**Sidekick Showcase #25 ~ Grinch-y**

Sidekick Showcase (previously known as Sidekick Saturday) is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in this week's type
• Share a picture (if possible) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• Put your link in the Linky thing and comment

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For the month of December, Jaclyn has given us a some creative license. We can pick any character that fits a Christmas-y theme...angel, elf, jolly, Grinch-y, etc. This week I've had myself a J.A. Huss lovefest! And Ford is just so...Ford. 
So I went with the theme...Grinch-y

My pick is
Ford Aston
from J.A. Huss' Rook & Ronin Trilogy, 
and Ford spin-offs, Slack and Taut

I fell for Ford in Manic...there's just something about him. He's known and been friends and/or business associates with Ronin and Spencer since high school. (He's actually been friends with Spencer since kindergarten.) He's never short on snark, rarely has a kind word to offer. He's a genius. He's anti-social. And he uses these traits to take what he wants. The man lives in the same city as his mom but rarely sees her. He doesn't do relationships - he has pets. 

Then he meets Rook...and 

"his shrunken heart grew three sizes." 

He's such an a$$hole sometimes but then he turns around and does something so compassionate...like read The Secret Garden to Rook. (Granted, that wasn't a totally selfless action...he was trying to win Rook.) But Ford is loyal - like it's the most important value to him. Period. (like Max was loyal to the Grinch) And he will ALWAYS be loyal to Ronin and Spencer...and Rook.

Ford is a multi-faceted man. He's...interesting. In Slack, I got a deeper look into Ford's psyche. And I fell even harder for him!

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Ford checks his watch. "Well, Ms. Walsh, you're quite late, I made special reservations at an exclusive restaurant downtown to celebrate our partnership, so they all went ahead." Then he disdainfully looks down at my clothes and winces. "You'll need to dress."  -Ford to Rook, Manic, Loc 172-176

"I always thought Ronin liked the dumb ones, you know?..."You come off as pretty smart, plus you don't seem to have any life issues that he can fix, so I just can't picture the two of you together."  -Ford to Roon, Manic, Loc 438

"It's not that I don't or can't feel things like that. It's that I don't want to. I just don't care about people." He throws up his hands. "That's my dirtiest secret and now you have it. I just don't give a fuck about people, I really don't."  -Ford to Rook, Panic, Loc 200

I am the first to admit that my rules are unreasonable. My behavior is atrocious. My indifference is derogatory. But if the pets don't care, why should I?  -Ford, Slack, Loc 119

I'm the son of a psychiatrist, socially unacceptable genius, con-man hacker, film producer.  -Ford, Slack, Loc 450

I'm not capable of much empathy, but I can fake it. And they never know the difference, so what the fuck. It doesn't cost me anything to pretend to understand and be nice.  -Ford, Slack, Loc 940