Page 10 of Operation Protector
“So you are that Foxworth,” he said. “The ones who helped him.”
“He was our third case, after Hayley and I met,” Quinn said.
“He told me his life was a mess, and then it got worse, but you guys stepped in and saved it all. Him, his wife and their little boy.”
“Drew,” Hayley said, “understated his part in saving it all. As usual.”
Colby smiled slightly, and nodded. “Sounds like him. He’s a good guy. And great to work with. We kind of see eye to eye on things.”
Quinn nodded, then tilted his head slightly. “So, if we call him and ask about you, he’ll have good things to say?”
Colby blinked, pulled back a little. “Yeah. I think so. I hope so. But why—” He stopped abruptly when Quinn pulled out his phone, clearly intending to make that call right now. “Say hello for me,” he added, sounding a little bemused.
Ali was a little surprised at how quickly Quinn had the head of the company, Drew Kiley himself, on the line. After a quick moment of greetings exchanged, Quinn asked to put him on speaker for the rest.
“We’re here with someone who says he’s done work for you. Colby Kendrick.”
“Colby?” came a deep, male voice from the phone. “He’s there?”
Quinn nodded at Colby, who answered. “I’m here, Drew.”
“You okay? Grace okay?”
“For now, I think.”
“But there’s a problem?”
“We’re still assessing,” Quinn said. “I just wanted your take.”
“My take is that Colby Kendrick is a great guy. And one of the best carpenters I’ve ever worked with. That Village Center project you guys like so much? He’s the one who saved that undertaking.”
Ali kept watching, fascinated by all of this. “It was just an idea that worked,” Colby said, sounding almost embarrassed by the praise.
“A genius idea,” Drew corrected. “Turning that narrow breezeway into a full, covered patio with a play area not only made it a better community center, it solved the problem of how and where to run the power and plumbing lines to the new building.”
“It worked,” Colby repeated.
“That it did. You made us look really good. And I’d hire you full-time in an instant, you know that, right?”
Ali saw Colby swallow as if his throat was tight. “Thanks, man.”
“Quinn, anything I can do?” the man on the other end asked.
“We’ll let you know, Drew. Thanks.”
“Any time, you know that,” the man said. Then he added, rather vehemently, “He really is one of the good guys, I promise.”
“Thanks for confirming it.” Quinn ended the call.
Confirming it, Ali thought. So Quinn had already thought so? She wasn’t surprised. You didn’t run an organization like the Foxworth Foundation without being a pretty good judge of people.
Only then did she notice their dog was staring at Quinn, and when Quinn looked back, he gave a short, sharp little yip.
“Yeah, yeah,” Quinn said with a wry smile. “I know, you told us so.”
“Told you…what?” Ali asked, fascinated by this dynamic. And the more time she spent around the Foxworths and Cutter, the more she wondered if she had the knack at all to deal with a dog.
Hayley was smiling when she answered her. “That look he gave us when we first found Colby here? That’s his ‘fix it’ look.”
