“Showing Rowan the best movie ever! Daddy, did you know that Rowan’s grandpa comes from the same place as my birth daddy?” She bounced in her seat, all wide-eyed innocence.
“I did not know that,” Jordy said with a raised eyebrow at Rowan.
“Three of my four grandparents are Pakistani,” he supplied. “We talked about how that’s next to India and a lot the same.”
“Ah.” Jordy didn’t look bothered by the fact that Kaira had told Rowan all about her parentage. In fact, a small smile was tugging at his lips as he headed over to the couch. “So you two have been bonding.”
“Yes! Rowan and I made nankhatai—they’re Indian cookies—and we ate them with chai.”
“Because we’re not heathens,” Rowan agreed.
“Yeah, we ate them right. And now we’re watchingK3Gbecause Rowan has never seen it!” She snuggled into her dad and got reabsorbed in the movie as a dance number started.
“A true tragedy, I know,” Rowan said in an undertone to Jordy. “I could have been enjoying this English-dubbed genius ages ago.”
Jordy chuckled. “She’s a bit too young for the subtitles, unfortunately, and neither of us speaks Hindi.” That would make pronouncing the movie’s full title—Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham—particularly challenging for a six-year-old. No wonder she called it by a nickname.
“Alas, me neither. Which is why I don’t watch much Bollywood.”
“Ah,” Jordy said. He was watching Rowan with that look that said he wanted to ask and wasn’t sure if he could. Rowan decided to rescue him.
“I only speak Urdu and English. And also Latin, though admittedly there isn’t a lot of listening or speaking called for with that one.”
Jordy stared at him. “Latin?”
Rowan shrugged. “I did mention my private-school-and-nanny upbringing, right?”
“So you learned Latin in elementary school in the twenty-first century?”
“What can I say? I was a weird kid.”
Jordy chuckled, and damn, that was unfairly hot. “Noted.”
Once the film was over, Jordy scooped up Kaira and left to run the bedtime routine, so Rowan got a jump on cleaning up after their day.
He was throwing the last of the toys into the toy box when Jordy reappeared.
“Must have been a good day. She went out like a light,” Jordy said as he slouched onto the couch. “Good job tiring her out.”
“Ha, thanks. I think it was a mutual tiring, to be honest.”
Jordy laughed. “Welcome to life with a six-year-old.” He waved the remote at Rowan. “Wanna see what’s on TV?”
“Sure. Just maybe no badly dubbed musicals?”
“Well, you’ve really tied my hands here, Rowan, but if you insist.”
Jordy turned on the TV and picked cable. Rowan couldn’t remember the last time he’d watched live TV. He wasn’t aware anyone under thirty evenhadcable.
“How doesCSI: Torontosound?”
“Um, like a cheesy spinoff of a cheesy spinoff of a cheesy show?”
“Right,” Jordy drawled, “but do you wanna watch it?”
Rowan shrugged. “I’ve never seen it, but I’m not against crime procedurals.”
“Crime Procedural Spinoff it is, then.” Jordy winked and clicked on the show, and as the characters swanned about collecting clues, Rowan realized he couldn’t wipe away his smile.
