The Current Between Us (5 page)

Jacquelyn Ballinger on the other hand looked to be in about her forties, polished, sophisticated and by the look of the suit she wore, very accomplished. He didn
’t see it happening between the two of them and if this job weren’t so important to him, he might even let McCall know he aimed too high with her, but instead he kept his mouth shut and balanced everything in his left hand to open the front door to the studio.

Massive structural changes were already underway inside the building. The gallery looked large and spacious, almost completely open. A vaulted cathedral style ceiling was taking shape above and
jewel-toned colors were already splashing out from every corner. There looked to be a maze of display walls standing about seven feet tall in the center of the room, but none reached the high ceiling being prepared above. A small office sat to the right and a stunning ornately carved spiral staircase ran along the far right hand back wall, up to the second floor. The molding design on the stairwell looked like a perfect match to the design being added to the ceiling above.

Fast pace
d understated how quickly this place had come together. Trent walked farther in, immediately switching into electrical contractor mode. A frenzy of activity swirled around him; there wouldn’t be any room for delays or errors. If one step faltered, it could create an entire jobsite delay, and clearly, by the look of the place, no money was being spared in getting this remodel completed on time. Initially, he’d been told the electrical portion of the remodel would be minor. His bid called for more cosmetic repairs than anything else. Every wall in the room required electricity, and the specs showed it to already be in place, but as he walked through the maze of walls, he could see it wasn’t there on many of the inside walls.

He
’d seen this before. These buildings were old and went through a series of remodels over the years. Electrical power could only come to the center inside walls two different ways: either from the ceiling or through the floor. Based on the concrete floor markings some had power, where others didn’t. He worked through the possibilities in his mind. At this point, to get it added now meant they would have to go through the floor since the walls didn’t reach the ceiling. The floors were already being primed for tile, meaning they would need to do this part of the job right away; first thing in the morning. Trent made a series of notes on his clipboard as he continued thinking it through, running a mental list of needed supplies as he jotted down his notes. It would add to the work load, but totally manageable and it could possibly be something the owner declined to do. He’d need to point it out to Roger as soon as possible.

The ventilation contractors, the dry wall specialist
, and the painters were already hard at work. He could hear what he assumed were the heat and air people beginning to work on the roof. The current lighting looked terrible, but those changes were coming. Pendulant fixtures were to arrive tomorrow and would be hung all over the room. Looking up, Trent scanned the ceiling closely and counted off. From this angle, it appeared like the ceiling people did an adequate job at leaving room for his men to work with minimal damage to the new woodwork.
Bonus!

Anchoring his clipboard under his arm, Trent tested connections and made several notes on which walls absolutely didn
’t have electricity. He did the measurements on a few walls, deciding what could be pulled together in the least invasive ways. Other than the center walls, the specs seemed pretty dead on for this middle floor. He needed to check the electrical panel, make sure the amperage load was correct to pull all this electricity together and then check the air and heating systems voltage. If they were all right, he would let the project manager know about the inside walls and his work here would be done. The only thing left to do was to show up tomorrow and work like demons over the next eight days to complete the job on time. Holding his clipboard in one hand, Trent checked the building layout page. He found the panel in the basement. He scanned the page again and found the door leading to the basement across the room.

“
Are you my new electrical contractor?” A smooth, masculine voice asked from behind. Trent turned his head over his shoulder to see an extraordinary pair of slate blue eyes staring back at him from a few feet away.

“
Yes, sir,” Trent said, turning completely around. He stumbled about mid-turn with his hand stuck in mid-air as he automatically went to shake hands. The man standing in front of him was none other than the legendary photo investigative journalist Gage Synclair, and Trent went dumb.

After the first moment of seeing Gage and losing all ability to think, everything began crashing
through his mind all at the same time. He realized this must be Gage Synclair’s new gallery, the one he’d read about online. Trent watched every report Gage ever gave and read every article written by the guy. Gage was a
Time Magazine
,
60 Minutes
, and CNN Special Reporter. Hell, his DVR currently sat filled with Gage’s latest interviews and Special Reports. How could he have missed this being Gage Synclair’s building?

Gage stepped in closer and Trent could only stare. The guy stood easily six foot two inches tall, an inch or so taller than Trent. His hair was longer than he ever remembered seeing it, but still short and looked a tamed, wavy blond. His eyes were deep slate blue, his skin a golden dark
suntanned, and Gage wore an easy smile, with some of the fullest lips he’d ever seen. Gage Synclair looked extremely handsome in print and photos, but to see him in person shocked all of Trent’s senses. It took another second for him to understand Gage Synclair’s mouth moving.

“
I’m Gage, this is my place. I’m guessing you’re the electrical contractor?” He thought Gage may have repeated himself, but he wasn’t one hundred percent certain. After another long pause and a bigger grin spreading across Gage’s perfect lips, Trent finally answered.

“
I’m a huge fan. I know all of your work and bought your books. I’ve followed your career for years. I knew you were putting up a place. I just didn’t know this was that place,” Trent rambled, tumbling all his words out. Gage still held out his hand with his eyebrows rising as Trent continued to speak. And still Trent stood there a minute more before accepting the handshake. “I’m sorry, I’m just a really big fan and at a complete loss for words.”

“
Thank you. You’re very good on my ego, I’m certainly glad someone follows my work. They do put food on the table. Perhaps we could start with your first name,” Gage said, his gaze never leaving Trent’s as he continued to stay spellbound under the weight of the most perfectly blue eyes he’d ever seen.

“
Trent Cooper,” he finally said as the handshake continued.

“
Well, Trent Cooper, it’s certainly my pleasure to meet you,” Gage said as his smile turned to a slightly crooked, sexy grin. The look on his face changed, and Gage took on a knowing expression and advanced another small step closer, still never releasing his hand. Reality came crashing back as Trent’s heart picked up a beat. He found himself a little breathless and off balance as he stood in the middle of a job site with a partial hard-on building in his jeans, acting like a teenage girl over her teeny bopper crush. To top it all off, the foreman and most of the sub-contractors were all within seeing distance of where they currently stood close together.

Trent never hid he was gay, but he also never put it out there while working. There were simply too many homophobes in the construction industry.
A long time ago he decided to keep all parts of his world separate from one another. Em and Hunter were always first on his mind, but keeping work, dating, and the kids all separated made sure nothing ever got complicated. It was what his children deserved. Pulling his hand from Gage’s hold, he forced his eyes away and cleared his throat. It still took a minute more to look back at Gage and even then, he couldn’t meet those arresting eyes.

“
I’m the electrical contractor. I was heading down to the panel box in the basement. I also need to check the inventory levels and check out the roof. Don’t worry, my men will be starting Wednesday morning as scheduled. I only need to get everything lined out. Make sure we’re clear on the end result and go over a couple of things I’ve found,” Trent said it all while looking at Gage’s forehead, wondering why he kept rattling on about schedules and check lists…He never did that.

“
Mmmm, well, Trent Cooper, I could certainly tag along, show you around. I saw the site foreman has a thing for my new curator. You might need a tour guide around the building,” Gage said. Trent could feel Gage’s eyes still on his, but he never lowered his gaze to test his theory. Luckily, before he could respond Gage’s phone began to ring at his belt. The guy palmed the phone and answered within a second, but Gage still looked directly at Trent.

“
Gage Synclair, hang on a minute,” Gage said into the phone before lowering it and covering the receiver with the palm of his hand.

“
I regret I must take this call, Trent. I’ll catch up in a bit.” Gage finally turned his head away and spun around on his heels. A small trickle of sweat began to work its way down the side of Trent’s face as he watched Gage in almost a slow jog, trying to get to his office before he spoke again into the phone. He could only catch something about Mexico before Gage closed his office door.

If he remembered correctly, Gage worked on one last case, something he
’d started a few years ago. Since Trent followed every story so closely, he found himself in a fierce internal battle. Part of him needed Gage to leave him alone, he wouldn’t have been able to hold out for too much longer before he started gushing, but he also loved the intrigue of investigations Gage put together. No one else dug as deep or found the loopholes Gage found while investigating a story. Whatever called him away may have something to do with his last investigation and wouldn’t he absolutely love to know what it might be.

After a minute, he forced
himself to focus solely on his surroundings and turned from the spot he apparently rooted himself to. He reminded his legs how to move across the floor and walked straight to the basement door. His head and eyes stayed trained on the door knob, not looking at anyone else in the room. Suddenly, he dropped the clipboard in his hands low to cover the bulge he just realized he sported in the front of his jeans.

From the very moment he met Gage Synclair, the room narrowed in on him until the heat of the moment dripped down his face. Gage stunned him, making it impossible to see anything other than the man who stood in front of him. Then just as quickly, the room popped back open, pulling everyone there back into this minute.
Hell, for all he knew everyone in this room, gay or straight, could have responded the same as he did when meeting Gage freakin’ Synclair. Of course he wouldn’t be alone in the awe he felt.

Trent
took the side stairs, two at a time, down to the basement, relieved to find no one there. Every one of his thoughts stayed centered on how hot Gage truly was in person. He walked straight to the panel box, opened the door, and looked blankly at the black breakers staring back at him. Chiding himself for how quickly he lost track of his reason for being there, he pulled his clipboard forward and lifted the pages attached to the giant silver clip at the top. On the inside of the steel clipboard, his kids had taped photographs of them all with sweet words of love scribbled on them. He always carried this clipboard and when times got hard, he flipped the pages up to help focus him back on why he did what he did. It did the trick and he forced his mind back on the job. He did a mental sweep over the breakers, the sizes and the brand.
Fuck!

The old, outdated panel box stared back at him, mocking him with its low amperage
. Of course, it wasn’t the size or brand as outlined on the specs. It would have made this job way too easy if it were. Taking a deep breath at this jewel of a find, Trent squared his shoulders and mentally calculated the voltage this box would reasonably hold in its current state and knew in his heart it wouldn’t be good enough. How in the hell did he get to be the first one to discover this huge problem in the remodel?

He tapped his pencil on the clipboard, going over his math of the voltage in the current panel box one last time. A deep pent up breath finally released, one he
hadn’t realized he held. Things for this job just fell into place too smoothly. He should have known nothing could be that easy. A panel replacement would seriously mess up the schedule for completion. Hell, maybe that was why he got the job in the first place. This kind of pending disaster would need a scapegoat and who better than the electrician?

Going between the panel box and his paper, Trent
made notes and tallied the estimated amperage needed to run this place effectively based on average daily usage. Damn it! No way would this current box hold everything. The air conditioning alone would trip the lights and the office might not ever work properly. The city would never allow a final permit with this current box still in place. Fuck it if this wasn’t going to cost in both time and money.

“
From where I’m standing, an electrician looks to be a very sexy job… All those tool belts and hard hats… How does one go about becoming an electrical contractor?” Gage asked from directly behind Trent. Trent could feel the guy’s breath running along his neck. It startled him; he hadn’t heard Gage coming down the stairs or across the room. To have him simply materialize like this shook him to the core, and his body reacted with a jolt, hardening quickly back to painful degrees. He kept his eyes on the clipboard, only closing them for one long moment, before opening them again, staring down, but seeing nothing.