Page 38 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

“Don’t be honored.” She laughed. “Be my designer. You and I understand each other, darling. You’re an artist at heart. I’ve known it all along and I want to work with you regardless of whether you’ve got a certificate saying you can do it.”

“I’m sure that there are plenty of qualified designers that you could⁠—”

“I’ve already spoken to them,” she said flippantly, as if it didn’t even really matter. “No one else’s vision has come close to yours and yours is what I want. What I was envisioning. Please say yes?”

We were interrupted by her phone ringing and she smiled. “Excuse me. I should take this.”

She didn’t leave the table, simply leaning back in her seat as she picked up the device and pressed it to her ear after sliding her thumb across the screen. “I’m still in that meeting, honey.”

Her face dropped at whatever was being said by the person on the other end of the line—presumably Rodrigo. Horror slackened her jaw before she blinked hard. “My God, that’s awful. I’ll be right home. Have you called 911?”

My heart started pounding as I listened to her. It sounded like something had gone wrong at the site. Like someone had gotten hurt. She paused for a beat and my stomach went ice cold, my hands developing a tremor out of sheer terror.

“Alright.” She twisted in her seat, her phone pressed between her ear and her shoulder. She rummaged through her purse. Coming back with her wallet, she opened it and slid a few bills out. “Okay. I’m on my way.”

After she hung up, she gave me an apologetic smile. “One of the workers at the house got hurt. It’s being taken care of, but I should go. Think about my offer. I want you and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

“Who is it? Who got hurt?” I asked urgently, shooting up when she stood. “Do you mind if I catch a ride with you? If it’s one of our people, I should be there.”

My senses were tingling and I quickly fell into step beside her when she nodded. We raced to her car, worry etched into the lines of her face. She turned over the engine and finally glanced at me once we were on the road.

“I don’t know who it is, darling,” she said quietly. “All I know is that it sounds like chaos over there and whoever it is doesn’t want the paramedics to treat them.”

A cold sweat broke out across my forehead. Ford was on that job site and he wouldn’t give a shit if someone refused to receive care. He’d insist that they be taken care of anyway, which meant…

I was in shambles by the time we arrived, but as I’d expected, it was him who had been hurt. He was sitting down, waving off several other men who were trying to tend to him as an ambulance left, unhurried and with the lights off.

The knots in my stomach tightened and I jumped out of the car before Eliza had even come to a complete stop, almost tripping over my own feet in my rush to get to him. Frantic with worry, I raced over, laser-focused on his ashen face and the figure he cut sitting on that step, hunched over and barking at everyone around him.

“Are you okay?” I asked, skidding to a stop when I came close enough. “What happened?”

He looked up at me with pain in his eyes, but his voice was deadpan. “Why are you here?”

I ignored his question, my gaze raking all over him. Bile shot up the back of my throat when I noticed a shiny, darker patch where blood was soaking through his Carhartt work pants. My hands trembled and my heart was absolutely pounding, but I took the last couple steps closer to him on shaky legs and bent over to roughly grab the truck keys half hanging out of his pocket.

“Can you walk?” I snapped and straightened up with his keys biting into the palm of my hand. “Because we’re leaving. I’m taking you to the emergency room whether you want to go or not.”

20

FORD

Itried refusing to go to the emergency room. It was just a scratch, even if it was the same leg that I’d hurt in the accident years ago and it was throbbing and aching all over again.

Lila, in turn, had refused to listen to me, so here I was, sitting in a snug exam room at a local urgent care and she was right next to me. Her foot tapped incessantly against the sterile white tiles on the floor and she glared at the smart watch on her wrist, harsh sighs coming out of her every so often.

To an outsider, we probably looked like an old married couple, with me being the senile old man and her being the wife who knew everything about him and had to go to all his appointments to explain his history. I grimaced at the thought, but at the same time, it was kind of nice not to be waiting for the doc to come back all alone.

Alone was how I’d gone through it the last time I’d hurt this leg. It was part of the reason I hadn’t wanted to see the inside of an examination room ever again.

The cold fluorescent lights flickering above and the slightly sweet scent of the antiseptic chemicals brought back way too many memories. I kept waiting for a flashback. A stab of terror so real that my bones would lock up.

But it didn’t come.

Every time the edges of my vision started blurring, Lila would somehow bring me out of it. This time, she did it by suddenly shooting to her feet and muttering under her breath as she paced the short stretch in front of the bed I was sitting on.

“This is ridiculous.” She twisted the edges of her braid around her fingers, her brow puckered. She glanced at the closed curtain blocking the hallway from view. “How long does it take to read an x-ray? Where are they?”

“They’re working. Unlike us.” Pain pulsed in my leg and I clenched my jaw to keep from snapping at her about the fact that we had better things to do. “They’ll be here soo⁠—”