Page 37 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

FORD

I n the orange glow of the streetlights outside of Lila’s building, I saw a man who kept glancing up like he was trying to look into the apartments inside.

I would’ve thought he was just waiting for a resident to come down to meet him, but Lila stiffened in the passenger seat, and instantly, I knew this wasn’t just some random stranger.

She knew the shortish blond dude, and whoever he was, she hadn’t expected to see him here. I glanced over to see shock registering on her features, kind of making it look like she’d seen a ghost.

Immediately on edge, I reached for the door handle to get out, but Lila’s hand shot out and she rested it gently on my arm. “It’s okay, Ford. I’ll handle this.”

I looked at her and scoffed. “Yeah. No. That’s not happening.”

She sighed as I tugged at the handle and climbed out, but didn’t try to stop me again.

Once my feet hit the pavement, I waited for her to join me, sticking close to her side.

She strode up to the guy. There was a hesitance about her, but she folded her arms across her chest when we drew near and lifted her chin.

Her body language made it clear that she didn’t want him here and would’ve preferred not to have to speak to him, but since he’d forced her hand by waiting for her outside her home, she wasn’t going to cower either.

At the sound of our footsteps against the concrete, the guy turned, his face blank for a moment until he realized who she was. A smile broke out across his face, a measure of relief in his eyes as he looked at her.

“Lila, thank God. I was starting to wonder if I had the wrong address.”

“What are you doing here, Ben?” she asked, her voice flatter than I’d ever heard it. “You and I don’t have any unfinished business.”

Ah, this must be the ex-boyfriend. I hung back, but only a few inches, ready to jump in if she needed me to.

His easy smile faded, and unless I was imagining things, he seemed to bristle a little bit. “I came down for a visit. I need to talk to you about something. Alone,” he added as his gaze slid to me. “Now.”

My protective instincts reared up and I shook my head. I didn’t like this. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. You need to leave, dude. She doesn’t want you here.”

It was a fact. I didn’t need to be a shrink to notice how uncomfortable she was. Despite the fact that she was putting up a good front with those folded arms, she also shrunk back when he shifted forward and her body was angled slightly toward me.

The guy—Ben—slanted his head, eyes narrowing as he looked up at me. At least a head shorter than I was and much slighter in build, I wasn’t sure how he thought he was going to win if it came down to a fight, but he tried getting tough with me anyway.

“I didn’t ask for your permission, dude ,” he spat. “This doesn’t concern you at all, so you can run along now. Thanks.”

I looked back at him, wondering if he really thought he was going to intimidate me. The guy was completely clean-cut with tiny hands and hair styled like he had dreams of belonging to a boy band.

What does he think he’s going to do, dance me to death?

I supposed it was possible that I would keel over and succumb to shock if he broke into a routine, but short of that, it wasn’t happening. His glare had nothing on mine and I had a definite height and weight advantage.

“Maybe I should make myself a little clearer. I’m not going anywhere, but you are.” I flicked a hand at the street. “Beat it.”

“You must be her new thing,” he said, still not having the good sense to back off. “Sorry, buddy. Lila falls in love just as fast as she falls out of it, so your days are numbered. I’m not involving you in what I need to talk to her about.”

She scoffed at my side and took a step forward. “You and I have nothing left to talk about, Ben. We had a clean break. Let’s keep it that way.”

“You heard her,” I said, reasserting her stance when he didn’t make any move to leave.

He glanced between the two of us, his baby-faced jaw tightening as he threw his hands up in surrender and moved his gaze back to hers. “I’m in town for a few days. We’ll see each other again.”

With that, he nodded to himself and turned, walking to a hybrid parked just down the block. Lila sniffed and shook her head, storming in her building but waiting for me at the elevator. There was a very indignant sort of fury flickering in her eyes as they met mine.

“That’s not true,” she seethed quietly. “I don’t fall out of love as quickly as I fall into it. I don’t usually fall at all and he knows that. We were friends for ages before anything happened.”

The elevator dinged its arrival and the doors slid open. I took Lila’s hand and led her inside, hitting the button for her floor and following her into her apartment when we arrived. She’d fallen into a contemplative silence as soon as that flurry of rage had left her.

“Are you okay?” I asked once we were sealed inside. “He’s your ex, right?”

Only a single standing lamp in the corner of her open-concept living space was on, emitting just enough warm light to be able to navigate around the room without switching on any others.

I watched as her narrow shoulders fell, her back to me as she strode to her kitchen.

Her hair was still a little messy from our quickie in my office, but she pulled it over one shoulder, twirling the edges around her fingers.

When she reached her little kitchen, she flicked on an electric kettle, facing me now that she was behind the counter. Her cheeks were a little pink, but other than that, she looked alright. “I’m okay. I just wasn’t expecting him to show up and it threw me off a little.”

“Do you have any idea why he might’ve come?” I asked. “He seemed to think you still had something left to talk about.”

“I really don’t know.” She sighed and raked her fingers through her hair.

“We broke up a few months ago and he’s been contacting me on and off ever since.

I think it might just be a reaction to my indifference.

When he told me he thought we should call it off, I agreed and I don’t think that was the reaction he was looking for. ”

Her indifference. Alright then. I guess at least that means I’m not just some rebound fuck to her. It still grated on me that she’d ever dated that guy, though I knew it was illogical to be jealous of something that had happened before I’d even met her.

“Okay, well, why did you break up in the first place? Maybe that has something to do with it.”

She shook her head and the kettle boiled. “Tea? I know we only came to pick up some things, but I need a cup.”

“Sure.” I watched as she crossed the small space to an exposed shelf against the wall and plucked off two teacups.

Waiting her out instead of repeating the question, I walked over to her couch and turned as I sat down so I’d still be able to see her. She fixed our drinks, picked up the cups when they were ready, and carried them over to me.

“To be honest, I didn’t need his reasoning when he told me,” she explained quietly, handing over my cup. “All he said was that he didn’t see us going anywhere. I guess I just accepted it meant that he wanted something else.”

“But he’s been contacting you on and off?”

She shrugged. “I’ve never actually told anyone about that. I haven’t taken his calls or read his texts. As far as I’m concerned, he hasn’t said a word because I haven’t spoken to him.”

“That couldn’t have been easy, to ignore someone like that.”

“It was too easy.” She exhaled a slow, long breath. “God, that makes it sound like he was telling the truth, but I swear it’s not like that. It’s just…”

Her head dropped forward and she seemed to be chewing things over before she looked up at me again, her features open and her eyes shining with sincerity.

“Ben hasn’t been in love with me for a long time.

I’m not even sure he ever was. So many nights, I waited for him to come home, but he cared more about hanging with his Wall Street bros than he ever did about me.

I used to ask myself so often if he even wanted to be in a relationship or if he was only with me to be able to say he had a girlfriend waiting for him at home. ”

My heart twisted for her, but his loss was my gain. “I knew he was a jackass as soon as I saw him. I just didn’t realize he was a stupid one.”

A rosy hue crept onto her cheeks and she smiled. “Thanks, but I don’t think he’s that stupid. I think he simply realized that he and I weren’t right for each other. By the time he told me, I was starting to realize that I wanted something else too.”

A question that had been lingering at the back of my mind ever since I’d first met her resurfaced and I nodded slowly, the pieces of the puzzle coming together.

“You wanted to quit your job and become an interior designer, so after you broke up, you spoke to your best friend who told you about the art institute here, so you decided to fly the coop and start over somewhere else.”

“Exactly,” she said, wrapping her fingers around her cup and bringing it to her lips. “The pieces just fell into place so perfectly that I knew it was the right thing. I uprooted my entire life and I’m much happier now, so I haven’t second-guessed it once.”

I felt my brow puckering. “I’m not saying I believe what he said earlier, but I am wondering how you have the ability to just… move on? How long were you with him?”

“Three years,” she said and took a small sip of her tea.

As she did, she tucked some hair behind her ear and let out a quiet sigh.

“I don’t have the ability to just move on, but I can see how it would look that way.

The fact is that I was glad when he ended things.

I wanted to be free and I thought he did too. ”

“You don’t miss him?” Fuck, haven’t you ever heard that you’re not supposed to ask questions you don’t want to hear the answers to? Shit . “You don’t have to tell me.”

She smiled and waved me off. “Ben and I never should’ve been together as long as we were.

I promised myself a long time ago that I was never going to settle in life.

I decided that if I wasn’t happy, I would change things.

There are some things worth fighting for, and to me, a good, happy life is one of those things. ”

As I stared back at her, another piece of the puzzle that was Lila Winslow snapped into place. “This is where your story comes in, isn’t it? Whatever happened when you made yourself that promise, that’s why you’re always so cheerful?”

“I’m cheerful because I lived,” she said, her voice ringing with earnestness as she looked me right in the eyes. “A lot of people don’t realize what a gift every single day is, but I do because there was a time that I wasn’t guaranteed tomorrow.”

My grip on the cup was suddenly so hard that I was afraid I would break it. I leaned over and set it down on the coffee table, not giving a shit about tea when I was finding out that there had once been a chance that I’d have lost her long before I ever knew of her existence.

“What happened?”

She drew in a big breath as she turned her head to look out at the ocean glistening under the moonlight.

Her voice was soft but calm and measured.

“When I was a little girl, I was sick. I remember so clearly just how sick I was and how hard it was on my parents. They’re these artsy, eclectic, happy people, and where I grew up in southern California, my life up until that point was all about painting, and drawing, and running on the beach.

I was homeschooled and everything was sunshine and roses until my diagnosis. ”

My heart thundered in my ears. “I’m so sorry, Lila.”

She turned back to me and I saw tears shimmering in her eyes.

“Thank you, but I’m healthy now and I have been for a long time.

I know how easily it could’ve gone the other way, though.

One failed surgery or treatment that my body didn’t respond to the way it did, and I wouldn’t have been here.

It made me acutely aware of how precious time is. ”

“Which is why you promised yourself that you would live life to the fullest,” I finished for her. “You’re not staying here tonight, not alone.”

She laughed and set her cup down, scooting closer to me on the couch and wrapping her arms around my neck. “You’ve already said that, but take me home then, soldier. I’m just about ready to be done with this day.”