He found her in the kids’ section with the librarian. Kaira was curled up on one of the many pillows scattered on the floor.On the cushion next to her sat a gorgeous man in a polo shirt that seemed to be a size too small. The man was leaning forward with his chin propped on one hand, smiling kindly at Kaira, who was overflowing with excitement.
“Everybody knows the Shield are the best team in the league,” Kaira was saying seriously as Jordy got within hearing range.
“Do they?” the man asked with a smile that appled his smooth brown cheeks. “Ididn’t know that.” Jordy wasn’t the best at judging accents, but he was pretty sure the stranger was from the UK.
“That’s because you don’t know hockey,” Kaira said baldly. “You’ll learn.” She patted the man’s arm.
Even from a distance, Jordy could make out the twinkle in the man’s eye as he leaned forward to coax more information from Jordy’s little chatterbox. “Thanks. So what is it that makes them so great?”
Kaira pondered the question for a split second before she started enumerating reasons on her fingers. “Daddy. Uncle Sully. They’re old. Everyone says so. They win.” She paused and tilted her head. “They don’t have the best mascot, though. The Orcas have a better one, but that’s because orcas are better than rocks.”
“Naturally.”
“They also have okay uniforms.”
The stranger’s cheeks appled as he held back a laugh. “Just okay?” If he kept holding in that laughter, he might hurt something.
“Yeah. No one has a great uniform because they’re all boring colors.”
“None of them are your favorite?”
“Glitter is the best color,” Kaira said in the same tone she used when explaining the basics of toddler pop culture.
“Ah, of course. That makes sense.” The laughter bubbled out on the edge of his otherwise sincere tone. He looked up over Kaira’s shoulder, perhaps to regain some composure, and caught sight of Jordy.
Which was when Jordy realized he was looming at the edge of the children’s section… without a child.
Creepy.
But the stranger—who obviously worked at the library, judging by the name badge Jordy couldn’t quite read from this angle—didn’t look alarmed or call for help. Instead he smiled further and asked, “Kaira dear, I don’t suppose your father is a frightfully tall and horribly handsome man who has hair the same honey shade as yours?”
Kaira scrunched her nose. “He is very tall, but I don’t know about handsome. Uncle Sully calls him pretty boy, though. He says if Daddy doesn’t want to be called pretty, he shouldn’t have shampoo-commercial flow. He also says that it’s a good thing for me since I look like Daddy.”
Jordy didn’t cringe from embarrassment. Kaira had given him way too much practice hiding his mortified winces. Unfortunately, shelovedto quote her Uncle Sully.
“So would I be right in guessing that gorgeous statue behind you is your daddy?” The man pointed over her shoulder.
Kaira turned around and beamed. “Daddy!” She sprang up and ran for him, and Jordy swooped her into his arms. She was getting so big, but thankfully not too big for him to do this.
She pressed her cheek against his and said a bit too loudly, “I missed you, Daddy. Rowan read a book about a unicorn and one about a train, but that one wasn’t any good.”
Jordy smiled into her blond pigtail and caught sight of the stranger—Rowan—who was silently laughing. He seemed to do that a lot.
“I’m sorry you didn’t like the second story,” Jordy said.
Kaira pulled away to look him in the eye. “I didn’t like it because it was bad.”
“Remember, sweetie, just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean that no one likes it.”
Kaira wrinkled her nose, clearly not persuaded. Before she could offer a rebuttal, Rowan spoke up. “Well, maybe you could give me some good book recommendations. After all, today was my first time doing story time, and I’ll need more book ideas if I’m going to do it every week.”
Kaira practically leaped out of Jordy’s arms. Only his quick reflexes and years of practice saved him from getting a toddler elbow to the face. “Oh yes, I could do that. I know lots of good ones. Do you like armadillos?”
“My dear, I adore armadillos,” Rowan said with a straight face.
Kaira beamed and opened her mouth, no doubt to expound more on her favorite books, but Jordy cut in. He wasn’t prepared to stand here all day. “Kaira, we need to get going.”
She whirled on him and stared up at him suspiciously. “Why?”
