In the meantime, Ty and Theo had tidied away the dishes, and Theo had planted himself on the living room floor with a book in front of him. Just looking at him in that position made Ollie’s spine and shoulders hurt, but Theo seemed unbothered.
Ty wasn’t in the living room or the kitchen or his bedroom. Finally Ollie found him sitting on the steps of the back deck with a mug of coffee, staring into the middle distance.
Ollie sat one step below him so he could lean on Ty’s knees. He didn’t even think about the intimacy of the gesture until he was relaxing into it, trusting Ty to support him. It hadn’t even occurred to him that Ty might not want to be Ollie’s back rest.
Ty scritched his fingers over Ollie’s scalp in a way that made Ollie’s bones turn to Jell-O. “Was your phone call as fun as mine?”
“It was good, actually,” Ollie said, leaning into his hand like a cat and trying not to lose all motor control. The halfhearted scalp massage felt like something he should be paying for. “Mom wants to make up.” He didn’t feel confident enough in the possible outcome to share details yet, but it was nice to have good news for once.
Of course, the downside of the good news was that, hey, at thirty-two he might actually be responsible for his parents divorcing.
Fuck it. He wasn’t going to ruin the magic of Ty’s fingers by thinking about that. “Who were you talking to?”
“Eliza.” Ty took a sip of his coffee and then set the mug down so he could putbothhands in Ollie’s hair. Ollie had discovered religion. “I’m supposed to go over there later today so we can sort out this thingwith Alan Chiu.”
No wonder he was brooding. “Sucks,” Ollie offered. “You want any help? Moral support?” He might not be ready to tell Theo yet, and he might not be ready to trust his mom with his kid unsupervised, but Cassie would probably take Theo for the afternoon if he asked. Or maybe he’d want to spend some time with one of his school friends.
“Not yet.” He combed his fingers from front to back, sending delightful tingles down Ollie’s neck and spine. He probably looked like he’d stuck a fork in an electrical socket, but as long as Ty never stopped doing that to his head, he didn’t care. “I’m pretty… yeah.”
Upset, Ollie guessed. Maybe he was the one who should be doing the comforting? He turned his head and looked up. “Bad?”
“She thinks I should move my return to Chicago back a couple days just in case.” Ty’s usual cheerfulness had abandoned him. “If he tries to call my training into question or say I acted in a way that harmed a patient… I don’t know. Itshouldn’taffect my work, but anytime people with money are involved….”
Ollie hated this for him. He absently pressed a kiss to the inside of Ty’s knee. “I wish I knew what this guy’s problem was.”
Ty snorted. “You and me both. I’m starting to think he might just be an asshole with a hard-on for power.”
“He wouldn’t be the first.” Ollie had thought he’d signed up to fight people like that, but he’d served with a few of them too. They were everywhere, which made him angry. At least it made some kind of sense when evil people set themselves up as despots in areas with scarce resources. You could almost think,Well, that kind of selfishness makes sense when there’s not enough to go around, even if it was morally deplorable. But it wasn’t like Connecticut was experiencing any kind of scarcity, unless it was a scarcity of decent people with backbone. “You want me to punch him for you?”
Ty barked out a laugh. “No. I can punch my own villains, thank you. Which I won’t be doing because that mightactuallyaffect my ability to do my job. Gotta keep that police record clean.”
“Ugh.” Ollie made a face. “I’ll be your alibi. ‘I didn’t see anything, officer.’”
“You can’t get arrested either. You have a kid to look after.”
“You think I’ll get caught?”
He shook his head. “I think I’m a lousy liar and I don’t want to take you down with me.”
Reluctantly, Ollie conceded the point. “I guess that’s fair.” He’d have to think of a legal, untraceable revenge plan and keep it to himself so Ty couldn’t accidentally confess for him. “Is it bad to say I was looking forward to sneaking around with you all day?”
“Awful,” Ty told him seriously. “Especially since I have to go figure out stupid legal things.”
“I’ll make it up to you later.” Even if they had to sneak back to their own beds afterward.
“You better, after the show you put on this morning.”
“What, cutting the grass?” Ollie asked innocently.
“Looking like you’re about to star in a Corbin Fisher video,” Ty muttered.
Ollie grinned. “Co-star.”
Ty laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry. You’re so generous to share the spotlight.” He heaved himself to his feet and reached down to pull Ollie up too. “I better get going to Eliza’s or I’m going to be at it until school starts tomorrow.”
Considering the mixed start to the day, Ollie went into the afternoon feeling cheerfully optimistic about life in general. He sent off an email to Theo’s therapist and grilled some hot dogs and veggies for lunch. They ate under the giant patio umbrella on the back porch, and then Theo asked for some batting practice in the yard.
He thought his mother might drop by, whatever she’d said, but she didn’t. At around three Cass sent a message saying their mom had come over and was going to stay there and let their dad reap what he’d sown for a night.Good for her, Ollie thought, and he said as much to Cass.
