Page 76 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

“Rook hates the beach,” I said before I’d even thought about it, shutting up as soon as I realized what I’d just said.

Ford frowned at me. “How do you know?”

Shit. Crap. Carefully giving him a shrug I hoped was nonchalant, I glanced at the dog burrowing into my side. “I don’t know for sure. I just feel like he’s not beachy.”

“Well, let’s do it anyway.” He abandoned his coffee and got up, holding my gaze as he slowly extended a hand toward me.

For a moment, I considered leaving him hanging. Despite the fact that we were talking, we still hadn’t discussed anything that had happened on Saturday. I kind of felt like that was going to become an elephant in the room now that we’d spoken about the Heritage House catastrophe, but I still placed my palm in his and let him pull me up.

Sparks shot across my skin at the contact, so intense that I almost groaned, but I bit it back. I was so gone for this guy. So utterly attracted to him, mind, body, and soul, and yet, I still wasn’t sure how he felt about me. It made for a pretty nerve-wracking situation, but I held his hand on our way out the door, trying to take comfort in Rook’s nails clacking on the tiles behind us.

He didn’t release my hand when we reached the elevator or the lobby, simply maneuvering himself out of my way so I could precede him in and out of doors. Then we were on the sidewalk, the warm afternoon sunshine on our faces and still he held on to me. When we reached the beach, I suddenly remembered that he was still injured. I turned to ask him if it would be safer to stay on the promenade, but as I watched him walk, I realized he wasn’t limping anymore.

“How’s the leg?” I asked. “You seem to be moving around a little easier.”

“I’m fine. I’ve been hurt much worse and I made it through that. I’ll make it through this, too.” Humor lit behind his eyes and he bumped his hip into mine. We made our way onto the sand. “Would you still hang out with me if I needed knee replacement surgery?”

I chuckled at the joke but shrugged. “Yeah, I think so. Only after you got out of the wheelchair, though. I’m not strong enough to lift you in and out of something like that. I’d need back replacement surgery if I tried.”

He laughed softly, but the truth was that I’d hang out with him any time, under any circumstances, for the rest of my life if he’d let me. I really was madly in love with him, but I had no clue how he’d react if I just said it.

It hadn’t gone particularly well for me the last time I’d blurted it out, but as we sat down together on the warm sand, the azure blue ocean in front of us, waves gently lapping at the shore and seagulls circling overhead, I was almost lulled into trying again.

Just as I was about to broach the subject, however, Ford pulled his knees up to his chest, draping his arms loosely around them and then glancing at Rook. “Stop being lazy and go make some friends, boy.”

Other dogs were running all over, chasing gulls, sticks, and each other, having a complete ball of a time, but Rook responded by dropping his head into my lap and shutting his eyes. Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and take that as a sign. This isn’t the right time to tell him.

Ultimately, I’d promised myself I would let Ford take the lead and go at a pace he was comfortable with. When I’d failed to do that, he’d shut down on me completely. I wouldn’t risk it again. I loved him too much to push him and I knew he wasn’t ready for this. All I could do was hope that someday he finally would be.

40

FORD

Aweek after Eliza had ditched Lila as her designer, I pulled up to Heritage House, feeling much better than I had last weekend. I was back to going through the motions, tying up loose ends on all my summer projects and working hard on sorting out my head.

Structural work on Heritage House was almost complete though, and that would be a big day for me. Soon, the general contractors would be taking over to finish up, and since CE was nearly done with this job, Lila had decided to hang back at the office, choosing instead to work on some of my other projects rather than coming out here with me.

I didn’t blame her. I loved this house and my team had done an excellent job, but I was more than ready for it to be over. Even Eliza had removed herself from actively working on the house, evidently choosing peace in her marriage over getting involved anymore. I didn’t blame her, either.

While work had continued as originally agreed from a CE perspective, the project had turned into an insufferable shit show as a result of Rodrigo’s grandstanding. Frankly, the roof could fall on his head at this point and no one would give a damn.

After crunching up the drive, I parked in a spot next to the front steps and sighed as I looked up at the grand old manor. It really was a beautiful place. Pity it belongs to such a prick now.

Shaking my head at the injustice of the fact that a historic masterpiece like this was now in the hands of a person who would never let the public come near it, I opened the door and climbed out of the truck. Rook had come with me, and as soon as Rodrigo appeared on the porch to welcome us, Rook growled.

His hackles rose and he bared his teeth. I slid my hand onto his neck, gently holding him as I muttered under my breath, “Easy, boy. I don’t like him either, but we can’t attack him. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way life goes sometimes.”

Rook whined like he understood what I’d said, settling down. He trotted up the steps at my side. Rodrigo didn’t smile or offer me a handshake when I reached him. “This is our final walkthrough together, right?”

I nodded. “The general contractor will be here in a few days to start his phase of the project. I’ll sign off on the work my team has done and that’ll be the end of our involvement.”

“Well,” he said gruffly, leading us in and immediately pointing up at the roof. “Those ceiling boards aren’t the same color as those in the older parts of the house.”

“They’re new,” I said slowly, but then I realized that he was just going to nitpick the whole way through. “You know what? I’ll make a note of it. Maybe the contractor can paint them for you.”

He grunted and kept walking without looking back to check if Rook and I were following. “Some of the floorboards squeak.”

I didn’t bother telling him that we hadn’t repaired the floor in the area where we were walking right now, simply jotting down the concern. Rodrigo jerked his chin at a wall in the kitchen. “I don’t like that one. We should’ve moved it. You should’ve told us to move it.”