Rowan:Yes please you benevolent goddess. I love you.
He let himself have five more minutes to stare at the ceiling. Then he woke Kaira—because if she spent the afternoon napping, she wouldn’t go to bed at a reasonable hour—and suggested they bake cookies to take in tomorrow’s lunches.
GEM DIDnot drive in Toronto. This was for the safety of others, not because she was a poor driver but because other people were and Gem did not suffer fools.
Although she might have to change her mind tonight if Rowan came clean about everything.
Even knowing he wouldn’t be around to eat, Rowan had made dinner for Kaira and Jordy. Accepting Gem’s invite felt a bit like running off with his tail between his legs, and he didn’t want Jordy to get the impression that Rowan had regrets. Hedid, but he wasn’t changing his mind about anything, and Jordy might if he realized Rowan was in his head about it.
So he made himself sit with them while they ate and Kaira grilled Jordy about all the hockey he’d done today, most of which made no sense to Rowan, and then he read Kaira a story so that he could be waiting out front at seven forty-five when the car Gem ordered for him pulled up.
Rowan was so used to meeting her at the restaurant when she did things like this that he slid into the back seat without looking and almost jumped out of his skin when Gem said, “Oh good, you’re sleeping with him.”
Rowan yelped and let go of his seat belt to clutch at his pounding heart. “Good grief, woman! Do you need a bell?”
Tutting, Gem reached over and fastened him in so he couldn’t get away. “Don’t be ridiculous.” She smoothed the strap over the lapel of his coat. Awkward creases simply would not do. “And don’t change the subject.”
Rowan eyed her as the car glided smoothly into motion. “I’m neither confirming nor denying.”Technicallythere had been no sleeping involved.
“Translation—you jumped him the moment you had another job lined up. As predicted.”
He gaped soundlessly for a moment before he managed, with the desecrated remains of his dignity, “This is why people don’t like lawyers, you know.” He wouldn’t put it past her to have arranged that job falling into his lap simply to be able to hold an I-told-you-so over his head.
She patted his knee. “A spring wedding is always nice, you know. Just as the trees are flowering and leafing out. Although I suppose that would require the Shield to flop out of the playoffs early again. Notunlikely, but a bit unromantic to plan on it.”
“We’re not getting married,” Rowan protested, having finally found his tongue underneath an enormous pile of Gem’s audacity.
She smiled, sharklike. “But youaretogether.” When he didn’t answer right away, the smile disappeared and exasperated dread took its place. “Rowan. You’re together,right? You haven’t fallen into bed with a lovely man who was handcrafted by the gods to turn your insides to jelly withoutdefining your relationship, right?”
The back seat of Gem’s hired car was very plush, but unfortunately not plush enough to swallow Rowan and protect him from Gem’s judgment. “It’s complicated?” he offered meekly. The alternative was to admit that Jordy had not yet had the opportunity to liquefy his insides, which seemed like too much information even for Gem.
Gem muttered a curse, either on Rowan or the aforementioned hockey-thigh-crafting gods, and closed her eyes. “I swear to Christ you’re going to give me ulcers.”
“Do we have to talk about this?”
For a moment the only sound was the muted rumble of tires on asphalt. Finally Gem sighed, opened her eyes, and pasted on a brittle smile. “No. I’m sorry. Not if you don’t want to. Tonight is supposed to be celebrating your professional achievements.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Not your personal flaws.”
He blinked. “Wait, seriously?”
Gem exhaled a gusty breath through her nose. “Darling, if you’re not ready to stop sabotaging your own happiness, there’s nothing I can do to force you. Trying would only spoil my appetite. And you know how I feel about La Trat’s wine list.”
Okay, then. “I feel like I’ve got away with something,” Rowan admitted.
The car pulled up to the curb outside the restaurant, and Gem gave him a pointed look. “Oh, we’ll revisit this when it blows up in your face,” she promised. “Which it will. But for now—celebrations and wine.”
Rowan didn’t know what he appreciated more—the reprieve, the night away from Jordy to try to get his head on straight, or the friendship he hardly deserved—but either way, he wasn’t going to take it for granted. “Well, in that case—” He popped open the car door and climbed out, then offered his hand. “—I think our table awaits.”
JORDY DIDN’Twant to admit that he was dragging his feet with the whole replacement nanny thing. He wasn’tnotlooking, but it was possible he’d been overly critical of the profiles the agency had sent his way and hadn’t agreed to interview anyone.
Unfortunately, Rowan was starting a new job, and even though school had started and Kaira was registered in the aftercare program on the days Jordy couldn’t pick her up at three, it wasn’t fair to ask Rowan to keep working two jobs.
But Jordy didn’t actually want anything to change. He didn’t want to hire a new nanny who would need the suite for their own use, which would push Rowan out of it. And though he had guest rooms aplenty for Rowan to use, Jordy didn’t think he could talk Rowan into staying in one of them when his new job would give him enough funds to find his own place.
It was selfish, but just because Jordy couldn’t give Rowan long-term didn’t mean he couldn’t keep him just a little while longer.
Training camp had finished and now the preseason was only a few days away, so Jordyshouldbe putting all his energy and concentration into hockey. But even at practice, whenever he stopped to hydrate or rotated out of a drill, his thoughts went to Rowan.
Somehow they still hadn’t managed to make good on Jordy’s promise to rail him into the mattress. They hadn’t had much time together at all this week, and any time they were together, either Kaira was wide-awake or one of them had somewhere else to be. Rowan had gone out Tuesday evening and then gone to bed early on Wednesday and Thursday, derailing any possibility of intimate encounters. Thinking about it now, it seemed odd, considering how eager Rowan had been last Friday.
