Page 28 of Saving You

‘Cool. So I can be your fake boyfriend, and it won’t be too awkward if we have to use PDA then.’

Snorting, Oz shrugged. ‘That’s a lot for me to ask of you.’

‘You’re not asking. I’m offering,’ Ridge insisted. ‘And if you tell them the truth now, it’ll only make them try harder to do this thing with your ex. Right?’

The heartbreak on Oz’s face told Ridge everything he needed to know.

‘Anyway, it’s not that weird. I know two guys personally who pretended to date someone to get people off their backs,’ Ridge told him. He didn’t add that those two men had ended up with their faux-boyfriends, and they were currently living happilyever after. But their circumstances had been very different. ‘I don’t want you to hurt any more than you’re already hurting.’

Oz sat back and rubbed at his eyes before dropping his hands into his lap and answering him with his voice. “Okay, but only until I figure out how to get a spine when it comes to them. And just until I figure out how to get it through Darcy’s head that she and I are over. For good. That even if you and I break up, she’s not the person I’ll be coming home to.”

Ridge’s stomach twisted wildly, and he had to take a few breaths before he spoke. “I’m here for however long you need me. I’m not exactly dating right now anyway.”

Oz frowned. “Why is that?”

“Seriously? Single dad? Firefighter with the world’s most fucked schedule? Deaf kid who is amazing, but also it means I’d have to meet someone who either knows ASL or is actually willing to learn?”

“Is that really a deal breaker?”

“What? That my partner speaks our home language?” Ridge asked, then scoffed. “Uh, yeah. I’d never subject Ina to anything less than the person I choose to be with prioritizing her in her own home.”

Oz mouthed something Ridge couldn’t figure out, and then he shook his head.

“What?” Ridge pressed.

“It’s…nothing. Don’t worry about it. Let’s go get my car before I lose my nerve.” Before Ridge could press him further, Oz grabbed the door handle and let himself out. Ridge had no choice but to either throw the man to the wolves or follow.

And Ridge was definitely against letting someone like Oz be taken down by sharp claws and gnashing teeth.

“Yo!”

Ridge knew this was coming. He knew that the first chance Grady got to be on the schedule with him, he was going to get cornered. He’d actually knelt beside his bed and prayed before he left for work, but he also didn’t really believe in God, so he wasn’t expecting divine intervention.

Pasting on a smile, Ridge spun on his heels and turned all the way around, aborting his trip to the showers. He was still drenched in sweat from his hour on the treadmill, and he kind of hoped he smelled bad enough to send Grady running.

Then again, Grady was a dad, so he was probably immune to everything funky.

“So. That party,” Grady said, jerking his chin toward the locker room doors.

Ridge picked up his pace again with Grady at his heels. Were they really going to talk about this butt-ass naked? Apparently so, because when they got inside the empty room, Grady immediately began to strip.

“Look, Oz and I didn’t mean to create a scene or anything?—”

“Yes you did.” Grady laughed, interrupting his word-vomit excuse. “You forget I actually know a decent amount of ASL.”

Fuuuuuck. Hehadforgotten. He was pretty sure Oz had too. He was down to his boxers and collapsed to the bench, staring at his locker.

“Relax,” Grady said, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. Ridge pretended that Grady’s dick and balls weren’t hanging there right next to him. Christ, was that a tattoo on his…nope. He wasn’t looking. “I’m not going to sell you two out.”

Ridge looked up into his face. “Please get a towel.”

Grady burst into laughter as he opened his locker and pulled one out, wrapping it around his waist. “I thought you liked this shit.”

“Not the dick and balls of a married man, bro. I have standards. But, uh,” Ridge said when Grady was covered, “thanks, I guess. None of that was actually planned.”

Grady laughed again. “Yeah, that was pretty obvious.”

“Do you think Oz’s mom figured it out?”

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