Ryan propped his chin on his hands and ignored Jordy’s sidestep. “And the nanny?”
Jordy wanted to stab a sushi roll, but he knew that was rude. “You mean Anna?”
“Not unless the nanny you brought to New York and had sexual tension at duringourwedding reception has changed his name, no.” He rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”
Jordy took back every nice thing he’d thought about this team. “We did not—”
He expected the flat, unimpressed stare from Ryan. He didn’t expect how much more effective the expression was on Nico.
Ryan took a long sip of bubble tea to wait Jordy out.
Nico didn’t blink.
“We didn’t work out,” Jordy finally said.
Ryan kept drinking and Nico continued not to blink. After a moment Jordy had to break eye contact and appeal to his husband. “Is he just going to stare at me like that?”
Without looking, Ryan reached his hand to the left and snapped his fingers in front of Nico’s face.
Scowling, Nico blinked and pushed his hand away.
“German interrogation technique,” Ryan said. “Very effective. It’s the eyebrow. Ow!”
“How did you fuck it up?” Nico asked.
Jordy hunched his shoulders. “How do you know it wasn’t him who fucked it up?”
“If it was, you’d be talking about why he sucks.”
Ryan chewed a tapioca ball—he’d ordered pineapple bubble tea; the whole thing turned Jordy’s stomach—and then swallowed. “My husband has a point. You have a guilty conscience. Tell Uncle Ryan all about it.”
Jordy debated telling Uncle Ryan something else, but he couldn’t bring himself to be so rude after Ryan and Nico had saved him from not only a miserable afternoon, but a miserable and stressful home search. At least now he knew that he’d have room for Kaira when she arrived. He could even send her pictures, through Rowan, and ask what color he should have her room painted.
Besides, it was probably like excising a sliver. You couldn’t start to heal until you pulled it out.
“Same old story, I guess.” He stuffed a California roll in his mouth to give himself time to formulate the words. “We wereattracted to each other, we acted on it, and I started thinking of him as more of a partner than an employee-slash-friend with benefits. I didn’t realize I was treating him that way, we never talked about it. Rowan got reasonably pissed off with me for dragging my feet on the nanny search, we fought, and I realized I fucked up, but it was too late.” He knocked back his cup of jasmine tea, which had gone cold. “I apologized, but he doesn’t want what I’m offering, so.”
Ryan and Nico exchanged looks. Nico pushed the last spicy tuna roll across the table toward Jordy, as if offering comfort.
That one was his favorite. Jordy ate it.
But apparently the tuna roll was just to lull him into a false sense of security. There werefollow-upquestions.
Or, more accurately, a follow-up inquisition.
“What you’reoffering?” Ryan repeated, raising his eyebrows. “Dude. I hope you phrased it better when you were talking to him.”
Nico picked up a piece of tempura. “It sounds like you asked him to be your mistress.”
“I didn’t ask him that,” Jordy protested. He wasn’t anidiot. “Anyway, it’s—whatever. When I asked him to come to Vancouver, I knew he’d say no. He just got his dream job. He made that pretty clear. But I had to ask anyway, right? Even my kid loves him.”
Another look. Nico snorted.
As though responding to a comment only he had heard, Ryan nudged him. “Hey, come on. I was not that bad.”
Whatever Nico was saying with his eyebrows, Jordy couldn’t translate.
“Okay, I was that bad,” Ryan capitulated.
