Page 49 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

FORD

A few days after we’d run into Melissa, I paced outside of Lila’s school. It was a beautiful, sunny morning with clear blue skies overhead and birds chirping in the trees around the quad at the art institute where I was waiting.

Some laughter rang out from her fellow students as they hurried from one building to the other, but most of the people here seemed tense or lost in thought.

It wasn’t as busy as I imagined it got during the semester when classes were in full swing, and despite the tension on the faces of some and the relief in the laughter of others, it was a pretty peaceful atmosphere.

I tried to soak it all in, realizing that this was a part of Lila’s world that I hadn’t seen before, but I couldn’t bring myself to concentrate much on my surroundings. My gaze kept cutting back to Rook, who was standing guard at the exterior door of the building Lila had disappeared into.

The few times I’d tried calling him to where I was sitting on a bench nearby, in full view of the doors, he’d staunchly ignored me. It seemed he knew she needed his support more than I did right now.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, drawing me out of my head. I looked at the screen and saw Jared’s name written across it. Lila and I had driven directly to the institute this morning and I’d been hoping our absence would go unnoticed at the office, but obviously, it hadn’t quite happened that way.

“Hey, man,” Jared said after I’d picked up. “Where are you guys? I just swung by your office and saw you’re not here. Neither is Lila. Is she with you?”

“She is.” I swiped my tongue across my lips and glanced over at Rook again before I lifted my gaze to the sky.

Mottled sunshine filtered through the canopy of leaves above, warming my skin in the patches where it hit.

“We had to swing by the art institute. Is this urgent? We should be at the office soon, so if it can wait, I’ll handle whatever it is when we get there. ”

“We?” he echoed, and I could hear the curious amusement in his tone. “Why did you have to swing by the school with her?”

I considered dancing around the subject, but the warmth on my skin convinced me otherwise.

As did the fact that I knew it was a completely cloudless day and that the quad wasn’t as busy as it could’ve been.

All of these were things I wouldn’t have noticed just a few months ago.

If it hadn’t been for Lila, I still wouldn’t have noticed them.

Without either of us even realizing that she was doing it, she’d drawn me out of the darkness enough that I was starting to come back to life, and with every step I took, it was only getting better. I still didn’t care much for office gossip, but I was also done hiding in the shadows.

“One of her professors called her in for a meeting and she was nervous, so I came with her because we’ve been seeing each other and I wanted to support her.”

The frank admission must’ve stunned Jared into silence because for a solid minute at least, he didn’t say a word. Then he suddenly started laughing. “I knew it! Oh, man. I freaking knew there was something going on between you. Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” I said gruffly, but I’d also noticed something else that I wouldn’t have before: Jared sounded really happy for me.

I groaned and scrubbed my free hand over my face, then reached deep into some other version of myself and tried to be human about it.

“I should’ve told you earlier, but we’re still trying to figure everything out. ”

He chuckled, but there was an undertone of surprise in his voice now. “Relax, Ford. I get it. I’m just glad you’ve met someone who’s drawing you out of your shell. Let me take you out for drinks to celebrate. Both of you. How’s tonight?”

“I’m not sure. It depends on how this meeting goes. Lila is convinced that she’s either failing or getting kicked out of the program. I find both things hard to believe, but I’ll let you know once she’s done.”

“Sure thing,” he said. “I’ll see you when you get back to the office, but everything is under control here, so if you need to take the day to be there for her, I can cover you here.”

“Thanks, Jared. I appreciate that. I’ll keep you in the loop.”

We hung up just as a text came through from Dan.

I frowned. The guy gave out his number to every person who walked into a meeting in case they needed to reach out, but he didn’t usually just check in out of the blue.

At most, he sent out messages if there was a change of plans with regards to a meeting date or time, but outside of that, I’d never heard from him.

I read his message asking if I was going to be at the meeting tonight. I called instead of texting him back. It was just too odd that he was reaching out like this for me to simply text back a yes or no answer.

“Ford,” he said, sounding pleasantly surprised. “I was just checking in. You didn’t need to call.”

“Yeah, but you don’t usually check in, so what’s up?” I wrapped my free hand around the warm concrete edge of the bench, once again glancing at Rook and finding him still standing guard.

Satisfied this meant I hadn’t somehow missed Lila’s exit, I rested my weight on my hand and stretched my leg out ahead of me. There was still a very real pull in the muscle as I stretched, but overall, a little stiffness wasn’t the end of the world.

“Is everything okay over there?” I asked.

Dan chuckled. “We’re all good, but thank you for asking. You haven’t been around in a while, though. How are you?”

“Oh, right…” I trailed off, thinking back to that day in his office and how much he’d helped by giving me just a slightly different perspective to consider.

“I’m okay, actually. I know I’ve missed a few meetings and I’m sorry for not touching base.

It’s just been busy at work with several of our larger projects wrapping up and having to vet some potential new projects. ”

He hummed an understanding noise at the back of his throat. “You’re a professional and an extremely successful one at that. We understand that you won’t always be able to make it. You definitely don’t have to touch base or apologize every time you can’t. I was just starting to get worried.”

“Thanks, but surprisingly, I really am okay,” I admitted. “It finally feels like things are starting to change for me, but I’m going to do my best to be there tonight so I can tell you all about it.”

“You are?” I definitely heard surprise in his voice this time. “You’ll tell us about it?”

“Yeah, I think so.” I wet my lips with my tongue and wondered if I should be making these promises when I hadn’t ever been able to keep any in this particular arena, but I’d been thinking about it a lot and it was time.

I felt stronger than I had in years. Ready for the first time.

“I’ll be there and I will share. You can count on me. ”

“Oh, I know I can. I’m happy to hear it though, son.” He hesitated for a moment. “The other reason I was wondering whether you were going to be here tonight is because we’ve got two new guys coming in.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, my brow furrowing as I tried to work out what that had to do with me. “We’ve often got people coming and going, though.”

“Yes, but these two have both only just gotten out of the military and they could learn a thing or two from someone like you.”

They could? Like what? How not to adjust to life after war for over ten years? I’m not sure that’s a lesson they need. “Uh, sure, but I’ve never really seen myself as the mentor type.”

He chuckled. “No, but you should. You’ve had a rough time of it, but you’re still here.

You still come to most of our meetings despite fighting an uphill battle and through it all, you’ve built a tremendously successful career.

You’re someone these guys could look up to, Ford.

They’re where you were just after you got out, clueless about how to move forward and what to do with their lives now. ”

“Huh.” I frowned, so shocked that all I could do was grunt when he told me to think about it and said goodbye.

Before I could even begin to consider what he’d said, Lila walked out of the building looking completely shellshocked. Her features were completely blank, her eyes much too wide, and it didn’t look like she was even seeing where she was going.

Rook darted over to her and she reached for him absently, but I honestly wasn’t sure she even realized he was there right now. I shot to my feet and raced over to her, reaching for her bohemian skirt clad hip and wrapping my fingers around it.

“Lila?” For a second, I thought she was going to burst into tears, but then she blinked her eyes into focus and a massive grin spread on her lips as her gaze met mine.

“I didn’t fail,” she said, her voice carrying that hushed quality of someone who had been thoroughly shocked.

“I got the highest grade in my class, Ford. They’re giving me a scholarship that will pay for my entire final semester and I’m getting an award for the project.

Can you believe it? The professor said that I’m a real talent.

They didn’t kick me out. I’m going to graduate and I’m really going to become an interior designer. ”