Page 76 of More Than a Spark

“Ryder.” I touched the woman’s arm. “Thank you.” Rushing to the drapery, I flung it open.

Ryder lay on a hospital bed, an IV bag hanging by a metal hook by his head and monitors beeping behind him. He wore his navy-blue fire department shirt and trousers. “Shit, Milo. What are you doing here?”

“What amIdoing here?” Dropping my mouth open, I looked him up and down. He was coherent anyways, so I probably wasn’t losing him today. Fuck, why did I have to think like that?

An open gash dribbled blood onto towels from his right forearm and a man in dark blue scrubs was bent over it, looking at me with bloodied wipes in his gloved hands. The man asked, “Who’s this?”

“His boyfriend.” I planted my hands on my hips. What the hell was going on?

Ryder’s eyes went wide, and he dropped his mouth open. “Oh, shit.” He stared off to the side of me.

I swiveled around, and my gaze caught on a tall, older man with salt and pepper hair, wearing a navy athletic shirt with the Chandler Fire Department logo on his chest. Next to him was Russ. “Uh…”

“Hello, Ryder’s boyfriend. I’m Captain Schilling, Ryder’s training officer.” He eyed me and held out his hand.

Under his breath, Russ said, “Oh, shit.” He rubbed his eyes.

I shook Captain Schilling’s hand, my heart pounding out of control. “My name is Milo.” Had I just outed Ryder at work? I winced. Fuck, I had. This captain looked pretty tough.

“Gentleman, can I ask you to take this in the hallway and let me finish sewing him up?” The man in the scrubs picked up a rounded needle with thread. He let a grin creep over his mouth. “Unless you want to watch.”

I swallowed hard as nausea balled in my gut. I wanted to be there for Ryder, but blood wasn’t my thing and now I’d started a shit show for him. “Um, what do you want me to do, babe?” Oh, fuck me. Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut?

Ryder’s eyes grew wide. “Milo, Jesus.”

“I’m sorry.” I held my hands out, glanced at the captain and Russ, who was chuckling into his palm, and then I stepped to Ryder’s side. “I’ll stay here with him.” He wouldn’t leave my side in a situation like this.

“You don’t like blood.” Ryder drew a deep breath, then grabbed my hand. “Go ahead, doc. I’m ready.”

“We’ll come back when you’re done and the two of you have some alone time.” The captain smirked at us, then stepped out with Russ, and closed the curtain.

As the doctor sewed stitches into Ryder’s arm, I turned away from it and focused on Ryder’s stunning face. I didn’t want to pass out from watching the stitches go in and look even more stupid. I fought to keep my hamburger lunch down. “I’m sorry I outed you to your training officer.”

He tsked. “Yeah, whatever. It was going to happen at some point.” He huffed a laugh. “Guess you did it for me.” He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.

“Do you think it’ll be a problem for you?” I knitted my brows. I couldn’t believe I’d outed him like that. At least Russ was here to soften the blow.

“Does it matter? It’s done and it had to happen.” He tugged on my hand. “Come here.”

I stepped closer to him, my hip touching the rail on the side of the bed. “They can’t like, fire you or give you a desk job or something, can they?”

“No, they’re not going to do that. I’m sure it’s different down here and if someone gives me shit, I’ve got Russ to watch my back.” He twisted his lips. “And probably a few of the other guys. Especially after today.”

“Why, what the hell happened today?” I snuck a peek at the doc, the wound almost all sewn up. Thank God the thing was hardly bleeding anymore.

“Russ, the cocky bastard that he is, forgot rule three.” He took a ragged breath. “Try before you pry.”

“What does that mean?” I peered at him. This was more than I’d ever heard him say about his job. I guessed it was because we’d become closer than ever.

“It means the idiot went full barrel into attempting to open a metal door in the open box simulation today and didn’t test to see if it was hot first.” He shook his head. “As he was swinging his ax to take off the hinges, I went to grab it, and it landed square in my arm.”

The doctor looked up at us from under his brows. “And you were lucky the wound wasn’t deeper.” He finished up and started to cover the cut with gauze.

“I’m sure I’m going to catch hell from the Cap later.” Ryder sighed. “What a fucking day.” His breath caught. “What are you doing here, anyways?”

“Your dad called me. He’s out in New River and couldn’t get here.” My heartbeat slowed and the tightness in my chest relaxed. Ryder was going to be just fine.

Narrowing his eyes, he scoffed. “I can’t believe they called my dad. This wasn’t that bad, and I was conscious the whole time.”

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