Page 83 of Falling for a Grumpy Hero

He rolled over, adjusting his arms so he was still holding me but could look into my eyes as well. Putting his nose only an inch away from mine, he was so close that I could see the glimmer of amusement in his silvery eyes even if there was only ambient light in the room.

“You wouldn’t be in my bed if I didn’t,” he said, his tone light and easy. “It’s been a long time since I was the type of guy who let just anyone between his sheets.”

I frowned, but before I could tell him that he hadn’t really given me an answer, he chuckled and dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose. “I do, Lila. I really do like you. I just have a hard time expressing it. I’m not really a man of words, am I?”

“No, you’re not, but your actions are telling,” I murmured as I burrowed into him. “I just wanted to make sure I was reading them right.”

He pulled me closer, his arm around my waist tightening as I tucked my face into the crook of his neck. When he spoke again, he whispered the words against my forehead, his other hand firm at the small of my back.

“You’re reading them right, Lila. Whatever you think my actions are showing, you’re right. Even if I can’t quite put words to them yet.”

I felt a smile ghost across my lips as I let my eyes drift shut. He hadn’t told me that he loved me too, but he hadn’t run away again either. Ford was right here, holding me as if he would never let me go, and I had a feeling that I knew what that meant—even if he wasn’t able to say it yet.

44

FORD

Afew days after we’d run into Melissa, I paced outside of Lila’s school. It was a beautiful, sunny morning with clear blue skies overhead and birds chirping in the trees around the quad at the art institute where I was waiting.

Some laughter rang out from her fellow students as they hurried from one building to the other, but most of the people here seemed tense or lost in thought. It wasn’t as busy as I imagined it got during the semester when classes were in full swing, and despite the tension on the faces of some and the relief in the laughter of others, it was a pretty peaceful atmosphere.

I tried to soak it all in, realizing that this was a part of Lila’s world that I hadn’t seen before, but I couldn’t bring myself to concentrate much on my surroundings. My gaze kept cutting back to Rook, who was standing guard at the exterior door of the building Lila had disappeared into.

The few times I’d tried calling him to where I was sitting on a bench nearby, in full view of the doors, he’d staunchly ignored me. It seemed he knew she needed his support more than I did right now.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, drawing me out of my head. I looked at the screen and saw Jared’s name written across it. Lila and I had driven directly to the institute this morning and I’d been hoping our absence would go unnoticed at the office, but obviously, it hadn’t quite happened that way.

“Hey, man,” Jared said after I’d picked up. “Where are you guys? I just swung by your office and saw you’re not here. Neither is Lila. Is she with you?”

“She is.” I swiped my tongue across my lips and glanced over at Rook again before I lifted my gaze to the sky. Mottled sunshine filtered through the canopy of leaves above, warming my skin in the patches where it hit. “We had to swing by the art institute. Is this urgent? We should be at the office soon, so if it can wait, I’ll handle whatever it is when we get there.”

“We?” he echoed, and I could hear the curious amusement in his tone. “Why did you have to swing by the school with her?”

I considered dancing around the subject, but the warmth on my skin convinced me otherwise. As did the fact that I knew it was a completely cloudless day and that the quad wasn’t as busy as it could’ve been. All of these were things I wouldn’t have noticed just a few months ago. If it hadn’t been for Lila, I still wouldn’t have noticed them.

Without either of us even realizing that she was doing it, she’d drawn me out of the darkness enough that I was starting to come back to life, and with every step I took, it was only getting better. I still didn’t care much for office gossip, but I was also done hiding in the shadows.

“One of her professors called her in for a meeting and she was nervous, so I came with her because we’ve been seeing each other and I wanted to support her.”

The frank admission must’ve stunned Jared into silence because for a solid minute at least, he didn’t say a word. Then he suddenly started laughing. “I knew it! Oh, man. I freaking knew there was something going on between you. Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” I said gruffly, but I’d also noticed something else that I wouldn’t have before: Jared sounded really happy for me. I groaned and scrubbed my free hand over my face, then reached deep into some other version of myself and tried to be human about it. “I should’ve told you earlier, but we’re still trying to figure everything out.”

He chuckled, but there was an undertone of surprise in his voice now. “Relax, Ford. I get it. I’m just glad you’ve met someone who’s drawing you out of your shell. Let me take you out for drinks to celebrate. Both of you. How’s tonight?”

“I’m not sure. It depends on how this meeting goes. Lila is convinced that she’s either failing or getting kicked out of the program. I find both things hard to believe, but I’ll let you know once she’s done.”

“Sure thing,” he said. “I’ll see you when you get back to the office, but everything is under control here, so if you need to take the day to be there for her, I can cover you here.”

“Thanks, Jared. I appreciate that. I’ll keep you in the loop.”

We hung up just as a text came through from Dan. I frowned. The guy gave out his number to every person who walked into a meeting in case they needed to reach out, but he didn’t usually just check in out of the blue. At most, he sent out messages if there was a change of plans with regards to a meeting date or time, but outside of that, I’d never heard from him.

I read his message asking if I was going to be at the meeting tonight. I called instead of texting him back. It was just too odd that he was reaching out like this for me to simply text back a yes or no answer.

“Ford,” he said, sounding pleasantly surprised. “I was just checking in. You didn’t need to call.”

“Yeah, but you don’t usually check in, so what’s up?” I wrapped my free hand around the warm concrete edge of the bench, once again glancing at Rook and finding him still standing guard.