Page 80 of Saving You

“The paramedics picked it up. One of the witnesses said you dropped it while you were running, and it got pretty trashedfrom the concrete. I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” Ridge dropped the bag at the edge of the bed, and Oz didn’t bother reaching for it because no submersion in a container full of rice was going to fix that damage.

“My laptop’s at my house,” Oz said, bowing his head toward his bowl. He wasn’t hungry anymore.

Ridge took the food from him, then shuffled beside him and set his laptop on his legs. A moment later, Oz glanced over and saw that Ridge had pulled up the school website. He was on the administration page. “This your boss?”

It was. Craig’s photo looked like a mug shot, and Oz might have laughed if he was in the mood. “Mm.”

“Here. Log in to your regular email, and then I can type whatever you want me to.”

Oz hated that he felt like a failure. He was hurt because he’d saved Rex. This wasn’t something he’d done wrong. It was something he did right. If only his brain would let him agree with logic. Leaning over, he put in his mail server, then awkwardly typed in his password.

“I’m not looking,” Ridge told him.

Oz turned his head to see Ridge with his hand over his eyes, and he burst into laughter, twisting more so he could kiss the man. “You can know my password. I have nothing to hide.”

Ridge dropped his hand to the back of Oz’s neck and held him there, taking a second, longer, lusher kiss. “You can have mine too.”

That was something they could talk about later. For now, Oz wanted to get this over with. He clicked on New Message, then let Ridge copy-paste the email address. “Just put my name in the subject line with ‘work absence.’”

Ridge obeyed.

Oz took a breath and tried to clear his head so he didn’t sound entirely unprofessional as he came up with what to say.“Uh…Craig, I’m emailing you from here because I don’t have access to my work laptop, and my phone was destroyed. Does that sound too dramatic?”

“Baby, I think you need a bit of dramatic when you were hit by a car,” Ridge said with a tiny smile. He was still typing because he used two fingers to hunt and peck.

On anyone else, that would have driven Oz nuts. On him, it was adorable.

“Fine, fine. Um… Unfortunately, I was hit by a car?—”

Ridge laughed, and when Oz glared at him, he held up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. It sounds so weird to say it like that. I mean, how else can you? But seriously? Unfortunately, I’ve been hit by a car.”

It was so ridiculous. Oz burst into laughter, falling against Ridge and giggling until his sides hurt worse than when he’d first woken up. He took several calming breaths, and then he was overwhelmed with the urge to cry.

He sniffed as his eyes teared up. “Shit. What is wrong with me?”

Ridge set the laptop aside and pinched Oz’s chin, drawing his gaze up. “Unfortunately, you were hit by a car?—”

“Shut up,” Oz said, giggling in spite of the tears leaking out of his eyes.

Ridge smiled softly and stroked a thumb over his cheeks to clear away the drops. “It was a traumatic event. And you were already having a hellish few weeks, thanks to your family. You’re allowed to spontaneously cry.”

“I’m never like this,” Oz said as a sob lodged deep in his chest. It was fighting to get out, but he didn’t want to totally lose it.

Ridge cradled his jaw on either side. “Maybe it’s time to be like this. Just for a little while. We all have moments we need to let it out.”

“Do you?”

Ridge shrugged. “I haven’t in a while, but right after I took Ina home, I lost it. I was overwhelmed with grief for her. I was overwhelmed with stress and fear for me because what the fuck did I know about raising a child? I cried myself sick her first day of pre-K. I cried until my eyes felt swollen when she was hospitalized with the flu when she was two.” Ridge shrugged. “I cry-laughed for like fifteen minutes when her adoption was finalized and someone put their hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Congratulations, Dad.’”

Oz felt his stomach twist at that. He would have lost it too. He sniffed and rubbed his hand under his nose. “I think—” He stopped. He was going to say words he wasn’t sure Ridge was ready to hear. They were words he knew he’d been feeling, but before, they’d been almost like a theory. Right now, they were solid.

Truth.

Fact.

“What?” Ridge pressed.

Oz took a deep breath. “It’s so soon. It’s so fast, but…I’m…I…” Oh God, was he really going to do this? What if Ridge didn’t feel the same way? What if he didn’t want Oz to be in love with him?

---