with you,’ I say, thinking this will be my chance to ask Nash if he’d be willing to do the repairs.

We go inside. The cops are still looking around, making notes.

‘Damon,’ I say to one of the cops. He went to my high school.

‘Hey, Sawyer, how you doing?’

‘Not great. I’m disappointed something like this would happen here. I heard Tom did it.’

‘Yeah, he’s been going through some issues. It’s not an excuse for what he did, but I’m not surprised he lost it and did this.’

‘What issues is he going through?’

‘He was seeing this girl and she dumped him. Now he hates all women. Trashing a place owned by a woman was his way of getting back at his ex. And Gina’s not from here so that’s another reason Tom wants her gone.

You know how he is, thinking no one can live here unless they were born here. Anyway, we gotta get going.’

‘You mind if we look around?’ Nash asks.

‘Go ahead. Just be careful. There’s a lot of glass and the floor’s wet.’

The cops leave and Nash and I walk around, checking out the damage.

‘It’s bad,’ Nash says. ‘But not as bad as I was expecting. The structure’s still good.’

‘Hey, I know you’re working on the Carson house, but is there any way you’d consider putting that off and working on this place so Gina can reopen?’