Page 79 of Forever Home

He leaned in close. “You would’ve won first place, if it weren’t for the cadmium-plated rear brake rod. Your bike is a true testament to the classics. I have to admit, you surprised a lot of us today. Word on the street has been, well...” He glanced at the Dudes, then shook his head. “Never mind. You obviously do great work. You made your dad proud. But in the end it came down to you having that brand-new part on the bike.”

Delaney heard everything the judge said, but it was all background noise to his first sentence. “Wait. The rear brake rod? What do you mean?”

“It’s not a big thing. I almost didn’t notice it myself. But it did become the tiebreaker. I’d love to see you enter it again next year, though. And I’m going to check out your shop soon. I’ll bring a bunch of my group by, if that’s okay.”

“Definitely.” Delaney tried a smile, even though her brain was still racing. “Thank you.”

As Delaney watched the judge exit the stage, she rolled his words around in her head. Was he thinking of a different bike? ’33 had an original brake rod—that admittedly needed replacing, but Delaney hadn’t gotten around to that yet. She caught Sean, from the corner of her eye, squinting in the sun with Wyatt by his side, panting with his big, pink tongue out.

She slowly turned to Dick, who was just now exiting the stage. He looked over his shoulder at her, pressed his fingers to his temple and gave her a mock salute. Then he laughed. Dude laughed, too.

Delaney rushed off the stage, barreling past them, over to ’33, where she quickly checked it over. He couldn’t be right, could he? She’d checked the whole bike out, multiple times.

Except it was right there, just like the judge had said. Delaney knelt down on the grass to keep steady.

“What’s wrong?” Sean and Wyatt were by her side.

“The rear brake rod,” Delaney said, running her fingers over it. “Somebody replaced it.” She peered closer at the bike and wondered how she could have missed such a thing. “The generator bracket, too. They’re cadmium plated. They weren’t before.”

“Which means...?”

Delaney looked up at Sean and squinted into the sun. It felt like her entire body had been drained of blood. “The Dudes sabotaged my bike.”