Ford offered Callie his hand to help her up into his truck.
"I'm so sorry he's like that," she started in as soon as he was settled.
"Hey, what have I told you about apologizing for things you have no control over?"
"But he's just so awful. He does things like that just to be an ass. He loves making people uncomfortable." She eyed Ford cautiously for a split second. "I don't even know who that Chad guy is, or how my father knows him."
"He's the idiot I caught in my bed with Meritt. He's friends with your old man, so I have no doubt Abe knows he's not a PETA rep. And don't worry, I'd gotten a new mattress before I let you sleep there."
Callie hid her face in his hands. "I am so, so sorry."
Since he hadn't yet put the truck in drive, he ran his fingertips under her chin, reveling in that silky soft skin, and tipped her head back up to look at him. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn't have anything to do with any of it."
He fought the desperate urge to demand to know about Derrick. He'd seen the name on her phone screen. The asswipe still hadn't gotten it through his head that they were over. The idea that Derrick might be trying to get her back flooded Ford with possessive ire. But she wasn't his to claim. Yet.
"My father isn’t all I have to apologize over. I know you saw who was calling me. I swear to you I have tried everything I can think of to get Derrick to understand that I'm not coming back to California. And even if I was, I don't ever want to see him again. He just won't listen to me. I've called over and over again. I'm shocked he called me back. I even wrote him this long email spelling everything out in short readable sentences. I thought surely if he saw it in black and white, he'd get it through his thick head. But I don't think he's even opened the email."
Keeping her face cradled in his hand, he tried to sort through the endless complications now associated with this date. "If you need to talk to him, sweetness, I understand."
A tender smile played at the corners of her mouth, and she shook her head. "I've been talking to him for years. Nothing I say is going to make him listen. All I want right now is to get out of here and not think about Derrick."
"You look so damn beautiful I have no idea how I'm supposed to keep my hands off of you tonight," spilled from his lips without his permission.
And there it was—that eye-crinkling, beaming grin that undid him every time he saw it. "Do you really think so?" She lifted her head from his hands and stared down at the dress Ford longed to see in a lacey puddle on his bedroom floor.
"I don't say things I don't mean," he reminded her. "You're fucking gorgeous. I'm trying to be a gentleman, but damn baby—you're not making it easy."
He watched the words resonate in her head. She couldn't seem to stop grinning. "Nana thought it showed off too much cleavage," she admitted with an adorable giggle.
Ford laughed. "As long as you're out with me and I'm the one getting to see them, Nana and I will have to agree to disagree."
"Thank you for the sunflowers and for saying that. It's been a long, long time since anyone thought I was pretty."
"Was the boy blind along with being deaf, honey? My god."
That brought on a quick laugh that held far too much sadness in its depths. "I guess I could ask you the same thing about Meritt."
Since this Derrick asshole wouldn't listen to her, Ford wanted her to know that he would. "My cousin told me not to talk about Meritt on this date, and I don't want to, but I also want you to be able to say whatever you need to say. I want to hear it, whatever it is."
"Wow," she breathed the word. "I don't think anyone's ever
said that to me either."
Oddly pleased at that, he cranked the truck. "Anytime you want to talk, I'm here for it."
"I always ask the wrong questions," leapt from her mouth before she bit her lips together.
His brow furrowed. "Explain that."
"People tell me that all the time. I mean...I was just gonna...ask something stupid. I was trying to stop myself. Forget it."
"Questions aren't stupid, baby. They're how we figure things out. Maybe you've already got more figured out than you think, so the questions most people ask you already know the answer to. So, ask me whatever it was." He sounded more demanding than he'd intended, but he wasn’t going to redact his order.
"You're sure?"
So hesitant. He wondered if there was ever anything she did that she didn't question first, and he wondered if that was a product of Derrick the way his rampant doubts were a direct result of Meritt. "I'm sure."
"Well, it's just when you said that Chad is who you caught in your bed with your ex, you said for me not to worry because you'd gotten a new mattress before I slept there. I guess I sort of wondered why you were worried about me being there instead of yourself."
She didn't ask the wrong questions, Ford determined. She asked the hard ones, the ones people didn't have ready answers to, so they told her she was the one that was mistaken. He refused to be a person who didn't answer her questions, even if his answer was I just don't know. "I think," he paused and really considered, "I just don't want you to have anything to do with her. I don't want whatever it is we're doing here to be associated with Meritt and me. I don't ever want you to think I'm on the rebound or whatever. Does it make me an asshole to say I don't want you tainted with her?"
"Not at all. I don't really want to have anything to do with anyone who hurt you like that. And if I do ever end up back in your bed, I want it to be with you and I don't want her to have ever been there."
Oh, she was going to end up in his bed over and over again if he had any say, but he was still determined to do right by her. It wasn't going to be that night. "You are aware you're killing me, right?"
"Sorry." She wrinkled her nose.
He shook his head at her. "I'm debating if I'm going to let you apologize for that one. I want you in my bed, baby. More than I should. But I have to do this the right way. You deserve the right way."
"How'd you know sunflowers are my favorite?" There was another one of those questions that spiraled out of her mouth seemingly without her permission.
And again he wasn't entirely certain how to answer her. She just seemed like a sunflower kind of girl. Beautiful. Wild. Strong. Those big brown eyes that were just a little bit too big for her face and lips that drew naturally into a smile, genuine and full. "I've never given it too much thought, but I think they're my favorite, too, and you just seem like a sunflower kind of girl."
"What kind of girl was Meritt?" she asked and then cringed. "See, I always ask the wrong things. You don't have to answer that."
"If you ask me a question, I'm going to answer it. Stop thinking you've done something wrong. I don't think she was any kind of flower. She refused to be nurtured anywhere long enough to bloom."
Callie considered that for a beat too long before she nodded. "You can ask me stuff, too, you know. I don't mind."
"What's in that file folder?" He gestured to the folder still shoved in the door of his truck.