Page 69 of Saving You

Ridge touched his cheek again, his palm warm and heavy, and it allowed Oz to draw a full breath. ‘Frey has him. He was at Rosa’s for dinner.’

Rosa’s. Rosa’s…oh. Yes. The mom-and-pop Mexican place that the guys loved. It was right up the street.

‘Is Rex hurt?’ he managed to sign with one aching hand.

Ridge shrugged. ‘A few scrapes from where he fell. Witnesses said you saved him.’

He had. Of course he had. He would have done it again and again. He felt like a complete fucking failure for the fact that Rex had managed to run off on him like that. Fuck’s sake, he should have kept his hand. This was the second time Rex was hurt on his watch. How could he keep doing this?

How irresponsible was he that?—

A kiss on his forehead startled him out of his spiraling thoughts, and he blinked up to see it wasn’t Ridge. It was Frey.

‘Stop,’ Frey signed. ‘I can see that look on your face.’

Oz swallowed thickly. ‘I’m sorry?—’

‘No.’ Frey had tears dripping down his cheeks. He shook his head hard. ‘No. You saved him.’

‘I let him go.’

‘You saved him,’ Frey repeated. ‘Thank you.’

Oz had no idea what to say, so he said nothing at all. Maybe he’d feel better about the situation later, who knew. Right now, he was in too much pain to focus.

‘We’ll see you at the hospital. Renato’s already there,’ Frey told him, and then he was gone, and Oz couldn’t move his head to follow.

Ridge appeared again and stroked his fingers along Oz’s jawline. It was the only soothing thing he felt in that moment. ‘Ready to go?’

Oz nodded his fist, then held up his fingers and wiggled them. ‘Wait. My CIs.’

Ridge frowned.

‘I’d like them on so I can talk to the doctors and it won’t get weird.’

Ridge’s face shifted into understanding, and he carefully dug his hands into Oz’s pockets for his case. He held his breath and released it only when Ridge held it up to show it was undamaged. He closed his eyes and braced himself for sound.

Being able to hear seemed to make the pain worse, but he breathed through it as the EMTs got the stretcher moving, and it wasn’t long before he was in the back of the ambulance with Ridge holding his right hand. He could barely feel it, but it was still a comforting weight.

And luckily, the inside of the ambulance dulled the sound of the sirens.

“Concussion?” he asked.

Ridge bit his lip, then shook his head. “Can you understand me?”

Oz frowned. “Yeah. Why? Am I not making sense?”

“I was just checking, baby,” Ridge said quietly, then pinked. “Sorry. Uh?—”

“No. I…it’s fine,” Oz stammered. Itwasfine. He hadn’t realized how much he needed to hear something like that.

Ridge’s mouth softened into a smile. “I think you were in shock. From the witness accounts, the car hit you on the left side, and you hit the ground with your right shoulder. You weretalking for a bit, but by the time Carl was on scene, you were pretty out of it.”

Carl? Right, the EMT because Ridge was a firefighter, and he knew all those guys. “How did you get here?” he rasped.

Ridge looked a little embarrassed. “I’d just gotten off work. Adele and I were at the market grabbing a few things when his radio went off. I knew it was you and Rex when they described a little Deaf boy running into traffic.”

Oz started to laugh, but the pain was too intense, and he choked. “Shit.”

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