Ty glanced back toward Theo’s room, as though to ensure he wasn’t eavesdropping. His face was drawn. “Look, it’s… fine. Just forget it.”
“It’s notfine.”
“No, I-I minimized your feelings. I didn’t listen. I—”
Like he wasn’t listening right now? “Ty.”
He shut his mouth with a click. His cheeks were red. He wouldn’t meet Ollie’s gaze. He was looking instead at the piles of paperwork on the dining room table—pieces of his estranged father’s life.
Everyone who’d lived with Ty in this house had left him—died or rejected him. Ollie never should have forgotten that.
No wonder Ty didn’t want to talk. He was probably afraid Ollie would leave him too, and take Theo with him.
Ollie was such an asshole. “I do need to apologize,” he said gently. “You have been more than generous—you have been so good to Theo and to me, and I threw it in your face—” His voice got stuck and he had to stop. After a deep, shaky breath he began again. “I would have been up a fucking creek without you. Just because I’m insecure about that doesn’t mean I get to take my problems out on you.”
Somehow his hand had found its way around Ty’s and was squeezing it, like that would help his meaning sink in.
He watched Ty swallow. Then his mouth worked soundlessly. From the sharp sound he made when he finally inhaled, he might have forgotten to breathe for a moment there. “You’re—insecure.”
Did Ollie stutter? Surely Ty hadn’t missed it.
He dropped Ty’s hand and opened his mouth.
“I mean you’re—” Ty made a flailing gesture to encompass Ollie head to toe. Ollie’s ears burned. “Like—high school star athlete to actual war hero? Town’s golden boy. Incredible dad.”
Something in Ollie’s stomach curdled. “The first time someone died in front of me I couldn’t even look him in the eye.” Chavez had been twenty-three and terrified, bleeding out from shrapnel from an IED.
Ollie had tried to stop the bleeding. He just didn’t have enough hands to apply pressure everywhere. He’d focused on that and ignored Chavez’s labored gasps. For a moment he’d ignored Chavez slapping at Ollie’s side too, until he realized nothing he could do would save his friend and finally held his hand.
If he expected Ty to balk at this, he should’ve known better. His expression softened, but he didn’t flinch. “You would’ve been what? Eighteen?”
“Nineteen,” Ollie admitted.
Ty nodded. “The first time I lost a patient, I threw up in a planter on the Magnificent Mile. Do you think less of me?”
What Ollie thought was that he’d like to go back in time and give that version of Ty a hug. “It’s not the same thing. I let him die alone.”
“Everyone dies alone. You were a kid, Ollie. Probably scared out of your mind. Give yourself some grace for that.”
Could he do that? Maybe. But he couldn’t accept the title. “I’m not a war hero. I hate—I hate when people say that. I’m not proud of the things I did over there. Shooting people should never be heroic.” Acts of heroism shouldn’t give you nightmares for the rest of your life.
Ty tilted his head. “I mean, I’m assuming you got shot at too. But, uh, I get it. I won’t say that again.”
Some of the nervous tension Ollie had been holding in, a tightness in his stomach, eased, and he realized he’d been clenching his abs to the point of soreness. His mouth felt suddenly dry. “It’s hard to hear, sometimes.” Now the rest of it, Ollie. “Especially when it’s you who’s been pulling my ass out of the fire since I came back to town.”
Thatmade him flush and step back. Because he could handle all the horrible truths about Ollie without flinching, but God forbid anyone should say a kind word abouthim. “Ollie. You and Theo savedme.”
Ollie blinked. No—Ty had given them a home, given Theo an adult he could rely on, someone to have Ollie’s back. Someone to be there when Theo went into anaphylaxis. Someone to save them from Ollie’s lackluster cooking or death by takeout cholesterol. Someone to wake Ollie up in the middle of the night if he had a PTSD nightmare. He swallowed. “Ty, come on. Of the two ofus—”
“You saved me first. This house?” Ty said. “I grew up here, and I haven’t felt welcome or at home in over a decade. I came back and drank myself into a stupor the first night and would’ve missed my own father’s funeral if you hadn’t shown up. You think I would’ve lasted five minutes in this town without you? You’re the only one here who even likes me.”
“Ilove you!”
Ollie didn’t mean to say it. He certainly didn’t mean to half shout it like they were having an argument. But he wasn’t going to take it back—not with Ty looking at him likethat, eyes and mouth soft with shock. Usually he flushed a blotchy red, but this was an almost dainty pink.
Ollie had stunned him into silence.
“I love you,” he repeated urgently. “You are kind and hot and you help people, and half of this town wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire, and it fucking kills me. They should be falling over themselves to hand you the world on a silver platter. I feel like I’m insane.”
