Fall For You: A Reverse Grump Romantic Comedy (A Season's Detour, Book 2)

by Hayleigh Sol

  Recovered. What a freakin’ joke.

  “Look, I’m not proud of what happened. But I also don’t feel that awful about it. Your father had an affair and deserted his family. Somewhat more reprehensible, wouldn’t you say?” She raised an eyebrow at me but I had nothing. “The point is, we were both human. We made mistakes. Your brother and Lindsay might make those same mistakes. If you ever get married, you might find yourself in a similar situation. It wouldn’t make you a bad person.”

  Did I think my mom was a bad person? I’d pretty much written my father and Aaron off as worthless scum for their behavior. For a long time, I’d been achingly disappointed in my brother. But I’d shied away from the question of whether he was a bad person or not.

  “So you’re saying that cheating happens, affairs happen, and we should just shrug and move on?”

  She sighed, some of the tension draining from her posture. “Do spouses cheat? Yes. And I think it happens more often than you realize. It’s not something either of you can shrug off, but it’s also not the ends of the earth. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and make a commitment, if that’s what you want.”

  I shook my head in disgust. Her beliefs were so opposite mine, I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

  As soon as Dustin and Lindsay returned, I wished them a safe flight and made my escape. There’d been too damn many revelations in my family lately.

  It was a good thing Tracie had given me my ticket to the concert earlier in the week. Parking in downtown San Francisco was always a challenge and a Friday night in those last days of warm autumn weather was like running the gauntlet.

  I texted to let her know I’d found a spot about a hundred blocks away from the venue and would see her in the next century. No response. Then, I texted when I was outside the venue, waiting in line to get my hand stamped or my wrist adorned with a plastic wristband that proudly declared I was old enough to booze it up. Still nothing from Tracie.

  Figuring she’d gotten stuck at work, typical for her when she had a new app in the works‌—‌the buzz around the latest one was that it’d be even bigger than her debut‌—‌I headed inside and aimed my heeled booties at the bar. My mind made up to embrace the season, I debated between a pumpkin ale and a hard apple cider. The cider won out and I turned to look for Tracie in the sea of denim jeans and cotton concert tees.

  My phone screen was stubbornly the same as it had been the last time I’d checked. I mentally shrugged and wound my way through tables and chairs until I found a couple of unoccupied seats, one bearing a sticker with the same number printed on my ticket.

  “This seat taken?”

  Goosebumps rose on my arms as the familiar voice brushed against my skin like a feather‌—‌a seductive, enticing feather. And, like a conditioned response, my lady bits perked up too.

  “It’s supposed to be taken by your sister, as a matter of fact.”

  Garrett sat as I shifted my cider to the other hand so neither of us would end up with it in our laps.

  Thinking about his lap already? I couldn’t help myself, it was a pretty great lap.

  It didn’t help that he leaned over and kissed my cheek in a way that was both friendly and lingering at the same time.

  “I thought she only had two tickets for the show.” He glanced around but the seats on either side of ours were occupied.

  “That’s what I thought, too. She and Noah were supposed to come check out the band for the wedding reception.”

  His eyes lit with understanding. “Ah, I think we’ve been set up.”

  “What do‌—‌oh, that sneaky little pain in the ass.”

  Garrett’s laugh rolled over both of us. “She didn’t tell you I was coming either, huh?” At my twisted smile, he laughed again. “Well, you gotta admire her craftiness. When Trace has a goal in mind, she’ll work the angles until she gets exactly what she wants.”

  He leaned closer again, his eyes taking their time as they cruised over my face and down to my lips. Which I very nearly launched at his gorgeous face. The bastard must’ve seen the desire lighting me up like a neon sign; he smiled and sat back in his seat. “Sorry my sister seems to be shoving us together.”

  I’d like to shove your face between my legs so you can do that amazing trick you did with your tongue the last time we got naked together.

  “I’m impressed she managed to keep her plan a secret all week. She’s more cunning than I realized.” He nodded, flashing that killer smile at me again. The man either had no idea how potent that thing was or he enjoyed unleashing it on my poor, swooning hormones. “At least she paid for our date. Um, not that this is a date. That’s not‌—‌”

  “Bailey, relax. Let’s just have some fun tonight, okay?” Garrett’s big hand wrapped around mine and he loosened my tense fist to interlace our fingers.

  Onstage, the drummer tapped his sticks together overhead in a four‌–‌count, then hit the high‌–‌hat along with the lead guitar’s muted strums. A collective roar went up from the crowd, the intro to Back in Black recognizable by ninety percent of those present.

  “Hey, they’re playing our song.” Garrett grinned and squeezed my hand.

  I made an obnoxious buzzer sound. “I’m sorry, but that is incorrect. They’re playing our band.”

  “You’re right,” he said and laughed.

  Over songs, and between them, Garrett and I talked music. I was surprised by how knowledegable he was about artists and albums from before our generation. Few people I’d met that were my age shared my appreciation of the older stuff.

  “Last day of eighth grade, I broke an arm playing basketball with my former best friend. This perfect layup, thinking I was so badass, but I landed wrong and fractured both the radius and the ulna.” He pointed to a spot near his wrist. “So, here it was, the start of summer and all my big plans to swim and play b‌–‌ball all day‌…‌and I’m stuck in a cast.

  “I must’ve put together every puzzle in the house. Twice. But the radio was on while I puzzled all day and I got to flipping between stations, hearing music I hadn’t paid much attention to before. What about you?”

  “My mom.”

  Thinking of her when I was still reeling from what she’d told me the other day made the memory bittersweet. “One night, after my dad left and we were all‌…‌I dunno, sad, angry, in shock, all of the above‌…‌well, this one night, Mom gets my brother to haul all these boxes out of the guest bedroom closet and they’re full of records. She cleaned up her old turntable and played us some of her favorites.

  “Dustin would deny it now, but we all danced around the room for hours and we‌…‌we laughed. For the first time in a lot of months, it felt like we were gonna be okay. Music did that.”

  Garrett’s lips turned up in a soft smile. It wasn’t the grin that made my panties melt, but it did funny things to my stomach. Before I gave myself a chance to reconsider, I pressed my mouth to his. When I would’ve pulled back, he sank a hand into my hair, cupping the back of my head in his palm as he deepened the kiss.

  The funny feeling in my stomach turned into the weightless thrill you get at the top of a rollercoaster. Just before it plummets.

  Ruh‌–‌roh.

  I remembered the last time I allowed myself to have rollercoaster‌–‌tummy over a guy. Separating my lips from Garrett’s, I pasted on a casual grin, despite the decidedly un‌–‌casual look in his eyes.

  Double ruh‌–‌roh.

  “Careful, they’ll probably toss us out of here if we start removing articles of clothing.”

  For a beat, his eyes narrowed, searching the way they so often did with me. I held my breath until his grin matched mine. “And then what would Tracie and Noah do about the band for the reception?”

  “Think we’d be demoted from our lofty positions as maid of honor and best man?”

  He thought about it and twisted those perfect lips I’d just been subjected to. “Hard to guess. Tracie would likely be pretty smug about the fact that
she’d gotten us together after all.”

  “Ah, if only she knew we’d beaten her to the punch.”

  “If only.”

  While the band took a break, the female half of the couple sitting in front of us turned around and leaned drunkenly over her chair. An accurate description, since she’d obviously started in on the adult beverages early tonight and had been intermittently shouting out nonsense over the music for the last hour. I’d felt bad for the lead singer when he’d been sharing a story about how the group got together and she’d yelled, “Woo, SF!” even though the band had originally formed in Denver.

  Drunky was staring at Garrett and me. As with any wild and unpredictable animal, I avoided eye contact.

  “Hey.” An arm reached through the space between our chairs. “Hey.”

  So much for not engaging.

  “Hi,” I said, hoping returning her greeting would appease her like a little kid in the checkout line at the grocery store. Not that that had ever been enough for the little kid.

  “You guys are married, right?”

  “Oh, uh, n‌—‌”

  Garrett draped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me close. “We sure are.”

  I turned what‌–‌the‌–‌hell face on him but he was beaming. Perhaps his tactic for dealing with unwanted conversation differed from mine.

  Hooking a thumb over a shoulder at her boyfriend, who was trying to get her to turn back around, Drunky shout‌–‌whispered, “I’ve been with this one for seven years‌—‌seven years, can you believe that?‌—‌and we’re still not. How’d you get your guy to propose?”

  “Uhh, what now?” The highly personal nature of the conversation was enough to put me on guard, but now she’d hit a trigger for me. I’d never understood women who were out to ensnare a guy, like getting that ring was the ultimate goal in life. I wanted to shake this chick and yell, “Where’s your self‌–‌respect?”

  “How’d you get him to propose? I’ve tried everything.” Her boyfriend sent us an apologetic smile, still trying to get her to face front, and I couldn’t help but think, dude, you’re the one who deserves the apology.

  Garrett and I weren’t engaged to be married, of course, but I thought of how the Bailey from a million years ago had felt about the man I loved asking me to marry him. I shrugged at the girl in front of me.

  “I guess I was just myself.”

  She looked primed for more questions, but the band came back from their break and opened the next set with Mr. Brightside, which had the audience shout‌–‌singing along again. Even Drunky turned around and jumped out of her chair, forgetting about us as she waved her arms in the air and nearly smacked her boyfriend’s head. I could only share a laugh with Garrett when I met his amused eyes.

  The group was eclectic and talented, playing from a variety of music decades, and mostly uptempo songs, ideal for a wedding. With the way Tracie had orchestrated Garrett and I being here together tonight, I suspected Noah and she already knew the band was what they wanted.

  They probably had these tickets just to go to a concert. Garrett and I had stolen their date night. Unintentionally, obviously.

  “Hey, come dance with me,” Garrett shouted, half out of his chair already.

  I followed him to the crowded floor, surprised again that a guy from my generation was willing to dance. Not only that, but he was pretty damn good.

  Where had this unicorn come from?

  After a few more fast ones, the band switched to a slow jam. Garrett pulled me close and swayed, not seeming to care that I was dewy. I twined my fingers through his hair and didn’t care that the back of his neck was damp, either.

  The music filled us up and we shared a smile of total harmony and understanding. Gazing up into those arctic eyes of his before he bent his head and kissed me, I found I didn’t mind the flutters under my diaphragm as much as before.

  “You are so full of it.”

  Garrett laughed and took a sip of his beer. “I swear, you can ask Tracie. She’ll even show you pictures, I bet. But I beg of you, be kind.”

  I lifted up the hem of his t‌–‌shirt and gazed at his abs with no small amount of affection. “Nope, I don’t believe you were ever a chubby kid. I’m definitely going to need to see photographic evidence.”

  The band we’d come to see had played their last and two of its members were drinking at the end of the bar opposite where Garrett and I sat. Music played over the speakers but it was far more subdued than the live band had been. As with that first afternoon in the park, talking to Garrett was all I wanted to do for the next few hours.

  “Just don’t be surprised if you see me with a slice of pizza clutched in my greedy hand in pretty much every picture from back then. My mom, bless her heart, was of the ‘he’s a growing boy’ mentality and let me eat anything I wanted.”

  “So what happened?”

  “You mean, when did I finally step away from the pizza?”

  I nodded, suppressing a chuckle. He seemed comfortable talking about his past but I had plenty of experience with being judged for my weight. I wouldn’t want him to think for a second that I was laughing at him.

  “Getting involved in sports in high school instead of playing video games all the time helped. And I hit a growth spurt that probably helped too. Nutrition classes when I went to college before culinary school. For a long time, I still saw myself as ‘the fat kid’. It made me really shy around girls.”

  I smiled and threw him a gimme‌–‌a‌–‌break look. “Mr. ‘Let's take a walk in the park and get to know each other’‌—‌no, ‘see what else we have in common’‌—‌that guy was shy around girls? Now I know you’re making this up.”

  His laugh was so loud the bartender glanced over.

  Adorable. Garrett’s guffaw, not the other dude.

  “Seriously. I didn’t even have my first date until college.”

  “And then, what, you made up for lost time?”

  He shook his head and shifted his bottle around on its coaster. “Nope, the second girl I went out with became my girlfriend, and then my fiancée. You know what happened there.”

  “Wait, so‌…‌” I covered my mouth with my fingers and his eyes twinkled, knowing where I was going with this. “Garrett, don’t tell me you’d only had sex with one other girl before you were ready to get married.”

  “Okay, I won’t.”

  I smacked his arm where it rested on the bar. “Holy crap, you did.”

  He grinned and, swear to God, he blushed. “My ex‌–‌fiancée was actually the first girl I’d slept with.”

  Wow. Just‌…‌wow.

  “Aside from the broken heart of her betrayal, were you kinda relieved after the breakup, when you realized hers wasn’t the last hoo‌–‌hah you’d ever know?” He cracked up again. “C’mon, you can tell me the truth.”

  His blush was gone and the little smirk that replaced it was actually‌…‌pretty hot. “Let’s just say I had a little fun as I was getting over my broken heart.”

  “Quickest way to get over someone‌…‌ Am I right?”

  “Is that how you got over your cheating ex?”

  I nodded, slightly curious if he’d turn out to be a double‌–‌standard kind of guy. The kind who judged a woman for her sexual past when he’d clearly been busy himself. “Yeah, every time Aaron broke up with me, I found someone to help me forget. Until that got old.”

  “Every time? He broke up with you more than once?”

  “I lost count after five.” Garrett’s eyebrows raised. “He was ‘confused’ a lot. I know, why did I keep taking him back. The question I asked myself constantly back then.”

  I sighed and twisted my own bottle between my hands, focusing on the bar in front of me rather than meeting those penetrating eyes. “Part of it was habit, part inexperience in relationships.” Swallowing, I told myself I wouldn’t die if I told him the whole truth. “Mostly, it was because my dad had left and Aaron was there when I needed someone
to make me feel‌…‌not invisible. I didn’t fully realize it at the time, of course.”

  “Bailey. Sweetheart.”

  Shaking my head‌—‌I couldn’t handle Garrett being too kind or calling me sweetheart right now‌—‌I tilted my chin up and pushed my shoulders back. “It’s fine, I’m fine. They’re both gone, I grew up, wised up.”

  He nodded his head and didn’t say anything.

  Jesus, why did I always feel so exposed around this man?

  “Hey, you wanna get out of here? If memory serves, your place isn’t too far from here.” I ran a hand up his thigh, feeling the muscles bunch beneath my fingers.

  His hand stilled mine before I got to the best part. With a naughty smile on my lips, I turned my attention from the fly of his jeans to his face.

  “I want you to come home with me tonight, Bailey. I want that very much.”

  “But?”

  “But you have to stay the night. I need snuggle‌–‌time after you have your wicked way with me.” He grinned and I laughed.

  When he stood to pay for our drinks, I swatted his rump. “Alright, Garrett can have snuggles.”

  He held my hand as he walked me to my car and told me to drive safely as I followed him home. The second his front door closed behind us, he kissed me like a starving man. And, after another satisfying roll between the sheets, we snuggled.

  Chapter 16

  I was packing for the weekend in Martha’s Vineyard with my tablet propped up on a pillow as Maya told us she was bringing her boyfriend, Luka, home for Thanksgiving to meet the parents. Again.

  They’d known Luka briefly when he and Maya were kids running around a campground, but a relationship as an adult, one that was going on three months now and showed no signs of flagging, was a different matter altogether. The part of me that loved Maya and had always known how awesome she was, even when she hadn’t seen it herself, was happy she’d finally found a guy who saw that in her, too. But there was another part of me that I’d conditioned for a long time now.