Page 72 of A Sip of Sherry

This was about trust, rebuilding what had been broken.

“Let’s go,” I said, and we walked out together.

Alec stood at the back of the truck, pulling down the latch.

“I’d like to see the damage,” I said.

“I already loaded everything.”

Ben stood beside me.“Then unload it.”His gaze sharpened.

I stepped in front of him, successfully coming between them.“Alec, I need to see the damage so I can figure out how it happened.Ben said he stacked the chairs himself, so it makes no sense to either of us that there can be any damage to these chairs.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, sweetheart, but there is.”

Ben sidestepped around me, his chest puffed out as he stood in front of Alec.“Don’t you call her that.”

“Sorry.”

Ben got closer, anger evident in the tight skin around his biceps, the clenched fists and white knuckles.“You working for him?”

“Working for who?”Alec asked.

“You know who.”

“No, I actually don’t.”

Ben stared him down, but Alec just looked more confused.

Ben stepped back.“Can you just show us the damn chairs?”

“Fine.”He sighed.“Some of the legs were cracked.Splintered like they’d been tossed.While others had deep gashes.”He threw the latch up, and the door of the truck opened.

Ben and I peered inside and my eyes caught on three oddly stacked chairs, the damage evident, and the way they were stacked didn’t look like an accident.They were jammed in sideways with deliberate force, legs wedged at odd angles like someone had been intentionally destructive.

Ben jumped into the truck and kneeled to the leg, examining it.“Fuck,” he muttered before turning his gaze to me.“This wasn’t an accident.”

A pit, hard and uncomfortable, landed in my gut.“Like the wine.”

“Yeah, like the wine.”He ran his hand over his face again.“How much is the damage?”he asked Alec.

“I’ll write a check,” I chimed in.

“The chairs were my responsibility,” Ben argued.“It’ll come out of my pay.”

My hand landed on my hip with defiance.“Absolutely not.”

“I don’t care who pays for it,” Alec said.“I have to call the office and let them know in case these are scheduled to go somewhere else.”

“Tell Murray I’ll take care of it, and this weekends rentals will be under lock and key.”

Alec nodded and put his phone to his ear.Ben jumped from the truck, grabbed my hand, and led me away from prying ears.“We both know my father had something to do with this.”

“Oh, I’m pretty confident in that, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay for it.”

Ben’s grip on my hand tightened before he dropped it and thrust it through his hair.“Until we can prove it, I do.The minute the event was done, and I moved the chairs into the warehouse; they were my responsibility.This never should have happened.”

“What?Were you supposed to camp out here just in case your father decided to cause damage?That’s ridiculous.And I can prove it.I’ll have Laurent pull the security footage.We have cameras all over the property.If someone broke in here and did this, we’ll know exactly who it was.”

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