Page 8 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

FORD

D ust drifted in the air in the basement of the old church where I was sitting in a meeting with some other veterans. The specks sparkled in the muted sunlight filtering in through the windows, and I watched them sway one way and then another, seemingly immune to gravity.

With the contract for Heritage House secured, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Stuck in my head, I wasn’t paying much attention to the conversations going on around me, but I was here, sitting among some of the few people in the world who could relate to own experiences.

Usually, I liked listening to their stories, but today, I was too preoccupied with the turn of events that had transpired last week.

I honestly hadn’t been expecting to be given that contract before I’d even moved out of the foyer, but after weeks of going back and forth with those clients, I had won.

My work was the only thing that had really gotten my blood flowing for a long time, and this was a job I was actually excited about. That big old house was steeped in so much history, and seeing the state of disrepair it was in had physically hurt.

Knowing I was going to get to be the one who breathed life back into it? Shit, that just about got me hard.

Just about but not quite.

The only drawback was that after spending a whole afternoon with Lila, another weight had taken the place of that weight I’d been carrying around over the contract.

While the group around me chatted over stale coffee and powdered lemonade, I thought about her and the borderline miracle she’d managed to perform with the Fierras.

Rook leaned on my leg, snubbing his nose at the other PTSD dogs in the room like usual. I stroked my hand through his thick coat, wondering not for the first time if he was such an antisocial brat because of me.

My dog and I had that in common. We didn’t like people, but I wasn’t sure if he’d started out that way or if he’d simply decided that my way of doing things was better. He really did think he was human, so he might actually have taken on some of my personality traits.

“Thank you, everybody,” Joey, the guy who ran our group, said as he nodded at us. “That’s it for today.”

A general humdrum of chatter went up and guys stood, shaking each other’s hands and talking as they ventured off to the coffee station. I followed them there to grab a refill before I headed out, not talking to anyone as Rook trotted at my side.

I felt someone moving in on me and my gaze snapped up immediately, my senses sharpening on an instinct I didn’t really need anymore but couldn’t seem to shake.

Taylor, a dark-haired dude a little younger than me, was coming closer.

He grinned when he caught my eye. “Ford, what’s up, man? Didn’t feel like sharing today?”

I shrugged. For the last six months, I’d been attending these meetings religiously, hoping they might help with some of the issues I’d been having, but I’d never really spoken much. “I guess I was just in the mood to listen.”

Taylor chuckled. The guy was a talker. He’d been through hell just like the rest of us, but he was a lot more open about it than most. He inclined his chin, his eyes soft and happy, but understanding.

“I get it. It took me about eight months before I started talking, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. You should try it. It helps.”

“Thanks, but I haven’t hit the eight-month mark yet. Maybe I’ll feel differently then. I’m fine for now.”

“Alright.” He gave me a smile, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans, but he didn’t turn and walk away.

Clearly, he had something else to say. “Uh, you won’t believe this, but your name came up in a conversation I was part of the other day.

It turns out that my girlfriend’s best friend has started working for you. ”

“Lila,” I concluded easily, feeling my insides tighten. “Why was she talking about me?”

He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder like an old friend. “It was nothing bad, man. They were just talking about her new job and her new boss. Lila only just recently moved here, but she went to college with Addy, my girlfriend. They were just catching up.”

The gears in my brain turned. If his girlfriend had been friends with Lila for that long, she must know how the girl had ended up here and I was still curious about her. More so than ever before after what had happened with the Fierras.

“Yeah, I heard she was new in town.” I dug deep to that long-buried part of me that had known how to just chat with people. “Any idea how she ended up in Virginia Beach, of all places?”

Fuck. Real smooth, Ford. You really eased into it there, buddy. Shit, I really am rusty with this small talk thing.

Taylor blinked back surprise, as if he was having a hard time believing that I had said so many words all at once, but then he grinned and gave a little shrug.

“Ah, it’s nothing you probably don’t know about already, but she got accepted to the art institute here after Addy mentioned it was such a good school.

She’s always been the type to follow her heart, and after the breakup, her heart led her here. ”

My interest was piqued when he mentioned a breakup, but before I could ask—not that I knew why I even wanted to pump him for more information—his phone chimed. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked it, shooting me an apologetic smile when he lifted his gaze back to mine.

“I have to head out, but it was good talking to you, brother.” He paused for a beat. “Remember what I said about sharing. I know it feels like you’re going against the grain at first, but once you start, it gets easier and, uh, it really does help. I think you’ll be surprised.”

Without another word, he clapped me on the shoulder again and turned to leave, almost immediately falling into a new conversation with a guy who was also on his way out.

Their laughter drifted over to me and I squinted at their backs for a moment, really not understanding how they were both so happy. Carefree.

All I knew right now was that I was probably the most poorly adjusted guy in our group and I’d been back stateside for a decade. Some of these guys were much younger and had returned much more recently, but for the most part, they seemed to be doing okay.

I shook my head and decided against the coffee refill when Rook nudged my leg with his nose. Glancing down at him, I nodded and started toward the door. “Yeah, buddy. I hear ya. Let’s get out of here.”

Taylor was climbing into his truck when I reached the parking lot, the faint sounds of a female voice coming from his speakers drifting over to me. That has to be Addy. The girlfriend.

I was really tempted to head over there and ask him if I could talk to her. She probably had all the information I could ever want about Lila, but that was insane. The girl had been in my head ever since our meeting at Heritage House—and that had been a week ago.

I needed to stop thinking about her so much, not go digging for information that would give me even more to think about.

Crossing the dimly lit parking lot as the sun set, I opened the back door of my truck for Rook and he jumped in, immediately spreading his big body out across the entire seat and getting comfortable.

“Yeah, okay. I’m just your chauffeur, I know.” I chuckled to myself and climbed in behind the wheel, backing out of my parking spot and pointing the truck in the direction of home.

As I drove, however, my assistant drifted back into my mind and I groaned, but she really had made an impression with the Heritage House thing. I couldn’t deny that.

Rook finally sat up behind me, watching the street with his head resting in front of the closed window. I’d open it for him once we got to our neighborhood, but for now, he would just have to deal with it.

I rolled to a stop at a traffic light and Rook suddenly started barking frantically. Instantly on alert, I looked around just in time to see a woman starting across the crosswalk on her bicycle, but there was a car racing toward her, running the red light.

Slamming my fist down on the horn, I watched with ice forming in my veins. He swerved and missed her—narrowly—but just kept speeding off, oblivious to what was happening behind him. The woman tipped over, spilling the contents of her basket all over the intersection and Rook was still going wild.

“Good boy,” I murmured to him, as grateful as always that he’d been so well trained. He might be as grumpy and pessimistic as I was, but he sure knew how to spot danger.

Immediately pulling over to the side of the road, I jumped out to help the woman. She was a sitting duck in the middle of a busy intersection as darkness fell.

Rook followed me out with a low growl, both of us jogging over to the scene. As the woman finally looked up, I realized that it was Lila. God, why can’t I get away from her? How is she everywhere all of a sudden?

She was at the office, in my head, and now, I was even seeing her on my way home from a damn meeting. “Lila? Are you okay?”

She blinked those cornflower blue eyes at me a few times, her lids moving slowly for the first few seconds before she nodded. “I think so. Where did you come from?”

I tipped my head toward the truck. “Traffic. Come on. Let’s go. You’re going to get run over. What the hell were you thinking, riding out in front of that car?”

She frowned and I shook my head but bent over to help her gather some paperwork that had spilled from her binder. As I shuffled them into a bundle, I realized they were sketches—and pretty impressive ones at that.

“Are you seriously trying to blame me for this?” she asked, sounding dumbfounded. “The light was red for that guy, Ford. He’s the one in the wrong.”

“Yeah, but you need to be more aware of your surroundings,” I said gruffly, turning to offer her my hand after I’d collected everything.

While I’d been doing that, she’d sat up and I spotted blood on her knee. Road rash. Crap.