“Kinda killing me, I won’t lie.” He winced. “Poor choice of words.”
Ty handed Ollie a plate. “You’d think it would’ve been the medical drama, but actually it was Eliza. Well, talking to Eliza. I asked her to look after Theo while I—anyway. I guess she told him about being married to your uncle, and how she still talks to your family because they remember him, and he got jealous because no one here knew his mom to talk about except you, but then he felt bad about being jealous, and he didn’t want you to think you weren’t doing a good job.”
That little monologue just about took Ollie out at the knees. His fingers felt suddenly nerveless. He was glad he hadn’t put anything on his plate yet, because it clattered loudly to the counter as his hand spasmed.
“Ollie—Jesus, Ollie, are you okay?”
The barbed wire around Ollie’s heart constricted until it felt like something had to break. Then Ty put a hand between his shoulder blades and the tension snapped. Ollie let out a shaky breath. “I’m okay,” he said, faintly, and then again, surprised that he meant it: “I’m okay. Just, you weren’t kidding when you said it was a rough afternoon.” He turned to meet Ty’s gaze.
Ty’s shoulders were up around his ears, and his cheeks were red—shame, not embarrassment. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to the homework. I know it’s not my place to say what’s important—”
“Wait. Are you seriously apologizing right now?” Ollie said disbelievingly. “For taking such good care of my kid that he could open up to you like that?”
Ty’s flush deepened. He flicked his gaze up to meet Ollie’s eyes. “Um.”
“Come here,” Ollie demanded, and opened his arms.
It shocked him how easily Ty went into them.
More shocking was how good he felt there.
Ty melted against him like he didn’t have a spine. He snaked his arms around Ollie’s waist and sagged into him like no one had hugged him in years. Maybe no one had.
Come to think of it, Ollie couldn’t recall the last time he’d hugged anyone other than Theo. But his body remembered what to do—arms wrapped around Ty’s broad shoulders, head leaned against the side of Ty’s, breathe deeply. Ty smelled like he did in the mornings, of vanilla lavender bodywash and coconut shampoo; he must’ve showered after the grocery store. Ollie took a deep breath and then another before he realized that at some point he was supposed to let go.
But Ty didn’t seem like he was in a big hurry for that, so he didn’t.
Ollie had hugged people who were taller and broader than him before, of course. Not as many since he became an adult, but he’d served with guys who were taller than his six feet and broader too. But he’d never hugged any of them like this.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever hugged anyone like this.
Finally Ty took a shaky breath and raised his head, and Ollie forced his arms to soften and let go. “Um.” He was bright red now, and blotchy, his eyes a little too bright, but he smiled crookedly. “I guess you’re not mad about the homework.”
“Good guess,” Ollie said dryly. He helped himself to a few slices of pizza and sat back down at the island, trying not to shiver and wondering if they’d left a window open somewhere. It was warm in the kitchen. He had no reason to feel cold.
Ty served himself some pizza, poked his own head out into the living room, and must’ve decided the same as Ollie had—that Theo could sleep for another half hour or so before they fed him—because he slouched back to the island. This time he sat at the corner next to Ollie, so their knees almost touched. “Your kid is pretty great, you know.”
The chill disappeared. “Yeah.” Allison did most of the work, but Ollie had contributed too. “I got lucky.”
“Lucky?” Ty snorted. “Ollie. One minute your kid was crying about having no one to talk to about his mom and the next he was worried it made me feel bad to see you doing your World’s Best Dad routine.”
Ollie ignored the heat rising in his face and somehow managed to swallow the bite of pizza he had in his mouth. He thought he’d done a good job making sure Theo knew he could talk to Ollie about Allison if he wanted, but obviously he needed to be firmer about it. Or gentler. Gentler? “Does it?”
Ty made an indecipherable noise. “See?!”
Ollie didn’t.
Apparently Ty didn’t actually expect him to; he shook his head fondly. “Never mind.” He shoveled in another bite of pizza.
But maybe the sound had woken Theo, because a moment later he appeared in the doorway. “Dad.”
Ollie scooped him into his arms before he could think about it. “Hey, buddy.”
And then he couldn’t make himself put him back down again. He sat with Theo in his lap instead.
“Did I miss dinner?”
“Uh, nope.” Ty stood and loaded another plate, which he set down next to Ollie’s. “Plenty to go around.”
