Page 39 of Saving You

“Bad. Really,reallybad,” Ridge breathed out.

“Grady’s been way off his game,” Adele said. “I could tell something was up.”

Ridge bit his lip, and he felt bad about betraying his friend like that, but he couldn’t keep this to himself. Besides, he trusted his guys. “It went to hell in a handbasket about an hour after I got there.” He took his time relaying the story—not just how Oz’s mom still wanted him to be with his ex, who refused to use his language, but of the way that she and sister treated him. “I don’t understand how anyone can be so fucking cruel to their own child.”

All of the guys looked horrified and disgusted. Frey, of course, had the same look Ridge did. The look of a man who was helpless because he’d known about it for a while, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

“I would rather die than ever hurt Gage like that,” Kash said very softly.

“Yeah, pretty sure you tried to do exactly that, and it sucked,” Adele replied, holding Kash a little tighter. Ridgewould never forget the anguish on Adele’s face when he realized his son and the love of his life were in a fire. “But also, exactly what he said. I don’t care how old my kid is or how much he’s pissed me off over the years. I would never make him feel like who he was is wrong.”

Ridge closed his eyes and took a breath. “So anyway, right as we were about to leave, his mom trots out the ex.”

“Wait, what?” Frey demanded, sitting forward in his chair. “Darcy?”

Ridge nodded. “His mom holds out this ring box and starts to tell the entire party that Oz is going to propose.”

“What the fuck? What did he do?” Frey asked.

Ridge swallowed heavily. “Well, uh…he kissed me.”

The entire room went dead silent, and then Frey slapped his hand over his mouth. “Hekissedyou?” he asked through his fingers. “You were okay with it?”

Ridge’s cheeks burned, and he felt Adele’s eyes on him. Shit. He knew. Ridge refused to make eye contact. “Well, he asked me first. He was panicking. What was I supposed to do? Embarrass him worse than he already was?”

“No, no. No,” Frey said, waving him off, still trying to control a laugh. “I get it. I would have done the same thing if I was there. I don’t even think Renato would be pissed at me about it.”

“Not if he saw what Oz’s mom did to him,” Ridge said. He didn’t know the doctor well, but he did know that Renato had almost gotten arrested trying to defend Oz at the hospital a few years back. “Anyway, we kissed. Now I’m kind of playing along as his boyfriend.”

“Holy fuckingfuck,” Frey said, laughing louder now. “Dallas and Bronx should be here for this. They’d be so proud of their protégé. Y’all are such a fucking trope.”

Lane gave Frey a flat look. “Like hate sex isn’t the theme of all your favorite books and movies.”

“Don’t forget manga, babe,” Frey said with an unapologetic grin. The expression didn’t last long. No one was really in the mood for laughter once they remembered why Ridge had to pretend in the first place. Frey turned back to him. “Is Oz okay?”

“He says he is. He seemed better when I saw him a couple days ago.” Ridge wasn’t about to tell them that a few days ago, he’d been in Oz’s house making plans to fool around. That was something that the guys didn’t need to know. “Also, promise me this stays between us. We didn’t really discuss who needed to know the truth, so if you see us holding hands around town, pretend like you don’t know anything.”

Frey gave a mock salute, and the other guys nodded. “I should text him,” Frey said after a beat. “Invite him to lunch or something. Or drinkies with us? I mean, he’s not a dad, but he spends enough time with our kids he might as well be, right?”

Ridge had no idea how that would go. “Couldn’t hurt.”

“How about Sunday?”

Ridge almost choked on his own tongue. “Can we pick a different day?” His ears were burning, and he had a feeling everyone was able to read him like an open book. But maybe he was being paranoid. “I’ve got stuff going on.”

“What stuff? I have your kid literally all day,” Frey told him.

“Exactly. We can’t do drinkies on Sunday if you’re not there,” Ridge said.

“Right. Okay. Uh…whatever, I’ll look at my calendar.” Frey settled back and grabbed his phone, so Ridge turned away from him and looked over at his boss.

Adele was still staring, and Ridge knew immediately he wasn’t going to get away with this.Shit. “Anyway, I should probably take off.”

“I’ll walk you to your car,” Adele said. “Frey, bring Ina out in like five?”

Frey gave another mock salute without looking up from his phone screen.

Ridge fought back a groan. He wished he didn’t know Adele as well as he did. “Fine. Thanks for listening,” he said to everyone as he reached over to hug Lane.

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