Page 7 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

She sighed. “All he said was that he didn’t see your relationship going anywhere. Haven’t you ever wondered why he said that when you were living together at the time? It had already gone somewhere.”

I chuckled. “Will you please stop worrying so much about all of this? I’m fine, Addy. I promise.”

“How?” she asked, sounding desperately disbelieving. “How can that possibly be true? Absolutely everything in your life has changed in the last couple months and you expect me to believe you’re just... okay with it?”

“I am okay with it,” I said, eyes locked intently on hers. “Ben wasn’t the one for me. I honestly believe our breakup was meant to happen. I’m moving on to better things, Ads.”

“Like a job with a complicated man?”

I smiled. “Well, that, and hopefully, I’ll find real love eventually too. The kicking-your-feet, giggling kind of love that I never would’ve had with Ben.”

“You’re sure you never would’ve had it with him?”

I arched an eyebrow at her. “Sex isn’t meant to be boring and mechanical. It should be wild, and passionate, and fun, and meaningful, and everything else. The same applies to life. Neither sex nor life were anything like that with him.”

Finally, she exhaled a deep breath and giggled. “Yeah, okay. You might have a point about that, but what about your job? Are you going to be able to work for someone so complicated?”

“It was a weird first week with him,” I admitted, just letting myself say whatever words came to mind without overthinking them. “I am the complete opposite of Ford Callahan. He’s like a dark cloud hanging over me and I don’t think he’s ever smiled in his life. Honestly, he seems completely miserable.”

Her brow puckered. “Well, maybe that’s why he’s such a thundercloud. Maybe he is miserable.”

“How can he be?” I countered, having had this argument with myself a fair amount of times since I’d met him. “He’s built an incredibly successful company, he has a really cool job helping people restore gorgeous old homes, and he probably makes good money. Something is definitely off about him, though.”

Something that made me insanely curious about him. What I hadn’t mentioned to Addy, and I wasn’t going to, was that he was also utterly, devastatingly gorgeous. How could a successful, beautiful man who got to do work he was passionate about every damn day, be so sad? I just really didn’t get it.

As Addy opened her mouth to respond, her gaze suddenly darted to something over my shoulder and judging by the radiant grin that broke out on her lips, Taylor had come to join us. I twisted in my seat and yep, there was he was, her raven-haired lover with the kind eyes.

She waved at him before she turned back to me. “If you think something is off about him, just be careful, okay?”

“Who are you guys talking about?” Taylor asked before he dropped into the seat beside Addy’s and bent over to lay a quick, but hard kiss on her.

They shared a moment before he turned back to me. “If you have to be careful of a guy, it’s best to just call it off, Lila.”

“Oh, I know, but it’s nothing like that. We’re talking about my boss. Ford Callahan. He’s just a bit grumpy, is all.”

Recognition sparked in Taylor’s eyes when I said Ford’s name. “Ford Callahan. Early thirties, dark hair, that Ford Callahan?”

I nodded. “Do you know him?”

He shrugged and slid an arm around Addy’s shoulders, glancing at her before bringing his gaze to mine. “I wouldn’t say that I know him, but I know who he is.”

Addy frowned. “What do you mean?”

Taylor rolled his eyes at her and bent over to press a kiss to the tip of her nose. “He’s in that veterans’ group for marines I meet with twice a month.”

I blinked slowly. I hadn’t known Ford had been in the military, but I had known Taylor had been a marine before becoming a teacher. I’d always wondered how he had made it through, but Ford definitely had the personality for it.

Addy smiled. “Oh, right. That makes sense. What’s the tea on him, then?”

He chuckled. “Even if I knew, I wouldn’t give you much, but Ford is a pretty reserved guy. Mostly keeps to himself.”

“So he’s weird with you guys too?” I asked, much too relieved that it wasn’t just me or the people in the office he was so cold to.

Taylor didn’t smile this time, though, which made trepidation trickle through me. He always smiled, but now, he seemed strangely sad. “Ford’s not weird, Li. He was in a helicopter crash overseas and it was really bad. I don’t know the details. All I know is that Callahan was medically discharged after.”

A profound sense of sadness grew like a mantle around my heart. If that was true, my boss’s less than sunny disposition suddenly made a lot more sense.

I can’t assist him properly if I don’t know what I’m dealing with, I told myself as I looked him up later that night after I got home from the bar. Disappointingly, however, there was very little about him online other than stuff pertaining to his business. He also didn’t appear to have any social media profiles, which was seriously odd.