Page 11 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

FORD

I wasn’t much of a drinker, but the second I’d gotten the text from Jared saying that Henry was making a move on Lila, I’d turned my truck around and sped toward the beach.

I’d only been a couple blocks away and Henry was a complete jackass who worked at a local brokerage firm and thought that made him God’s gift.

He was one of Jared’s college buddies, but I’d never figured out why the guy had actually stayed friends with him.

I also wasn’t sure why I’d felt the need to come, but seeing as how Lila had been stuck in my head for an annoying amount of time, I’d thought that maybe coming here and seeing her in a social situation might fix that.

Also, I hadn’t been lying when I’d said Henry had a way of making women feel uncomfortable.

While I was sure Lila could take care of herself, for some reason, I’d felt the need to protect her from his advances, which I’d been sure would be as unwelcome as they had turned out to be.

Now that I was here, however, staring into those vibrant blue eyes that were shining with genuine happiness as she looked up at me, I had no idea what to do with myself.

“Rook?” My eyebrows lifted slowly. “Uh, he has food and water, and he loves my yard, which he currently has access to, so I’m sure he’s doing quite well.”

She smiled so wide, it was like the news made her even happier. God, what is it with this girl? How can any person be so happy about so many different things?

“That’s great,” she said and turned to order two cocktails when the bartender finally appeared at the other side of the bar. She glanced at me. “Would you like to tell him what you want to drink?”

I blinked stupidly, but then I remembered that I was in a bar and shrugged. “I’ll have a beer. Whatever you’ve got on tap is fine, unless it’s shit.”

The guy chuckled, apparently finding me funny, then took off, presumably to fill our order. I turned back to Lila, who was toying with her red braid hanging over her shoulder and giggling quietly.

“What?” I asked, so completely confused by this woman that I simultaneously wanted to scream and bend her over the damn bar. “Why are you laughing?”

“You’re just…” She trailed off and I cocked my head, waiting until she smiled and finally said, “Different, that’s all. You’re different.”

My eyes narrowed. I knew I was fucking different. All my life, I’d been different, but before the accident, it’d been because I didn’t care about anything that wouldn’t bring me closer to becoming a marine. Now I didn’t even know what it was.

“Why are you saying that like it’s a good thing?” I asked. “You’re smiling.”

“Of course I’m smiling, and of course it’s a good thing. I’m different too. Just in a different way than you.”

“How’re your classes going?” I asked, deciding that this had to be a much easier, less confusing topic of conversation.

Her lips parted in surprise and she blinked a few times fast, but then launched into a description of the project she had due at the end of the summer. The more she talked, and talked, and talked, I realized that I could actually stand here and listen forever.

It was a dang foreign feeling, but something about her numbed my brain in the best way possible. The bartender brought our drinks while she was telling me about it, but as he set the cocktails down, she cut herself off.

“I should get this to my friend, Addy. We’re actually having a girls’ night, but I think her boyfriend is on his way to come pick her up if you’d like to join us?”

Her boyfriend. Taylor . I shook my head. “No, thanks.”

I wasn’t in the habit of seeking out the friendship of the guys in my support group.

Not talking about my past was how I’d been able to keep my head on straight.

At least, that was how I felt about it. Taylor had already encouraged me to start talking about it once. I didn’t need him doing it again.

“Have fun, though.” I picked up my beer and went to talk to Jared instead, but I watched her carrying her drinks over to a tall, dark-haired girl who draped herself around Taylor as he arrived.

They laughed and sipped their drinks, eventually going out onto the makeshift dance floor on the other side of the bar. As Lila’s body started swaying from side to side, I was riveted. She wasn’t dressed up like most of the women in here.

Wearing cut-off jean shorts and another one of her painfully bright shirts, she had leather sandals instead of heels on her feet and her hair kind of looked like it’d been in that braid all day. Quite a lot of tendrils had fallen out of it and it just seemed worn-in rather than having been done up.

Tonight’s shirt hung slightly off one of her lean shoulders, exposing a swatch of creamy skin, and okay, I’d noticed a few freckles there. She just seemed so wholesome and pure in every way that I didn’t seem to be able to look away from her.

Jared must’ve noticed that there was something about her too, seeing as how he’d barely shut up about her since I’d come to join their table.

Thankfully, Henry had stormed away when I’d come over, but a couple more of Jared’s buddies were with us and he seemed to be enjoying giving them a blow-by-blow of everything she’d done at the firm since she’d arrived.

“The whole break room was full of balloons and streamers, and there was this huge, chocolate cake. We were so surprised, but Judith, the HR lady whose birthday it was, nearly burst into tears she was so happy someone had made the effort.”

I tuned him out, my gaze drifting back to the violet flowers on the sunshine yellow background that was the pattern of Lila’s flowing shirt today. Her hips were gyrating and she had one hand behind her head, her eyes half closed.

Instantly, the urge took hold to rear up and throw myself in front of her, to shield her from the eyes of every other man in there, but before I could act on it, she laughed and dropped the act.

Taylor was shaking his head, and I suspected she’d been demonstrating something rather than seriously dancing that way.

“It turned out that she’d been emailing with the woman for days ,” Jared was telling the others now. “I think she knows the wife of that client better than the husband does now.”

As the guys laughed, I cut my gaze toward him and frowned. “You’ve brought her up so many times tonight, you should probably just ask her out if you’re that interested in her.”

There was an unexpected bite in my voice, but Jared laughed and shook his head. “I have a feeling that would be the end of our friendship, dude. You’ve been staring at her all night.”

My insides clenched and iced over. I hadn’t realized anyone had noticed that, but clearly, I’d been more obvious about it than I’d thought. “It’s not that. She’s just strange to me, is all.”

“She’s not strange, Ford. She’s just a sunny person and you, my friend, haven’t seen the sun for years,” he joked. “It must be quite a shock.”

I frowned, but I didn’t feel the need to respond. Even if I had wanted to, Lila was suddenly floating over to us. Weirdly, she came right up to me, smiling almost apologetically as she gave me a little wave.

“I just wanted to come and say goodbye. I’m leaving, but I’ll see you on Monday.”

Uncertain why she’d felt the need to come and tell me that, I just shrugged. Jared stepped forward and grinned at her. “Bye, Lila. It was good to see you out in the wild. Are you going to be okay getting home?”

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him but glanced back at me.

My insides were still ice cold, and all I could do was stare back at her, but I did feel a tiny pang of regret when I saw the light in her eyes fading slightly at my lack of reaction. I swallowed hard, forcing myself to murmur, “Yeah, goodbye, Lila.”

Her brow furrowed, but she sighed and waved again before she spun around and walked away, joining Taylor and Addy at the door.

The three of them disappeared together, and part of me was relieved to know that Taylor would probably be driving her home.

At least I knew he would get her there safely and she wouldn’t be out walking by herself.

Jared sighed once they were gone, turning to me and arching both his eyebrows. “Was that really necessary?”

“Was what really necessary?” I shook my head, deciding that I was done with people for tonight. “You know what? I should head home too. I’ll see you at the office.”

Without waiting for him to respond or for any of the others to say a word, I marched through the loosely packed crowd and strode out to the parking lot. There was no sign of Lila, Taylor, or Addy though, so I assumed they’d already left.

Not that I was trying to catch up to her or anything.

On my drive home, it occurred to me that going to see her in a social situation hadn’t helped fix my problem at all. In fact, it seemed to have made it worse. I’d ended up giving myself more to think about after all, and it was as annoying as shit that my brain refused to leave well enough alone.

Early the next morning, after a night spent in an even more terrible place than my thoughts had been before I’d fallen asleep, I woke up exhausted but rolled out of bed. Rook was already up and I could hear his nails clicking against the tiles at my door.

He let out a quiet bark when he saw me and I grimaced. “Yeah, yeah, buddy. I know. I’m opening it now.”

Still half-asleep, I stumbled through the house, the faint sounds of those rotors thumping still echoing through my mind.

I reached for the front door and unlocked it, and as soon as I opened it, Rook shot through the crack.

I sighed, watching him bound happily into the yard.

I followed him out, not nearly as happy about feeling the early morning sunshine on my face or the grass under my feet as he seemed to be.

When I opened my mailbox, the day got even worse.

An envelope slid into my hand from a couple in Florida and I froze, a familiar darkness instantly taking hold.

I knew exactly what this was, but I wished I didn’t.

More than anything, though, I wished the whole thing this letter was about hadn’t been necessary in the first place.