Page 39 of Hello Trouble
HAYES
My cheeks were hot as we pulled up to my dad’s house, Della and the fluffball, Chopper, sitting in the passenger seat in... matching T-shirts. The woman was a wizard because she had me in a matching shirt, too.
It made her smile too much to say no.
Thank God Dad had just invited Della and me over for dinner, because if my brothers saw this, I’d never hear the end of it.
Della squeezed my hand and said, “Nervous for me to meet your dad?”
“No, I’m nervous for him to see me in this shirt,” I retorted, gesturing at the light blue tee that matched Chopper’s. “And he already knows you.”
Della shook her head. “He knows me as Della, a family friend and insurance agent. Not as Della, Hayes’s girlfriend.”
My lips quirked at the sound of that. “Girlfriend?”
Her cheeks flushed in the cutest way, making her freckles fade amongst all the red. “Sorry, I didn’t mean?—”
“Don’t apologize,” I said, turning to her. “I like the sound of that.”
She smiled. “So I should call you boyfriend?”
“Call me anything you want,” I replied, kissing her cheek. “I’m yours.”
She smiled sweetly. “Aw, I like sentimental Hayes.”
Now my cheeks were getting hot again. “Don’t tell anyone. I’ve got a reputation to maintain.”
She scooped Chopper in her arms, reaching for her door. “I think the shirt already took care of that.” She laughed wickedly, and I reached to tickle her side, but she escaped, running toward the front door of the house as I chased her.
Damn, when did she get so fast?
“I’m around here!” Dad called from the patio on the side of the house.
Della let out a peal of laughter and darted around the house with the dog. “Hey, Gray!”
I caught up just in time to see Dad grinning at her and waving his spatula. Then his eyes slid over to me, and he snorted out a laugh.
“Dad!” I protested.
But he shook his head and said, “Who’s the little guy?”
Della waved his little white paw. “This is Chopper.”
Dad’s eyes crinkled with his smile as he leaned in and scratched the puppy’s neck. “He’s so cute. Why give him such a tough name?”
I said, “So the other dogs don’t bully him for his shirt.”
Della gave me a look while my dad snorted with laughter. That was the agreement—I picked the name and she picked his outfits, and by extension, our outfits.
Della said, “Let me test that theory and introduce him to your dog, Gray.”
She took him out to the yard, gently getting the puppy acquainted with dad’s older dog. When she was far enough away, I looked to Dad and said, “Don’t say it.”
He flipped the steaks on the grill and then shut the lid. “Say what?”
I gave him a look. But he smiled gently, looking between me and my woman, sitting in the yard with the two dogs.
He clapped my shoulder and said, “I was going to say that I’ve never seen you so happy.”
I smiled at that because despite the stupid shirt, I was happy in a way I’d never thought I could be or even thought to hope for. I didn’t know this kind of happiness existed before I gave in to my feelings for Della.
“I am happy,” I said. “She’s the one.”
Dad nodded, a glistening smile on his lips. “I see it in your eyes.”
My throat felt tight as I nodded. But I was also terrified.
She held my heart, my happiness, in her hands.
Something I’d never given another person.
And I somehow had to trust that she wouldn’t let me go.
Wouldn’t look at me with all my flaws and my past and decide she deserved better or wanted different.
“How do you walk around every day with your heart outside your chest?” I asked Dad.
He offered a wry smile. “I don’t think you get a choice not to.”
Della pressed up from the ground, leaving Chopper and Dad’s dog playing an admittedly cute game of tug-of-war. She came up to me smiling and said, “They’ll be BFFs soon.”
Dad chuckled, saying, “I’m surprised the old boy is playing along. He’s a crotchety old bastard.”
“Chopper has special powers. He even warmed this guy’s iron will.” She patted my chest, and I easily slipped my arm around her waist. It felt as natural as breathing.
“It wasn’t fair,” I muttered. “Not with the both of you giving me puppy-dog eyes.”
Dad checked the steaks again and determined it was time for us to eat. We spent the rest of the evening sitting on the patio, eating, drinking, and chatting. It didn’t feel like bringing a girlfriend home—it felt like spending an evening with family.
In that moment I realized that Della was becoming family to me, our lives fitting together like the gears of a newly built engine, one we had to custom make to be just right for the two of us.
When she started yawning, we left Dad’s place, and she insisted that we get Chopper set up at my house.
I wanted her to stay at my place, wanted her in my bed, but I also cherished this time of getting to know her without sex. And that’s when it hit me, the reason I’d been holding back. Yes, I wanted to take things slow, but it was more than that.
I didn’t want to have sex with Della. I wanted to make love.
I had to get the courage to tell her how I felt first.
Because knowing how I felt and saying it out loud were two completely different things. Especially when I didn’t know if Della felt the same way about me. Or if all this trust I was placing in her would be the end of me.