5
Kirschbaum flushed, obviously flustered, and slowed down. “Jordy. Was there something you wanted to talk about?”
It had taken Jordy a minute to get used to that German directness. He used to think Kersh just didn’t like him. “Making conversation,” he said, bemused. Something was going on here, between the whispers at the lunch table and now—
“Nicky!” Ryan came around the corner, waving a sheaf of papers. Dante Baltierra was half a step behind him. “I got ’em! You good to go?”
Kirschbaum looked at Jordy. From his expression, he was trying very hard to be polite.
Jordy shook his head. He really didn’t have anything to say. Kersh gave a grateful smile and took off with Ryan at a jog.
“They seem really excited about that scavenger hunt,” Jordy commented to Baller.
Baller smiled. “Kids these days, right? So full of energy and zest for life. Brings a tear to your eye.”
One of these days, Jordy would stop expecting Baller to say normal things and remember he was kind of a weirdo. “Speaking of kids, where’s yours?”
Baller sighed gustily. “Sadly, I’m flying solo this year. Reyna’s got an ear infection.”
Jordy winced. “Ouch.” Definitely not a good time to bring a preschooler on a plane.
“Yeah, I’m gonna owe Gabe so much parent hazard pay when I get back.” He gave Jordy a sly sideways look, complete with eyebrow wiggling, as they made their way toward the elevator. “What about you?”
Jordy jabbed the button. “What about me what?”
“You’re gonna owe your partner a few favors, right?”
“My what?” Sully was back in Toronto with his own newborn.
“Partner?” Baller prompted. “Or is it boyfriend? The cute guy hanging out with your kid while you’re primping for the cameras? I didn’t get to talk to him at lunch ’cause I was busy—” He cut himself off as the elevator arrived and he stepped forward into the car. “Anyway. He seems like he fits in. How long have you been together?”
“Uh?” The question threw him enough that the elevator doors started to close before he remembered he needed to get in. Baller was looking at him like he was the crazy one. “That’s Rowan. He’s not my—he’s my….”
Baller looked at him expectantly.
Friend? Okay, they were friends, but normal friends didn’t fly to New York to help you watch your kid while you had work meetings. Nanny seemed reductive. Rowan wasn’t Jordy’s employee. Okay, he was Jordy’s employee, but that was a technicality. Roommate likewise did not cover it.
“Sugar baby?” Baller suggested eventually.
Jordy facepalmed and slammed his other hand on the button for his floor. “He’s a friend I’m paying to help look after my kid because my nanny quit suddenly at the same time he found out his apartment was infested with black mold.”
Three floors ticked away in silence.
Baller said, “So you’re not sleeping with him?”
“Of course not.”
“Why not?”
Jordy shot him a look. Did he have to explain ethics? For all that Baller was a weirdo, he’d always been a good man. Jordy hadn’t ever come out so much as he just didn’t bother to hide things. It helped that, by the time Jordy and Sanna split, Baller and Gabe were already public, so Jordy’s quiet, romance-free lifestyle—queer or not—didn’t draw attention. Still, Baller, the self-proclaimed fairy godmother of the NHL, extended membership into the queer group chat he’d started. Not that Jordy spent much time in the Rainbow Hockey chat—a name he could only guess at since Baller had named it with emojis. After about a week of Ryan, Max Lockhart, Liam Belanger, and Baller inundating the chat with a combination of animal and queer memes and photos of their pets and children, Jordy muted the chat without guilt.
Baller waved a hand. “Okay, yes, obviously you’re not putting moves on the nanny. But you just said he’s a friend, so….”
“Exactly. A friend.”
The doors opened on their floor—curse Jordy’s luck that he couldn’t escape this conversation by means of closing elevator doors—and they stepped out.
“A very hot and gay friend who likes spending time with your child,” Baller agreed.
Jordy shot him a look. That wasn’t enough to build a relationship on.
They arrived at Jordy’s door first, and he stopped with his keycard in hand and waited. Rowan and Kaira might be on the other side, and Jordy did not want them to overhear Baller’s ridiculous ponderings. People who found the loves of their lives when barely out of puberty should be officially banned from meddling into the love lives of others, since the experience clearly warped their brains.
Baller shook his head. “Fine, I’ll stop questioning your life choices and leave you to your adorable modern family so that I can go call mine.” He gave a cheery wave and all but skipped down the hallway.
Shaking his head, Jordy unlocked the door and found Kaira and Rowan in the hotel room. As expected, Kaira was asleep, facedown and starfished across his bed, looking as if she’d crashed into it and lost consciousness. Jordy glanced over at the other bed, but Rowan wasn’t curled up in it, taking advantage of the downtime. Instead, he was tucked into the corner farthest from Kaira and whispering into his phone.
“—only two days?” He chewed on his thumb as he listened to the answer on the other end of the line. “No, I have my laptop. I just need to find a minute.”
Jordy wondered if he should step back out into the hallway. Before he could decide, Rowan looked up, caught his eye, and waved him in.
“Yeah, no. Thanks, Gem. I owe you one. … Yes, another one.” He rolled his eyes at Jordy, who smiled. He could picture her tart response to the idea of being owed favors. “Cheers,” Rowan said and disconnected the call.
Since he was no longer interrupting, Jordy settled in the other chair to keep things quiet. Not that he could let Kaira sleep much longer, since he did want her to go to bed before midnight.
“Everything okay?” Nervous energy during phone calls with lawyers, even ones who were friends, didn’t seem like a good thing.
“Yeah,” Rowan said distractedly as he stared at his blank cell phone for a long moment. Then a smile broke across his face. “Everything’s fine. It’s great. Well, no, it’s good, but it might be great soon.”
That illuminated nothing. Jordy arched an eyebrow.
“That was Gem—okay, yes, obviously. She called because she heard about a job.” Rowan still looked a bit dazed.
“A good one, I’m guessing.”
“Jordy, it’s perfect.” Suddenly, Rowan’s body was alive with restrained energy. His leg bounced and his hands waved in the air as he enthusiastically, if quietly, explained. “The English lit reference librarian at U of T had to leave suddenly—I don’t know why—but that means there is a full-time indefinite position opened up, and they want to staff it before the start of term.”
Jordy blinked. “Isn’t that, like, two weeks away?”
“Yeah,” Rowan breathed. “So they’re looking for applicants ASAP. Gem says they’re calling qualified applicants for interviews before the application deadline. Which means I need to apply immediately if I want any hope of getting a call.”
“What do you need?”
“Time to read over my CV and package up an application?” Rowan looked a bit overwhelmed at the prospect, and Jordy couldn’t blame him. Not that Jordy knew what it was like to apply for a job the normal way, but he could remember the dread and nerves involved in interviewing with NHL teams prior to his draft.
“How about we leave the library for tomorrow and I take that one downstairs for dinner. That would give you a few of hours of peace and quiet in the room.”
“Really?” Rowan looked so surprised and grateful that Jordy kind of wanted to hug him or pat his head. “I know I’m supposed to be working—”
“No, you’re not,” Jordy reminded him. Rowan didn’t have a US work visa, and Jordy truly didn’t expect him to work. He just needed a heads-up to arrange alternative care. “You’re on vacation and you’re occasionally watching my kid as a favor.” Jordy knew they were blurring the lines between employer/employee and friendship, but he thought Rowan understood those lines anyway.
“I know,” Rowan reassured him. “Still, you must be exhausted. At least if there’s two of us we might make up one semirested adult.”
Jordy snorted. “Maybe, but this sounds important.”
Rowan let out a long breath and nodded. “It’s kind of my dream job,” he admitted almost shyly, like he couldn’t believe he was saying it out loud.
“Well, then, Kaira and I better get out of your hair so you can do what needs doing.” Jordy slapped his thighs and stood, filled suddenly with restless energy. Rowan would get this job, Jordy was sure. And Jordy would be left nannyless again. Hopefully Jordy could at least convince Rowan to continue living with them in the short term so there was someone to pull the dusk-to-dawn shift every day, even during road trips.
Pushing away thoughts of nannies and job searches and interviews—ugh—Jordy gently shook Kaira awake and failed utterly at not finding her grumpy pouty face to be completely adorable. The NHL had booked one of the event spaces downstairs for the evening, so Jordy packed up his kid, wished Rowan luck, and left him hunched over his laptop.
AS PROMISED, they made the library their first priority after breakfast, and it did not disappoint. Kaira clung tightly to Jordy on one side and Rowan on the other as they walked up the steps. Jordy would never forget the look on her face when she looked around the Rose Main Reading Room or the awe in her voice when she whispered, “Daddy, it’s even better than Belle’s library in the castle!”
Yeah, he was glad he hadn’t missed this. “It’s pretty special,” Jordy agreed in the same hushed tone.
“Feeling a little bit like chopped liver here,” Rowan muttered on her other side, and Jordy looked up at him with a grin.
They had opted out of a full guided tour, both because Jordy had obligations later and because a six-year-old’s attention span could only stretch so far. Instead, they hit the highlights. After the reading room, they went straight down to the Children’s Center to see the Winnie-the-Pooh exhibit, where Rowan made sad noises about his country’s cultural heritage being stolen by the New York Public Library.
Jordy raised a pointed eyebrow and Rowan, without missing a beat, said, “Well, what goes around comes around. Colonize the colonizers.”
Kaira didn’t get the joke, but she laughed at his tone anyway and then begged for a trip to the gift shop.
As if they were skipping that. What was the point of making his salary if he couldn’t spend an absurd amount of money in a library gift shop?
Of course, he didn’t want his kid to get spoiled, so some of the things he was going to buy would have to be for later. Maybe a happy-first-day-of-school gift for next month?
“You can have one stuffed animal,” Jordy said firmly. He would not be swayed by Kaira’s puppy-dog eyes or the way she looked back and forth between Piglet and Eeyore.
Finally she sighed and put Eeyore back, “Because Piglet looks kind of like an armadildo, Daddy.”
That was Clem’s fault. She’d never had any trouble pronouncing it before.
A woman browsing the stuffies next to them valiantly choked back a laugh.
“Good choice,” Jordy said seriously. “You can pick out two books, okay? Do you want to go look at those next?”
When she nodded, Jordy looked over at Rowan. “Can you take her?” He glanced at Eeyore, knowing Rowan would understand the assignment.
Rowan saluted. “Meet you at the kids’ books.”
Jordy only meant to buy Eeyore, which he easily could’ve hidden away somewhere—the stuffed animal wasn’t that big. But somehow by the time he reached the checkout he’d also picked up a Winnie-the-Pooh tote bag for future library trips. Then, when he was about to pay, his eye caught on the display of Hundred-Acre Wood throw blankets behind the counter, and he thought about Rowan’s penchant for curling up on the couch while they watched CSI: Toronto .
Sooner or later Rowan would move out. Did he have a throw blanket of his own? Jordy didn’t know how bad the black mold situation in his apartment had gotten. Maybe he’d had to throw some things away.
A good friend would get him a housewarming gift, right? Jordy would hate for Rowan to get cold in the evenings with no one’s leg to stick his feet under.
Jordy added the blanket to his purchase, paid, and was wondering how to be subtle about it when Rowan appeared at his elbow with Kaira on his other side. “I’ve got this if you can cover me for five minutes after?”
Jordy didn’t ask questions, just handed him the bag. Rowan didn’t have to know the blanket was for him.
Last stop was the café, where they grabbed a snack for Kaira and caffeine for the adults and Jordy sneaked a peek in Rowan’s bag. Gift editions of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass —beautiful, but maybe not enough pictures for a six-year-old. Jordy wondered if he collected them for himself.
He was clearing away their tray when he almost ran into the woman from the armadildo incident. “Sorry,” he said automatically as he sidestepped so she could go first.
He thought she’d ignore him—that happened in New York, where sometimes ignoring people in your space was the politest thing you could do—but instead she smiled. “You’re fine. It’s good to see a young family out enjoying the library. Looks like you’re having a great time.”
“We are.” He laughed at himself a little. “Although the two of them more than me, I think. Kaira didn’t get her love of books from me.” Not that she got it from Rowan either, but—well, it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to get into his complicated family dynamic with a stranger.
“Mm-hmm,” she said. “I saw you at the checkout. I think you like indulging them.”
So someone else had caught him. “I think I’ll plead the Fifth,” he said as sweetly as he could and grinned when she laughed. “You have a good day.”
Encumbered by so many bags, they opted for a cab back to the hotel, which Jordy was grateful for when, three minutes into the ride, Kaira declared she had to use the bathroom, even though he’d asked if she had to go before they left the library.
Then there was another group lunch, this time with smaller round tables instead of busy long ones that made it impossible to navigate the room. Unfortunately that meant it was more of a challenge to find three seats together and impossible to turn down an invitation from Brady Silver, the Shield’s baby-faced captain.
It wasn’t that Jordy didn’t like him. Everybody liked Brady. But he was twenty-three and married with a baby on the way, and he made Jordy feel so old .
He offered Kaira a fist-bump as she climbed into the seat beside him. “My favorite Shaw.”
“Hi, Cap!”
“And you brought a new friend.” Brady smiled his golden-retriever smile at Rowan and stood up to shake his hand. “Hey, I’m Brady. Everybody calls me Cap.”
Rowan raised his eyebrows at Jordy over Brady’s shoulder as if to say is this guy for real? But he shook his hand anyway. “Uh, Rowan.”
“Oh, Rowan. You must be the new Janice.”
Jordy’s brain screeched to a halt halfway through pulling out a chair.
Kaira, though, didn’t miss a beat. “Don’t be silly, Cap.” She settled into her chair and reached for her napkin, which had been folded into a swan shape. “He’s Rowan.”
Fortunately Rowan seemed to think nothing of it, so Jordy had a moment to stow his discomfort. What was wrong with him anyway? Technically, from Brady’s point of view, he hadn’t said anything weird.
Jordy pushed away the feeling of disquiet and focused on getting lunch for Kaira.
Any hopes Jordy might have had for a quiet evening were dashed by Ryan Wright. They ran into him, Nico, and Dante in the lobby as the other three were headed out of the hotel, but Ryan, having caught sight of them, lit up. “Hey, you have to join us at the bar tonight. We’re having our traditional Gays Night.”
“ Is it a tradition?” Nico asked behind him.
Ryan gasped in offense. “Yes. Look, we gotta have drinks anytime more than three of us are gathered in one place. Jordy—” Ryan paused, turned to Rowan, and continued. “—Rowan, I’ll text you details.”
He did, unfortunately, text details, including the detail that the Yorkshires had offered to look after Kaira while Jordy and Rowan went out. With no excuse—and feeling like he owed it to Rowan to give him a night out—Jordy sucked it up and put on his going-out pants.
The bar Ryan had chosen wasn’t a gay bar, but it was within walking distance of the hotel and had a small private room. Rowan and Jordy found the other three already settled into it with drinks in front of them.
“You’re here!” Ryan looked like he’d already finished off a couple of shots, but he perked up out of his slouch against Nico to greet them.
“Welcome, boys.” Dante handed Rowan and Jordy each a shot. Jordy sniffed his. This didn’t smell like the vile brew of vodka, tequila, and Schlager he’d once naively downed, but you could never be too careful.
“It’s just vodka,” Dante explained. “I wanted tequila, or at least a blowjob, but Nico overruled me.”
“But I like blowjobs,” Rowan said mournfully.
“Vodka is good,” Nico insisted unapologetically and lifted his shot.
“So good,” Ryan cooed, holding up his drink.
Good grief. Jordy didn’t think they’d taken that long to get here, but the evidence was staring him in the face. “Wright, are you drunk already?”
“Maybe,” Ryan admitted. He shot a coy, under-the-eyelashes look at Jordy, then Nico. “But I’m celebrating.” Nico turned positively pink and gooey-eyed under Ryan’s gaze. Despite himself, Jordy’s curiosity was piqued.
“What are you celebrating?” Rowan asked.
“Mawwige!” Ryan crowed. “It’s what bwings us togevvah!” He smacked a kiss to Nico’s cheek.
Jordy blinked. “What?”
Something must have made sense to Rowan, because his eyes widened. “Seriously?”
Dante laughed. “Seriously. We drove up to the small town of Tuckahoe—” Rowan and Jordy both choked, and Ryan giggled. “Tuckahoe, I shit you not, it’s just north of Mount Vernon. Anyway, I can’t officiate a wedding in New York City without a two-to-six-week waiting period. Fortunately that doesn’t apply to any small town that’s willing to accept my credentials and the court filing fees.”
Jordy stared at Dante, then Ryan and Nico, then back at Dante. There was so much to unpack there.
Rowan recouped faster. “Wait, wait, wait. So you’re telling me that sometime after bitching about wedding planning yesterday morning, you two got a license and then drove out of the city so you could get married?”
“Yes,” Ryan said. He kissed Nico’s cheek again. “As much as I was enjoying fucking with people with all my dumb wedding ideas, all the planning made Nico a nervous wreck. So we decided to skip it.”
“Wow,” Rowan said. “That’s… actually adorably romantic.”
“It was so romantic.” Ryan enthused. He sat up and fished his phone from his pocket. “Wanna see pictures?”
“Of course.” Rowan leaned across the table to get a better view, his beer forgotten.
Jordy wasn’t against seeing wedding photos, even ones taken during a batshit elopement, but he had to ask. “You’re ordained?”
Dante shrugged. “I did one of those online courses a couple of years back.”
Jordy waited for further explanation. None came. “Why?”
“Short answer? I was bored, stuck at home on IR.” Jordy let out a bark of laughter. “Long answer? Yorkie and Jenna ran into some issues trying to fast-track things, and I always thought it would be cool to perform a wedding.”
“So,” Jordy summed up, “you were high on pain meds and got ordained to perform marriages on the off chance it would someday be useful.”
“Totally worth it.” Dante grinned and tipped his head at the others. “I swear Kersh is finally back to looking his age today, and Ryan’s walking on air.” He wiped away a fake tear. “Young love. So beautiful.”
Jordy had to admit that Nico did look looser and happier this evening. Since he didn’t know the kid, Jordy hadn’t noticed how tense he was on that first day.
“To young love,” Jordy agreed. “Though this has to be the weirdest wedding reception I’ve ever attended.”
“And also the drunkest?” Baller guessed. He lowered his voice. “Yeah. I think Ryan’s drinking to drown the anxiety of what Nico’s mom’s going to do to him for eloping with her baby.”
“Ah.” Jordy winced. He could imagine his own mother’s reaction, and he wasn’t even the youngest. She’d barely forgiven Sanna for divorcing him, and that had been mutual. “If he doesn’t slow down, they’re not going to have much of a wedding night.”
Rowan elbowed him. “Aw, let them get drunk together. They have the rest of their lives to fuck each other stupid.” He looked over Jordy’s shoulder; Jordy followed his gaze. “But maybe we should switch to something softer. Shouldn’t we be drinking champagne anyway?”
“And there should definitely be food,” Jordy added, partly because however grateful he was that Yorkie had taken Kaira tonight, tomorrow held no such guarantees. Besides, it was a travel day. That was a big no on the hangover.
“Smart.” Baller nodded. “You order bubbly, I’ll order pizza.”
Rowan looked back and forth between them and nodded. “Teamwork,” he said. “I get it.”
The rest of the evening was conspicuously more chill. The champagne smoothed some of Ryan’s rougher edges, or maybe it just soothed his nerves. By the time the pizza arrived, Nico was more or less sitting in his lap and Jordy started to feel… unnecessary.
“They know they can start the honeymoon anytime, right?” Rowan asked in a murmur, right in Jordy’s ear. Jordy shivered involuntarily at what had to be the accidental brush of lips against his skin. “Um. Unless there’s some weird hockey exhibition initiation thing I’m not privy to.”
“No,” Jordy said automatically. Then he realized there might be and turned wide eyes on Baller. “There’s not, right?”
“I knew you had the group chat muted.” Baller shook his head in disappointment.
“That’s not an answer.”
Off to the side, Ryan and Nico seemed to have forgotten their presence entirely. They were holding their ringed hands together; Ryan wore his on the left, but Nico’s was on the right, so the bands lined up. They had their heads leaned against each other too, and they practically glowed with contentment.
Jordy looked away, rubbing his chest.
Baller followed his eyeline for a moment and then shook himself. “And on that note, I need to excuse myself to call my husband and gush about how much I love him. Sorry. I think it’s contagious.” He paused. “If they start taking each other’s clothes off, just pour them in a taxi.”
Don’t leave us alone with them! Jordy wanted to shout, but it was too late. Could you be a third wheel when there was also a fourth wheel? Because that was what this felt like.
The door had barely closed behind Baller when Rowan thankfully budged over just a bit, tapped his fingers on the base of his champagne glass, and said, “We could probably make a run for it. I don’t think they even know we’re here.”
“I think they might be too stupid to leave unsupervised.” Could you get arrested for that in New York?
Rowan smiled, not wry at all, just uncomplicated and happy. “It’s good, though, right? I mean that they get to stay together. I didn’t know sports worked like that.”
With one final glance to make sure Ryan and Nico were well and truly occupied staring deeply into each other’s eyes, Jordy said, “It doesn’t.”
Rowan blinked. “What?”
“It doesn’t work like that. Nico has a no-movement clause, I think, but that mostly means he gets to pick where they’d trade him. Ryan can be dealt at any time if Orcas management feels like it.” Jordy tore his gaze away from the happy couple. “They just… got married anyway.” They chose each other, even though they knew they might be separated.
“Shit.” Rowan looked from Jordy to the newlyweds and back again. “Wait, so does that mean you…?”
“I have a limited no-movement clause,” Jordy confirmed. “But it’s pretty broad.” Fortunately Kaira was still young enough that changing schools wouldn’t disrupt her life too much, and he only had a couple more years in him anyway.
“What? But how do you…?” Rowan seemed totally thrown. “How do they expect you to just pick up your whole life? I mean, you have a house, people have families….”
“Yeah, well, that’s why they pay us the big bucks.” Jordy couldn’t put his finger on why smiling was so difficult right now. He’d made his peace with his life. “It’s okay, really. I’m not losing sleep over it.”
“I couldn’t do it,” Rowan said. “I mean… maybe it’s just a me thing? I spent my childhood in dormitories. I barely saw my parents. Now I finally have a place that feels like home, you know? Even if it’s Toronto and not a specific apartment. And living your whole life knowing you might have to give it up any day?”
Suddenly the pizza Jordy had eaten wasn’t sitting so well, but he couldn’t think about why just now. He needed air. Space. Possibly some sobriety.
At that moment Baller rejoined them, took a look in the corner where Ryan and Nico were trading chaste kisses every twenty seconds like they couldn’t believe they got to do it, and then said, “You guys want to share a cab? I think the newlyweds should have their own.”
“Maybe one with plastic seat covers,” Rowan agreed just loud enough for Jordy to hear.
Baller settled the tab—Jordy would Venmo him their share later—and they stepped out into the warm August night.
They probably could’ve walked back to the hotel, but with Ryan and Nico barely able to keep their eyes off each other, never mind their hands, Jordy didn’t like the odds of them staying out of traffic. Wrangling them to safety would take forever. They took a pair of cabs instead, the newlyweds in the first one and Rowan and Jordy sharing the second with Baller.
In the car, Baller was uncharacteristically quiet. It was weird . Jordy suspected him of plotting something until he caught the reflected glow of Baller’s cell phone screen—he was in the front passenger seat with Jordy behind him—and realized he was… was he texting someone? Or looking through photos…? No, that was a flight app.
Baller took a left in the hotel lobby and headed toward the reception desk, leaving Jordy and Rowan behind with a wave.
“Where’s he going?” Rowan asked as they waited for the elevator.
“Checking out, I think.”
“At midnight?”
“I think he’s homesick. He probably got an earlier flight.”
They stepped into the car, and Rowan selected their floor. “Thanks for letting me come along tonight. It was… interesting.”
He still didn’t get it, did he? “You were invited,” Jordy said pointedly. “I told you, I didn’t bring you along so you could watch Kaira.”
He brought him along because—because Jordy enjoyed his company and thought he might enjoy the trip. They were friends. Jordy just wanted him around.
That wasn’t weird, Jordy told himself.
Rowan opened their hotel room door. “Yeah, yeah, I get it.” He put the key on the table and toed his shoes off, but when he attempted to nudge them under the table in the dark, he ended up cursing and staggering.
Jordy caught him by the elbow, picked up the key card with his other hand, and slid it into the holder on the wall, which turned the lights on. “You okay?”
“Apart from the clumsiness?” Rowan’s cheeks reddened. “I’m okay. Just tripping on my own shopping, apparently.”
It took him looking pointedly at his arm for Jordy to remember he could let go. His fingers didn’t want to cooperate, and complained about him forcing them by tingling afterward. Then Rowan ducked under the table and pulled out his purchase from the library to check in on it. “No harm done,” he announced.
Which reminded Jordy—“What did you buy, anyway?” Of course he knew what , but he wanted to know why .
“Oh.” The flush renewed as Rowan reached into the bag and withdrew the books. “They’re just… well, they’re so lovely, and they were some of my favorites growing up. Classics, you know? I thought Kaira might like them. I know she’s too young now, but—”
Jordy’s heart beat furiously against his rib cage, like it had something to say.
“They should last forever,” Rowan went on. “Really nice bindings. They reminded me of the sets my grandparents bought me when I was a kid.”
Now Jordy’s lungs had joined in and struggled to pull in enough air. His brain was completely silent, as though to avoid splitting attention from the other two.
“It’s okay, right? I’m not overstepping?”
Jesus. “It’s perfect,” Jordy said, then immediately felt the urge to clear his throat. Why did his voice sound like that, hoarse and broken? “She’s going to love them.”
He could’ve added that Rowan didn’t have to do that. But Rowan knew . He did it because he wanted to.
He did it because he loved Jordy’s kid and she loved him.
And so, said Jordy’s stupid heart, doing its best to crawl out his mouth, did Jordy.
Rowan set the books back into their hiding spot and wandered into the bathroom, listing slightly to one side.
Jordy watched him go, his heart still hammering, beating out a love-song tattoo even as his stomach sank with the knowledge that Rowan, though perfect in so many ways, was no one’s hockey spouse.
Well, fuck.