Hell,Rowanmight need a nap this afternoon if it went the way Jordy suspected. They’d have to keep themselves open to rescheduling. “Sounds like a plan,” he agreed, and then the food came out, and there wasn’t much time for talking. Jordy only had fifteen minutes to stuff his face before the union reps meeting started.
Mercifully, Nico Kirschbaum kept the meeting to the point in a way Jordy suspected only a German could. Maybe he had somewhere to be, because he kept looking at his watch every three minutes. Kirschbaum had to be the only twentysomething Jordy knew who wore a wristwatch for function and not as a fifty-thousand-dollar statement.
After the meeting ended, Jordy fell into step with him, curious despite himself. “Hey, Kersh, where’s the fire?”
Kirschbaum flushed, obviously flustered, and slowed down. “Jordy. Was there something you wanted to talk about?”
It had taken Jordy a minute to get used to that German directness. He used to think Kersh just didn’t like him. “Making conversation,” he said, bemused.Somethingwas going on here, between the whispers at the lunch table and now—
“Nicky!” Ryan came around the corner, waving a sheaf of papers. Dante Baltierra was half a step behind him. “I got ’em! You good to go?”
Kirschbaum looked at Jordy. From his expression, he was trying very hard to be polite.
Jordy shook his head. He really didn’t have anything to say. Kersh gave a grateful smile and took off with Ryan at a jog.
“They seem really excited about that scavenger hunt,” Jordy commented to Baller.
Baller smiled. “Kids these days, right? So full of energy and zest for life. Brings a tear to your eye.”
One of these days, Jordy would stop expecting Baller to say normal things and remember he was kind of a weirdo. “Speaking of kids, where’s yours?”
Baller sighed gustily. “Sadly, I’m flying solo this year. Reyna’s got an ear infection.”
Jordy winced. “Ouch.” Definitely not a good time to bring a preschooler on a plane.
“Yeah, I’m gonna owe Gabe so much parent hazard pay when I get back.” He gave Jordy a sly sideways look, complete with eyebrow wiggling, as they made their way toward the elevator. “What about you?”
Jordy jabbed the button. “What about me what?”
“You’re gonna owe your partner a few favors, right?”
“My what?” Sully was back in Toronto with his own newborn.
“Partner?” Baller prompted. “Or is it boyfriend? The cute guy hanging out with your kid while you’re primping for the cameras? I didn’t get to talk to him at lunch ’cause I was busy—” He cut himself off as the elevator arrived and he stepped forward into the car. “Anyway. He seems like he fits in. How long have you been together?”
“Uh?” The question threw him enough that the elevator doors started to close before he remembered he needed to get in. Baller was looking at him likehewas the crazy one. “That’s Rowan. He’s not my—he’s my….”
Baller looked at him expectantly.
Friend?Okay, they were friends, but normal friends didn’t fly to New York to help you watch your kid while you had work meetings.Nannyseemed reductive. Rowan wasn’t Jordy’s employee. Okay, hewasJordy’s employee, but that was a technicality.Roommatelikewise did not cover it.
“Sugar baby?” Baller suggested eventually.
Jordy facepalmed and slammed his other hand on the button for his floor. “He’s a friend I’m paying to help look after my kid because my nanny quit suddenly at the same time he found out his apartment was infested with black mold.”
Three floors ticked away in silence.
Baller said, “So you’re not sleeping with him?”
“Of course not.”
“Why not?”
Jordy shot him a look. Did he have to explain ethics? For all that Baller was a weirdo, he’d always been a good man. Jordy hadn’t ever come out so much as he just didn’t bother to hide things. It helped that, by the time Jordy and Sanna split, Baller and Gabe were already public, so Jordy’s quiet, romance-free lifestyle—queer or not—didn’t draw attention. Still, Baller, the self-proclaimed fairy godmother of the NHL, extended membership into the queer group chat he’d started. Not that Jordy spent much time in the Rainbow Hockey chat—a name he could only guess at since Baller had named it with emojis. After about a week of Ryan, Max Lockhart, Liam Belanger, and Baller inundating the chat with a combination of animal and queer memes and photos of their pets and children, Jordy muted the chat without guilt.
Baller waved a hand. “Okay, yes, obviously you’re not putting moves on the nanny. But you just said he’s a friend, so….”
“Exactly. A friend.”
