“Historically gay?”
Rowan waved a hand. “I’m not saying I couldneverbe attracted to a woman, just that it hasn’t happened yet. Ergo, historically gay.” Jordy’s lips twitched and Rowan patted himself on the back. “So, you and Sanna split?”
“Yeah. Sanna had to put her life on hold to be with me, and moving wherever hockey took me could make it tough to find work. She needed to do her own thing.” Jordy cleared his throat.“Besides, we’d realized a pretty big irreconcilable difference. Sanna never wanted to be a mom. When Emma got pregnant and I dropped everything… that was sort of the final nail in the coffin.”
“Ah.” Rowan wasn’t sure what to say. He’d assumed Jordy’s ex and Kaira’s mom must be the same person, but that sounded like Kaira’s mom was someone else entirely. Could he ask? He settled for something safer. “Can’t be easy, doing the single parent thing.” Jordy had clearly opened up to even the score, share some of his own depressing background so Rowan felt less alone, but he looked done with the conversation.
“Not always. I’m lucky, though. Kaira has an amazing nanny, and I have money to help make things easier. But long road trips are hard.”
“Well, you’re doing something right,” Rowan said, “because Kaira adores you. And she’s got the confidence of a child who’s never been let down, who knows she’s safe and secure and that her opinion is valued.”
Jordy gave a wry smile. “You mean she talks a lot.”
Rowan laughed. “Hey, that’s a good thing. Kids who talk a lot usually do so because they know they can. She knows you’ll listen.” Rowan would know. His own upbringing had been different enough from that. Somehow he’d gathered the fortitude to talk all the time anyway, but that was because he was the human equivalent of a hardy weed.
“I’m not a saint.” Jordy poked his fork into his cupcake and then leaned forward and said in a confessional whisper, “Sometimes when she goes on about armadillos I tune it out.”
God, he was adorable. “Well, nobody’sperfect.” Rowan shoved a bite of cupcake in his mouth—no fork for him; cupcakes were firmly in the finger-food category—and wiped a smear of icing from his lip with his thumb. But the sentiment reminded him. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
Jordy took an exploratory bite of his poppyseed cupcake, and his eyes went wide in surprise. When he’d swallowed it, he said, “You’re only asking me now? Why am I suddenly worried?”
“It just seemed polite to ask.” Especially since he wanted to dig further into Jordy’s romantic history.
“It’s fine. Go ahead.” He paused. “Though I might not answer.”
“That’s fair.” Rowan stirred his tea while he gathered his courage. The spoon clanked against the side of his mug; his mother would be appalled. “So, professional athlete, good dad, handsome…. You’re apparently a bit of a catch. I would’ve thought….” Surely it wouldn’t be difficult for Jordy to find a partner if he wanted one, yet Rowan had the firm impression that Jordy’s romantic life had been stagnant for years. “There’s been no one since Sanna?”
Oh Lord, he hadn’t meant to imply the man had beencelibate—
“No one serious,” Jordy said, as if Rowan hadn’t just made a complete arse of himself. Rowan thought that was a pretty diplomatic and G-rated way of sayingI hooked up a couple times. Jordy was all class.
And then Jordy dropped the truth on the conversation like a housecat delivering a decapitated mouse. “I don’t date. With Kaira…. Like you said, I have a lot on my plate with my job and being a good dad. I need to put time with her first whenever I can.”
Oh bollocks, Rowan had misread this whole thing. His only solace was that Jordy delivered this so matter-of-factly that he obviously hadn’t realizedRowanthought it was a date. “Of course, that makes sense.” He shook his head, hoping he hadn’t telegraphed his disappointment. “I really do think that might make you a saint, though. Sorry. Saint Jordy, patron of single dads.”
While he’d been fumbling through what to say, Jordy had finished his cupcake. “Mmm. I’m going to get extra points when I bring Kaira here, so I should be thanking you. Even if pineapple is an evil fruit.”
“You pickedlemon,” Rowan pointed out, affronted. “You can’t eveneata lemon without adding its weight in sugar and pastry, and you’re slanderingpineapple?”
“Anything with that many defenses on the outside isn’t meant to be eaten.”
Rowan narrowed his eyes. Was Jordy having him on? He couldn’t tell, but he enjoyed the game. “Aren’t you from Minnesota? Don’t your people eat fermented shark or something? Sharks have plenty of natural defenses.”
Jordy frowned. “That’s Iceland.”
Whoops. “Ah, you’re right, I got it mixed up with the fish one.” What was it called again? “Lutefisk?”
“It’s just cod,” Jordy said. “Not an apex predator.”
“So you’ve never had….” Rowan searched for the most ludicrous examples he could think of. “Bear meat?” He paused. “Moose?”
Jordy picked up his mug in both hands, an absolutely charming image considering how completely even one hand covered the cup. “Moose aren’t predators.”
“Oh, next you’ll be telling me they have no natural defenses.”
Jordy chuckled and sipped his coffee. “You have a point. No, I haven’t eaten moose, or bear, or, I don’t know, fugu.” He leaned back a bit in his chair. “I have had reindeer, though. Don’t tell Kaira. She believes in Santa Claus.”
“My lips are sealed,” Rowan promised, crossing a finger over his heart.
