Taylor coughed.
“—just four walls and a roof without black mold.”
“Black mold?” repeated a familiar voice, and oh damn it, if Rowan thoughtGemwas insufferable about it….
He pasted on a smile and turned to face Jordy. “Yes. It’s my flat’s newest update.” He pulled a face, hoping to lighten the mood, but Jordy didn’t look appeased.
“Your place has black mold?” He looked alarmed. Kaira, clearly sensing the tension, clung to his hand and watched their conversation without interrupting.
“Yeah. Guess we’ve discovered the cause of my cough.”
Jordy graduated from one-alarm to three. “You have somewhere else to live?”
“My friend put me up for the short term. Still looking for a long-term solution. Sadly I can’t stay on her couch for the next couple of months.” He pulled an exaggerated face and locked eyes with Kaira. She smiled tentatively. “Mostly because she’d kick me out if I tried to stay that long.” This earned a small giggle.
Jordy looked down at his daughter, then back at Rowan. “I also have a problem.”
That was a tantalizing opener, if only because Jordy had never struck him as the kind of guy to want to steal anyone’s thunder. “Oh?”
He nodded, then said to Kaira, “You had some books you wanted to show Mr. Rowan, right?”
Kaira nodded so hard her pigtails bobbed. “I have lots of book ideas to share.”
“Why don’t we go find those books?”
“Yes!” Kaira seemed happy to forget about any tension, but Rowan was reeling from the subject change. Kaira let go of Jordy’s hand and skipped off to the children’s section.
“Join us?” Jordy asked.
“Well, it sounds like I must if Kaira is fetching me books,” Rowan agreed as he made his way from behind the desk.
“I didn’t want to talk about this in front of Kaira,” Jordy said quietly as they walked together. She had almost reached the children’s section. “Janice—our nanny—had to leave suddenly.”
“Oh. That sounds not good.”
“She’s been with us Kaira’s whole life. It’s been an emotional week.”
“A week? That is sudden.”
“Her mother needs care. It became urgent.”
“Ah. So she’s not coming back in a week.”
Jordy hummed. “Long-term I will need a replacement, but it’s not an easy position to fill.”
Rowan nodded and tried to keep from thinking about all the positions Jordy could fill him in. He could bet that looking for a nanny who would basically be Kaira’s secondary parent wasn’t an easy task. Then the words and their implications started to filter in. Was Jordy suggesting what Rowan thought he was?
“I’m not sure I can make any guarantees about the commute, but I can promise black-mold-free accommodations.”
Rowan licked his lips. “You’re offering to put me up for however long it takes for my flat to be habitable again.”
“Yes.”
“In exchange for babysitting.”
“The season is starting up again soon, which means I frequently have to go out of town for several days at a time.”
Rowan stopped walking. “Didn’t you just say that finding a nanny you like is hard? You barely know me.”
