Page 43 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

FORD

W hen I finally managed to pull myself up by my bootstraps on Monday, it was well after lunch, but I headed into the office anyway with one mission and one mission only—to see Lila and to speak to her alone.

She wasn’t at her desk when I got there, though. She wasn’t at mine either. Or in the break room, the bathroom, or at the copier.

Everyone else was around, waving as I passed or giving me small, fearful smiles before they averted their gazes, but nobody seemed to know where she’d gone until I ran into Jared. After I asked him, he pulled me aside and grimaced.

“She left for the day about thirty minutes ago,” he murmured, a somber look in his eyes. “I’m not sure what happened, but she looked pretty upset. You might want to call her.”

Shit . “She didn’t mention why at all?”

“Nope. Just that she was going home. It was pretty weird since she’s usually so talkative.”

Weird indeed. “Okay, thanks, man. I’ll talk to her.”

As I went back to my office, I sensed that something was amiss. If Lila had come in today at all, it meant that whatever had caused her to leave early didn’t have anything to do with what had happened between us over the weekend.

Setting aside everything else for the moment, I sat down behind my desk and opened my emails, intending on getting caught up before I went to track her down. As it happened, however, it didn’t take me very long at all to find out what had gone wrong.

Eliza had copied me on an email about an hour ago in which she’d pulled out of the agreement to use Lila as her interior designer. She claimed to have decided to go with somebody else, and immediately, I saw red.

Lila had been so excited about this that it broke my heart that she wouldn’t be doing the project after all. That heartbreak eradicated the anger, leaving me feeling achy inside and strangely feeling the need to comfort her.

I leaned back in my chair, taking Dan’s advice to breathe through an initial onslaught of emotion and work through it all before reacting. In the end though, I got up and headed to Jared’s office, sticking my head around his door without even going inside.

“I’m leaving,” I said. “If Lila comes back, call me immediately. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the morning.”

He frowned. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head. “I’m fine. Just call me, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” He sighed, fixing me with a look so concerned that I immediately spun around and walked away.

I got that he was worried about me and I didn’t blame him. Hell, I was worried about me and how infrequently I’d been in the office lately, but that would have to wait.

Ultimately, Lila needed me right now and my anger, indignation, or frustration about Eliza’s behavior didn’t change that. She’d been canned from the job and I knew that had to have been hard on her.

Rushing to my truck, I slid my phone out of my pocket and called her, but she didn’t pick up.

Three times in a row, I got her voicemail, and when I got to her apartment, she didn’t answer her buzzer either.

I was just about to break down the front door when a neighbor of hers came out and I acted like I had every right to be there as I nodded and caught the door behind him.

The guy didn’t look at me twice, leaving me to question her safety in the building, but now wasn’t the time for that either. When I got to her door, I banged on it until my fist was stinging, but finally, she opened up.

Her eyes were watery and red-rimmed, the tip of her nose red, and her cheeks blotchy. She was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, but she’d very obviously been crying and I hated that. I’d never seen her look anything but happy and it sucked.

“Ford?” Her eyes narrowed and she put her hands on her hips, tilting her chin up just slightly. “What are you doing here?”

“Eliza copied me on the email. I’m sorry, Lila. I?—”

She cut in sharply. “Did you only come here to rub it in my face? I get it, okay? You warned me about this and I didn’t listen. You were right.”

“Can I come in?” I asked, keeping my tone as gentle and patient as possible. “I didn’t come here to rub it in your face, but I’d like to speak to you while not standing in the hallway.”

“Why are you here then, boss? Why do you even care?” She didn’t step aside to let me in, her chin slanting a little higher as she held my gaze. “Just yesterday, you didn’t have a single word to say to me and now?—”

“Now something has happened that upset you. Of course, I care.” I moved forward and braced my hands on the door frame. “I care about you, Lila. I know I haven’t shown it as much as I could have and I realize that I owe you an apology, but I came here because I care.”

My throat tightened on the words like my body itself was rejecting the fact that I had to say them out loud. Honestly, it was harder for me to admit than it should’ve been, but emotional vulnerability had never been a strength of mine.

Lila didn’t react immediately—and also not as warmly as I might’ve liked. Her grip firmed on her hips until she was holding them so tight, her knuckles were starting to turn white. Those blue eyes widened and she arched a steep eyebrow at me.

“You care about me?” There was only the slightest lilt to her words, but not enough to make it an actual question.

I was still about to answer until she scoffed and shook her head.

“No, you don’t. You might feel guilty because you said you’d take me under your wing on this project and it didn’t work out.

Or maybe you pity me because you know how much I wanted it, but you don’t care about me. ”

My heart started thumping. She looked so convinced that she was right that it tore me up inside. Everything Dan had said to me yesterday and that I’d wanted to talk to her about came flooding into my head, but as I looked at those tear-stained cheeks, I knew now wasn’t the time.

She didn’t need to be focused on me or on what happened over the weekend. A client had wrecked her today by backing out of a contract Lila hadn’t bid for. Hadn’t asked. Eliza had begged her to take it, only to change her mind after Lila had put countless hours into perfecting the designs.

I knew how hard she’d worked. I also knew that in her mind, her career might’ve been made by this. There would always be another client and I knew that, but I realized that this had been a big blow and right now that was all that mattered.

“This isn’t easy for me,” I finally admitted, feeling sweat dot my brow. My stomach flipped. “I’m working on that, but the fact is that I do care about you. Deeply. I hate that you’re upset about this and I came over as soon as I saw the email.”

She sighed, but the honesty seemed to be working. Her grip on her hips had eased, her hands lowering to her sides. “Fine. Come on in, but you better have more than that up your sleeve.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I do.” I watched as she slowly stepped out of my way, motioning me in.

Releasing the door frame, I briefly contemplated trying to offer her a hug.

I was itching to get my arms around her and to assure her that everything would be alright, but I doubted she was ready for that.

“For what it’s worth, I really am sorry. ”

She groaned and scrubbed her palms over her face. “Thanks. So am I.”

Shutting the door behind me, she turned and waved me toward her living area. “You’re welcome to sit, but I’m going to stand. Every time I sit down, I start crying.”

I stopped walking and faced her, hooking my thumbs into the pockets of my jeans. “Have you spoken to Eliza since?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’m going to. I’m not sure what happened, but considering she sent that email after I’d sent her my final designs, I’m going to go ahead and assume she didn’t approve of the end result.”

“That’s not it.” I hadn’t spoken to her either, but I did know that she and Lila had been on the same page all along. “You two clicked right from the very beginning. I sincerely doubt she didn’t approve.”

Tears brimmed in her eyes as she shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what I thought, but obviously, we’re both wrong. Now what were you saying about caring about me?”

As she said it, she fought a smile, and once again, I had the overwhelming urge to take her into my arms. I still didn’t move toward her, though. I had a whole lot of making up to do, and since I knew she was vulnerable right now, I wasn’t about to take advantage of the situation.

“Look, this weekend was a mess. I was a mess, but I give you my word that it wasn’t because I don’t care about you. Quite the opposite, in fact, but we’ll get to that. Are you going to be okay?”

She shrugged again. “I’m sure I’ll be fine. Eventually.”

“I really wish there was something I could do about the project, but my mind is going straight to dangling Rodrigo from the rafters of his fancy house by the toenails.”

That made her laugh, at least. “That’s probably not the best idea. Not unless you want to lose the project too.”

“Can I stay a while?” I asked, shifting on my feet and wondering if perhaps I wasn’t too late after all. “We don’t have to talk about the project if you don’t want to.”

She didn’t reply immediately, her eyes just moving from one of mine to the other for a few seconds before she finally nodded. “Sure. Okay. Make yourself comfortable. Can I get you something to drink?”