Page 68 of Playing with Trouble

By the time the story wrapped up and we pulled into the restaurant parking lot, my head was spinning.“I had no idea you were capable of pulling so many strings,” I said, trying to tease Ford to lighten the tightness in my chest.

Ford laughed.“Not usually.But sometimes things work out.”

And for the first time in my life…I believed that maybe thingscouldwork out for me.Not because life magically got easier.But because maybe, finally, I wasn’t doing it alone.

At dinner, there was a lightness in Christopher I hadn’t seen in months.Hell, maybe years.He still looked like someone had used his face as a punching bag, but…he was smiling.He was already talking about community college again.He admitted he’d stopped looking into enrolling because he was certain he was going to end up in jail.

That broke my heart more than anything.

“Next time you’re ever in any kind of trouble, even if it’s something smaller than this, will you please come to me?”I begged him.

“I promise,” Christopher said.

I let myself believe him.For the first time in a long time, I felt confident that everything was going to be okay.

Ford slid his arm around my shoulders in the booth and left it there for most of the meal.A few weeks ago I would have bristled and tensed.Pulled away.Made some excuse to put distance between us.

This time…I leaned into him.I finally felt like I could breathe.I was ready to see what happened next, without expecting the worst.I was ready to be…truly happy.

After dinner, we dropped Christopher off at his place and Ford headed toward his condo, a comfortable silence settling between us.Once we arrived, he parked the car and we made our way up to his place.

We walked inside, and he turned on the living room lamp before he closed the distance between us, his hands settling gently on my arms, rubbing up and down.“How are you, really?”he asked, his eyes searching my face for the truth.

How was I?I’d been running on fear and adrenaline for so long I didn’t recognize calm when it finally crept in.But it was there now, a steady sense of peace that felt like the beginning of something new.

“I…might be all right,” I admitted, honestly shocked to hear myself say it out loud.

“Good.”Ford’s palms skimmed down to our hands, entwining our fingers as he held my gaze.“Because when you’re ready…I want you to move in with me.”

I stared at him, stunned.Then something inside of me lurched—fear, excitement, disbelief—which was quickly followed by something optimistic and hopeful, and I knew I was done denying my feelings for Ford.Done fighting the one thing in my life that felt so damn right.

“And my place?”I asked carefully.

“That’s up to you,” he said, without any pressure.“You can keep it and rent it out, or you can sell it.It doesn’t matter to me, because I’m in this for the long haul no matter what you do, Violet.”

My heart swelled with the kind of emotion I’d never experienced before.His words were the kind of commitment I craved, but never believed I deserved.He wasn’t just offering me a place to live, he was offering me everything I’d never had throughout my life.Stability.Security.Consistency.

He was risking everything just to prove I mattered.

Ford didn’t think I was too much to handle.He wasn’t scared off by my sharp edges or my fears.He was a man who saw every part of me…and still chose me.

In asking me to move in with him, he was already investing in us like he believed we were forever.And for the first time in my life, I wanted to stop running and build something real with a man.With Ford.

I swallowed back all the feelings crowding in my throat so I could speak.“You know, buying that townhouse was huge for Andrea and me,” I said slowly.“I’d never had a permanent place to live and she cried when the loan was approved.Because of our father, her credit was wrecked for so long.And now with her engaged to Chase…I know she would have sold it by now if I wasn’t still living there.”

“And you?”Ford asked softly.

I gave him a tremulous smile.“I used to love that place.But after the vandalism…” I shook my head, my voice dropping a bit.“It doesn’t feel like home anymore.Every time I walk in, it feels…wrong.I don’t feel safe there.”I exhaled a deep breath and spoke from the heart.“But with you?I do.”

Ford lifted my hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it, making my heart flutter at such a romantic gesture.“Then I want you with me.Not because you need protection.Because I want a life with you.Real life.Every day.The messy parts and the good parts.”

My chest tightened as I searched his warm gaze.“What does that look like?”

“It looks like us sharing a bed every night,” he said without missing a beat, a smile quirking his lips.“You blasting music while cooking and bossing me around the kitchen.You challenging me on everything, because you don’t know how to be anything but honest.You waking up grumpy and me handing you coffee like a peace offering.”

I laughed at that, my heart doing a silly, joyful flip in my chest.

“It’s you trusting me with the parts of you no one else gets to see,” he went on, looking at me like I was his everything.“You laughing, and filling up our home with that sound.It’s late night take-out and you rolling your eyes at me when you think I’m not looking, and it’s me bending you over and spanking your ass when you sass off one too many times.”