Page 46 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

LILA

“ F ord wants me to redecorate his house.” I couldn’t stop thinking about that moment when I’d realized what he was asking me to do, and it felt even more unbelievable now that I had said it out loud. “He said I could choose the colors and everything.”

Addy and I had met up to shop for a dress for an event she had coming up at work, and she twisted to face me as we strolled through the mall. Her eyes had gone wide and a big grin was spreading her lips. “Please tell me you’re going to do it. Are you going to do it?”

“I think so.” I had been itching to make that house feel like a home since the first time I’d seen it, but I was struggling to process that he’d actually asked me to do it. “Am I crazy for even considering this?”

She chuckled. “No. At least, I don’t think you are.”

“I don’t think I am either, but I’m kind of scared I screw it up, and then what? He’s still my boss. He’s also my… something else. What if he doesn’t like what I do with the place?”

She shrugged. “You’re not building his house, Li. If he doesn’t like something, he can always change it. It’s not like it’ll mean breaking down an entire building.”

“No, I know, but I guess I’m just nervous.” I sighed. “Things have been a little weird between us for the last couple weeks and now this? I feel like there’s a message in him asking me to do it, but I don’t know what it is.”

We veered toward the boutique she’d taken me to before. Glancing at me, she frowned. “Weird how? Are you guys getting serious? Because the message might be that he’s thinking of asking you to move in with him and he wants the place to feel like yours before he does.”

I shook my head. “I really, really like him, but I’m not sure he feels the same. That’s why it’s been weird. I might’ve said something in the heat of the moment that I shouldn’t have and he… didn’t respond very positively.”

She gave my arm a reassuring squeeze. “Maybe he just needed some time to work through it. I still think he’s obsessed with you. What’s your gut telling you?”

“That all arrows are pointing to this being more than just a fling or a casual crush for him too,” I admitted after pausing for a beat. “Were things ever this difficult for you and Taylor?”

Addy paused as we walked into the store, contemplating the question.

She exhaled a long, heavy breath. “Every couple has their challenges, especially at the beginning when you’re still trying to feel each other out and figure out what you have, but Taylor wasn’t involved in a helicopter crash that took out everyone else in his unit. ”

“Fair enough.” I just really wished I knew how to help Ford heal from that, but I honestly didn’t know if a person really ever could. “Maybe I should go to another support group meeting. Maybe the folks there will know what to do.”

She reached for my hand and held it for a beat.

“If you ask me, you should just keep doing what you’re doing.

Taylor told me that even the guys in the group are seeing changes in Ford.

I know it might not feel like you’re helping him, but you are.

You just need to keep letting him take the lead and make progress at his own pace. ”

I looked into her eyes and saw the sincerity there, and I realized that she was right.

I didn’t need to lead him out of the darkness.

I just needed to be there by his side while he found his own way.

Telling him that I loved him had been a slip, but that day when he’d come to my apartment after Eliza’s email, he’d said that he cared about me deeply and I had believed him because I’d seen how much he’d meant it.

All I had to do was be patient, be present, and keep trucking.

I nodded at my friend. “You know what? You’re right.

In the greater scheme of things, he and I aren’t doing badly.

I said something I shouldn’t have. He freaked out a bit, but he was still there for me when the crap hit the fan, and we’re moving past it. ”

“Good.”

I grinned. “Then let’s go shopping.”

I pumped my eyebrows and pulled her to the section of the store where so many gorgeous dresses were just waiting for her to give one a home. Feeling encouraged and much calmer, I took my time helping her find the perfect outfit, and later, I headed over to Ford’s house.

After his meeting with Jared—which had lasted way more than just a few minutes—he’d seemed exhausted and I’d suggested we spend the night in rather than going out to dinner.

He hadn’t said anything about it, but I’d seen him favoring the uninjured leg and I was still concerned about the knee replacement surgery the physical therapist had promised him if he didn’t behave.

Thankfully, he’d agreed, and once I’d told him I was going shopping with Addy and would come over when we were done, he’d headed home.

As I pushed my bike up his drive, my phone chimed with an incoming email and my heart shot like a rocket into my throat when I saw that it was from the art institute.

I’d turned in my final project and I’d been waiting for the grades to be posted. I had one more semester ahead of me at the institute before I’d receive my certificate, but now, my professor wanted to meet with me in a few days.

Oh no. Were my designs that bad? Are they kicking me out? Is my grade so low that they’re not even going to bother posting it?

Ford took one look at my face after I’d knocked on his door, then his arms were around me and he was crushing me against him, warm, and strong, and steady. “What’s wrong, baby? What happened? Just tell me who to beat up and I’ll go right now.”

I chuckled, but the sound was nervous and half-hysterical. “My professor. You can’t beat him up, though. He just wants a meeting.”

Slowly releasing me, he took my hand and led me into his house, taking me to the living room and sitting me down on the couch before he gave me a questioning look.

Clad in another one of his soft, faded Marines T-shirts, a pair of jeans, and his feet bare, he looked so handsome, so calm, and so in control again that it was difficult to even remember how worried I’d been about coming back here after the way I’d left last time.

All that dark hair was only slightly mussed after the day.

His jaw was sporting only the barest five o’clock shadow and his gaze was completely clear and unwavering.

“Why are you so worried about this meeting? I feel like I’m missing a part of this puzzle.

You looked like you’d seen three ghosts when I opened the door. ”

“I think I failed the final project,” I admitted on a harsh whisper, my heart sinking to my knees.

I stared up into those eyes. His strong, steady presence and that calm gaze were the only things keeping me together as I spilled my deepest fears to him.

“I turned in the designs I did for Heritage House last week and we’re supposed to be getting our grades, not being called in for meetings. ”

Ford lowered himself to his haunches right in front of me and I glanced at his knee on instinct, worry about him reinjuring himself racing to the front of my mind.

He took my hands in a firm grip. “Before you let this distract you from what I’m about to say, you should know that I’m fine.

This doesn’t hurt, and if it did, I would have just sat down next to you. ”

“But I saw you?—”

“I sat with it at a funny angle while I was looking things over with Jared at the conference table earlier. It got a little stiff, but I stayed off it for the rest of the afternoon and it’s fine again now.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” He smiled and squeezed my hands before lifting them to his mouth to brush the barest of kisses over my knuckles.

My heart started doing excited flip flops, but I kept my mouth shut, determined to stay the course. Just like I’d promised Addy I would.

He looked right into my eyes, still without a hint of alarm or panic in his.

“I don’t know this professor of yours, but if you failed the final project based on those designs, then he has no business teaching anyone anything.

I’ve worked with a lot of designers in my time and those were, objectively speaking, some of the best first drafts I’ve ever seen. ”

“First drafts?” I winced. “That’s not good.”

He groaned. “It’s great, Lila. Clients are always going to have tweaks here and there, but what you did was capture precisely what she wanted, and you nailed your brief on the first round. At most, I expect she may have wanted to change tiny details, but outside of that, they were perfect.”

I knew I was showing him the anxious side of my personality, but I couldn’t help it. My pulse was thrumming, fear snaking through me like it’d turned my bloodstream into rivulets of doom. “Would you have told me if you hated them?”

“Yes.”

I arched an eyebrow at him, needing to know that he was telling the truth. “Are you sure?”

“Do I look like I have enough emotional intelligence not to simply be straight with people?”

So surprised that I chuckled, I finally wrapped my fingers around his, staring into those eyes and wondering how he always made everything feel okay.

Even during those times when I knew he was wrecked inside, like that night after we’d come back from the block party.

I’d known something wasn’t right, but he’d still managed to make me feel like it would be.

“You have far more emotional intelligence than you think, Ford Callahan. I’m still going to be a nervous wreck tonight, though.”

“How about we go out after all?” he suggested. “We could go see a movie or something to take your mind off the meeting that I know isn’t for them to tell you that you failed the final project.”

I exhaled a deep breath and nodded. “Reluctantly, yes. Let’s do it.”

For just another beat, we remained exactly as we had been, with him sitting on his haunches in front of me, holding my hands and looking into my eyes.

In that moment, I seriously considered just telling him how I felt.

Letting him know that I hadn’t just blurted it out in the heat of the moment and that I’d meant it.

But it kind of felt like there was something else he wanted to say too.

Instead though, he rose to his feet and pulled me with him.

He took me to see a hilarious rom-com. Under ordinary circumstances, he would have rather stuck a fork through his eye than to watch it, but he seemed happy enough to be with me.

All the while, I was torn between anxiety, the movie, and wondering if I should’ve told him how I felt. I was still torn when we stopped at a grocery store on the way back to his place to grab some late night snacks.

We were debating the comfort value of string cheese versus regular cheese when he suddenly slammed to a stop right in the middle of the aisle.

Every last bit of color drained from his cheeks as he stared at a woman who had just turned onto our aisle.

His entire body suddenly locked as tight as Fort Knox.

The woman was a petite blonde with a sweet smile and flushed cheeks. I frowned, unable to see why her appearance would’ve caused him to react so viscerally. Finally, I decided to just ask. “Ford, are you okay? Do you know her?”

At that moment, the woman looked up from the grocery list in her hands and saw him, her jaw practically hitting the ground as recognition flickered through her eyes. “Ford? Oh, my God. Is that really you?”