Page 71 of Saving You

He thought about shouting Ridge’s name, but he didn’t want to make a scene.

“I’m assuming because I’m your emergency contact. I mean, being engaged and all?—”

“Do you have a concussion?” he demanded. She tried to reach for him again, but in spite of the pain, he managed to dodge her. He hit the button to make his bed sit up higher. “We’re not engaged.”

“Look, I know we sprung that on you at the party, and we didn’t get the chance to talk, but?—”

“Listen, I avoid using the word ‘delusional’ because it’s not fair to people who can’t help their condition,” he said slowly, “but I’m starting to wonder if that’s what’s going on. Normal people don’t start telling everyone they’re engaged to their ex.”

“Oz,” she said. She looked devastated, glancing behind her before pulling up a chair. Fuck, why wouldn’t she leave? “I know we had a rough breakup, but your sister told me everything, okay? She told me how you cried yourself to sleep for a month. That all you talk about is how wrong you were and how you’d do anything to take me back. This was a gesture, baby.”

‘Don’t call me that,’ he signed.

She reared back like she’d been slapped. “You know I don’t…do that.”

‘Which is why we broke up,’ he continued in sign.

“That is not fair.”

‘Neither were the years we were together and you didn’t bother to support me,’ he told her firmly with his one working hand. He took a breath. “This is why we’re not getting back together. I’m sorry my sister lied to you, but my decision hasn’t changed. There’s not a chance in hell I’d marry someone who doesn’t even speak my language.”

“You speak English!” she said, her voice going almost hysterical.

God, did she and his sister drink some kind of poison that made them think ASL was the worst language a person could know? He felt like he was losing his mind. None of this was normal. This could not be his life.

“I’ve had enough of—” she began to shout.

He cut her off by yanking his processors off and shoving them under his thigh. She got a wild look in her eye, then lunged at him. He couldn’t help his cry of pain as she grabbed him by the shirt and ripped him forward, but it only lasted a second.

Ridge appeared like an avenging angel and managed to get her off him, arms locked behind her back. She immediately burst into tears, and Oz had never been more grateful to be Deaf.

‘Give me five,’ Ridge signed quickly. ‘I’m going to figure out how she knew you were here.’

Oz waved his hand at Ridge to stop him as he started to march her away. ‘The hospital called. She’s apparently in the system as my emergency contact.’

Ridge looked irritated. ‘I’ll send in that admin lady to fix it. Do you want me to get them to call an interpreter?’

Oz shook his head. That would take forever, assuming they had one on hand. Chances were they were using the crappy AI system that never got all the words right. ‘I’ll put my CIs back on as soon as she’s gone.’

Ridge nodded. ‘Five minutes. I’ll be back.’

Oz never loved him more than he did right then. He sat back, his heart still beating too fast, and he wondered if his monitor was going crazy. No one came in to check, so he assumed it wasn’t too bad, and after counting to three hundred, Oz pulled his processors out from under his thigh and put them back on.

A moment later, he heard the soft ping of the machines. No alarms were sounding. He couldn’t believe the staff hadn’t checked after hearing her shout. Or after seeing Ridge haul her off. God, he hated this place.

“Osric, right?” said a man in blue scrubs. Oz glanced at his name badge and saw that he was another attending—thankfully not the one that tried to put him in an MRI machine. “Can you understand me okay?”

Oz nodded. “Yeah. You don’t sign, do you?”

The doctor gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I know a handful of phrases but nothing that’ll help me explain what you’ve got going on.”

“That sounds bad.”

The doctor chuckled and grabbed a rolling chair, pulling it close to the bed. “Dislocated shoulder…we’ll be…here shortly. You’ll be tender…while but…heal pretty fast.” Oz was having trouble with the guy since he kept dipping his head down low.

“Can you look at me when you speak? My CIs don’t pick up everything.”

“Of course,” the doctor said quickly. He stood up again and let his hip rest against Oz’s bed. It was a lot better that way. “You’re very fortunate. Nothing was broken, and no sign of aconcussion. You’ll have to baby that shoulder for a little while, but it’ll heal.”

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