“Except I think you might be bad luck for my truck and I have a feeling you should never not be wearing your seatbelt while it’s moving.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry! I feel terrible.”
He’d already cleared his plate and was working on a strawberry milkshake. “I’m kidding. My truck’s fine. It’ll just have to get used to getting the shit kicked out of it since you’re not going anywhere.”
Butterflies. Everywhere. I tried to keep the crazy grin off my face but judging by the way West was looking at me, I was failing. I took a long drink from my own milkshake. “We could just ride in Hayes’ truck. Or Cash’s.”
He laughed and reached for one of my onion rings until I grabbed my fork and pointed it at him. “I will stab you, Weston Ford.”
The waitress happened to be passing by. She was a few years older than us and had a baby bump hiding under her apron. “I’ll just bring more rings out for my favorite Ford brother. No stabbing, please.”
West smiled at her and I felt a wave of appreciation for him and whatever we were building between us. He was kind to her when some people would’ve been dismissive. He dropped the whole brooding grump thing that he still gave everyone else and I was sure made her feel seen. It helped that I could so clearly see that the smile he gave me was warmer, a little softer. He cared about me.
I checked out while they chatted about his playing, so caught off guard by seeing the difference in his smiles. When the conversation turned to her baby, I tuned back in and melted for him as I watched him put his hand over her belly. She’d invited him to do it and while hesitant, as soon as he was touching her, his eyes widened and he let out a quiet chuckle, like he was in awe.
“He’s an active little boy already. Did you feel that kick?” She looked over at me. “Here. You feel it, too. I know some pregnantwomen don’t want to be touched but with this little guy’s daddy on active duty I don’t get touched enough.”
I put my hand next to West’s and felt a kick right away. I looked up at her in wonder and then glanced over to West to see if he was feeling it, too. He was staring back at me with a look I didn’t recognize on his face. Something inside me recognized it, though, because my body responded with a wave of heat and the strongest desire to crawl into his lap and have him hold me.
“It’s amazing.” West slowly sat back and then cleared his throat. “Thanks for letting us feel him. Thank you for your sacrifice and his dad’s service.”
Never in a million years would I have ever thought I’d be sitting across from a man in a cowboy hat, listening to him thank someone for their service, while wondering what his babies would look like. It was insane. I wasn’t even sure I wanted kids, much less anytime soon. That didn’t seem to matter to my body, though. Or the sick, romantic part of my brain. It was picturing a future with lots of little Ford babies that looked kind of like me.
I’d been staring so hard that it took me a moment to notice the woman had walked towards the kitchen. I blinked a few times and met West’s gaze. “Um. Wow. That felt…”
He reached over and gripped my chin. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
I slumped back in my booth, breaking his contact, and grabbed the dessert menu left on the table to fan myself. “Is it hot in here? I’m burning up.”
More onion rings showed up and I shut myself up by shoving a fresh out of the fryer ring straight into my mouth. It burned immediately and I gasped and tried to fan my open mouth.
“Fuck, sweetheart.” West shook his head and moved around to my side of the booth. “You’re a danger to yourself.”
I looked up at him after forcing myself to swallow and pouted. “I may be bad luck for your truck but I think you might be bad luck for me. You turn my brain off.”
He wrapped his arm around me and lifted my milkshake to my lips. “Is that such a bad thing?”
“Ask me again when you’re not feeding me the best milkshake I’ve ever had.” I leaned into his side and rested my hand on his thigh. “Thank you for taking me out.”
“It wasn’t just for you, baby. I haven’t had this much fun since before my injury.” He seemed surprised that he’d said the words but then he shrugged. “I really haven’t.”
I needed us to get away from talking about me before I confessed everything I was feeling for him. “It changed you, didn’t it?”
He held me tight and stared out the window next to us. It was dark out but it was almost impossible to see past our reflection to the night beyond. “Yeah, I guess it did.”
I waited for him to say more.
“I’ve known what I want to do with my life since I was old enough to understand time and tomorrow. I’ve been lucky but I’ve also worked fucking hard to get where I am. Then I got hit and I was laying on the field in excruciating pain, listening to the silence in the stands, I thought it was all over.” He blew out a shaky breath and cleared his throat. “I think the worst part, more than the pain, was feeling lost. I never had a backup plan. My entire life felt like it’d ended on the field that night and there was nothing I could do about it.”
I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight. “I’m so sorry, West. I can’t imagine how scary that was.”
“It’s not exactly the same but didn’t you feel the same way when things went bad last year between you and Cole?”
I sat up so I could see his face. My heart was pounding away in my chest and I wasn’t sure I wasn’t going to burst into tears. Notover Cole but at the willingness to understand what I couldn’t put into words. “I didn’t react very well, either. It’s hard to feel so cheated by the world and not turn angry. But look at us now.”
“What am I looking at?”
I rested my head on his chest to hide the way my cheeks burned. “You’re playing better than you ever have.”
