Ty turned to look at him—Ollie heard the rustle of his hair against the sheets. After a few seconds, he decided he was brave enough to meet his gaze.
“Until I met you,” Ollie clarified. He couldn’t have saidwhenhis world stopped, though it had probably been before Theo’s mother died. Maybe when he entered the service.
Ty flushed a deep, charming almost-purple. Ollie leaned closer until their noses touched each other’s cheeks. It was more intimate than a kiss, somehow.
When Ty blinked, Ollie felt the flutter of his eyelashes. “You’re just a big romantic sap, aren’t you?”
“Shhh,” Ollie said. “It’s cuddling time.”
They should get up and shower, and Ollie should go back to his own room. In case Theo had a nightmare, orhedid.
But not yet. Right now he wanted a few more minutes to bask in the scent of Ty’s sheets and listen to their heartbeats and feel it, really feel it, as the world around them spun on.
Chapter 17
IF TYthought the kids were excited about the upcoming end of the school year last week, it was nothing compared to today. Frankly he couldn’t blame them. He was chomping at the bit to get out of this place too. The air-conditioning couldn’t keep up with the burgeoning summer heat, and green grass and blue skies were calling for everyone to head outdoors, where at least you could get a breeze.
But a classful of chattering, hyperactive kids couldn’t bring him down—not even when he took Jason’s lunch duty. To be honest, lunch duty improved his mood, since it meant he was outside in the beautiful weather instead of in the soulless, windowless teachers’ lounge.
And then Henry found him and made everything even better.
“So, last game of the season this weekend. Are you ready?”
Ty polished off the last of the water in his insulated bottle and stuck it in his side shorts pocket. Were cargo shorts particularly fashionable? No. Did he care about that? Once upon a time he would have, but right now he was just happy to have a place to store various elements of his lunch. “Are we ever ready?” The team had gone unvictorious—Ty had actually had to come up with an antonym forundefeated. And the last game of the season was against the top team in the area.
“We might be this time.” Henry raised his travel mug to his lips. He was being intentionally cryptic and Ty was not going to fall for it.
Ty fell for it. “Oh?”
The tiniest hint of a smirk appeared at the corner of Henry’s mouth. “Rumor has it the reigning champs have the mumps.”
Ty was a medical professional. He had Seen Things. He could barely walk down the produce aisle at the grocery store without having flashbacks to the things people put inside their bodies. The hardware store? Forget about it. One look at a Maglite and he was back in an ambulance speeding down Highway 41, biting his lip so he wouldn’t make a joke about the sun shining out a seventeen-year-old’s ass.
It still took him a moment to digest Henry’s words. “Excuse me?” He blinked. “There’s a vaccine for that.”
He knew better. He did. After working as a health teacher at a public school, hereally did.
“Tell it to those kids’ parents,” Henry said wryly.
“I am pretty sure that would get me fired.”
“You’re leaving anyway. Might as well get the last word.”
A tempting prospect, for sure. But Ty already felt like he was being run out of town, even if his return to Chicago had nothing to do with Alan Chiu and whatever flashlight-size bug had crawled up his ass. Besides, he was in too good a mood to spoil it with a fight. Summer was here. Soon he’d get to go back to his real job. And he had Ollie. The timing sucked and the details were fuzzy, but Ty had never clicked with anyone like this, and he wasn’t going to let a little distance ruin it.
Especially not after last night. He shivered pleasantly thinking about it.
“I’ll take that under advisement.”
They ambled around the schoolyard together, supervising vaguely. Ty had never had yard duty and, if he was honest, was not particularly motivated to make sure he did it properly. Walking in aimless silence suited him fine. Occasionally a child ran up and requested permission to go inside and use the bathroom, which baffled him. What was he going to do? Say no, you have to pee behind a bush?
But while Ty was lost in his own world of sunshine and Ollie Kent’s kisses, Henry was obviously somewhere else, because after a few minutes of what Ty thought had been companionable silence, Henry said, “Seriously, kid, you’re killing me.”
Startled, Ty glanced over. “What?”
“Are you kidding me? After the way you ran out of the staff party on Saturday?” Any minute now Henry would start pulling out his hair. “You’re just going to keep me in suspense? Eliza will kill me if I don’t come home with details.”
What?“You’re going to blame this on your wife? I was at your houseall day yesterday. She could’ve asked me herself.”
