Page 70 of Houston, We Have a Problem
Chad glances at the woman, and she grins at him like there’s some joke I missed. “We’ll see.” When he turns to me, there’s something off about his smile. “It was nice to meet you, Darcy Paxton.” Maybe he always calls people by their full names, but I don’t like being under his gaze. I’ll have to ask Houston what Chad does for work. When we’re far away from here, obviously, and I’m not being stared down by a lumberjack.
Once we’re on our way, I relax in my seat. It’s not that Houston’s family isn’t great, but feeling like I have to hide such a large part of myself—especially because most of them have met Tamlin—is completely exhausting. I don’t know why it’s never felt that way with Houston on his own.
He’s always easy.
As he drives, he keeps glancing at me, like he’s making sure I’m still there. “So, did my family scare you off, or…?”
Not yet, but Chad might. “Nah. Your family is great.”
“They clearly like you.”
I swear his expression says he likes me too, which has me blushing and floundering to change the subject. Looking around Jordan’s truck for something to say, I ask the question I’ve wanted to ask him since the moment I first sawhistruck.
“Why do you keep your old truck instead of buying a new one like this?”
“Technically I did buy this one.” He winks. Then shrugs. “I like my old truck. I bought it in high school, after my stepdad started paying me to do yard work because I wouldn’t accept money as a gift.”
“Why not? Most kids would gladly take money. I had a great aunt who sent me twenty bucks on my birthday every year, and it was the best gift ever.”
He chuckles, reaching over for my hand and relaxing as soon as he has a hold of me. “We had next to nothing when I was a kid, and my dad was awful with money. The contrast between living with him and living with my stepdad, Lloyd, was almost painful. And, nice as that life was, I wanted to prove to myself that I could be better than my dad. That I was stronger. I wanted to be the one taking care of the people I loved, not the other way around.”
How is he such a good guy? He’s always looking out for other people, and I wonder if it’s because he felt so alone as a kid. There is so much to this man that I never would have guessed if Connor hadn’t sent me here to befriend him.
Connor didn’t intend for me to developfeelingsfor Houston, though. That’s a problem all on its own.
“We didn’t have a lot of money growing up either,” I admit, filling the silence between us. “My dad runs a tiny hardware store, and it’s always been hard to compete with the chains, especially in recent years. He’s well past retiring age, but he keeps working so he can take care of my mom.”
“Sounds like you have a good dad.” Houston rubs my thumb, a thoughtful look on his face. Thoughtful, but with a healthy dose of worry mixed in there too. “Do you ever wonder how much we pick up from our parents genetically?”
Okay, this feels big. And deep. And probably beyond my level of expertise. I may have a psychology degree, but that doesn’t make me a therapist. “Well, I don’t think you’re bad with money,” I say lightly.
Houston snorts and glances over at me. “Are you trying to get me to tell you how much money I have?”
I bet people ask him that all the time. I know his yearly salary—a lot of people do—but there are plenty of athletes with multimillion-dollar paychecks that bleed themselves dry.
“Let’s see,” I say with mock thoughtfulness. “You drive a terrible truck—”
“Hey!”
“—and live in a duplex. But you also own a bunch of businesses and pay for lunch for an entire team and their families.”
His head snaps over to me, jerking the truck a bit with it. “Who told you that?”
“Little Henry and I became buds while you were out playing catch.”
Houston grumbles something that sounds a lot like, “Traitor.”
“I think it’s really sweet, Houston.” I squeeze his hand, loving that he squeezes right back. “And it makes you a ridiculously good man. I’m not sure how I can keep up.”
He’s shaking his head before I even finish my sentence. “You just said the wordbudsin a sentence with Little Henry. He doesn’t have friends. And my brother likes you, which means you’re doing something right. He doesn’t like anyone.”
I didn’t get the feeling that Chad likes me, at least not at the end there, but I keep that to myself. Chad’s approval seems important to Houston. “Your family really is great, Houston. Thank you for letting me meet them.”
He smiles as he pulls up in our driveway; I have no idea how we got here so fast. “I don’t know about you,” he says slowly, “but I’m not ready for tonight to end. But I could also use a shower.”
I can feel my hair plastered together in several places, not to mention I’m pretty sure there’s a pumpkin seed stuck in my bra. “A shower sounds great.” And then heat floods through my face when I realize how that sounds. “Separately!” I add quickly. “My own shower.” He probably wasn’t even implying a showertogetherbut now I’ve put it into his head and he’s going to think that I’m thinking about it and—
“Darcy.” Houston rubs his thumb along mine, his eyes warm and soft in the light from the porch. “I am fully planning on kissing you tonight, but that’s it. Is that okay?”
