Jordy dropped his forehead onto his gloved hands, which he’d rested on the butt of his stick. The last thing he needed this practice was to give himself more Rowan-related turmoil.Rowan was not being weird; he wasn’t avoiding Jordy. It was perfectly legitimate to not want to have sex. Jordy should know. He’d spent most of the last decade not having sex with other people.
In their stalls after, as they were taking off their on-ice gear, Sully grinned and pulled off his chest protector. “So, are you excited for today’s riveting session about off-ice behavior?”
Jordy figured his eye roll said enough. Plenty of the younger guys needed lessons on a variety of topics, but the annual refresher courses grew wearisome, especially since teams tended to forget all about them after the preseason.
After the Don’t Be a Douchebag in Public, and Yes, That Includes Social Media seminar and before the special teams strategy meeting, Jordy checked his phone. There were no new texts from Rowan. Jordy hadn’t realized how much Rowan, and by extension Kaira, had been texting him until Kaira started school and Rowan started his job, and now no one sent him updates.
Sully handed Jordy one of the Clif Bars he had swiped on his way back from the restroom. “So, thoughts on the Don’t be a Douchebag session this year?” He crunched into an apple like a college student debriefing after a lecture.
Jordy slid his phone back into his pocket. “Same as always.”
“My favorite part was the bit about not hitting on employees,” Sully said before taking another big bite.
The instructor had been talking about team, NHL, and arena employees, of course, and not one’s personal nanny, but Jordy flushed under Sully’s teasing gaze. “I hate you.”
“Aw, love you too, boo.”
Jordy sulkily ate his Clif Bar.
“All joking aside,” Sully said in an undertone, “you really should make a move on someone who makes you smile like thatat your phone. Or pout at it. Don’t think I didn’t see your face just now.”
“I thought I wasn’t allowed to hit on him,” Jordy bitched.
“That’s why we gotta solve your nanny problem. That and so you don’t have to use my wife as free childcare anymore.”
“Adrianna loves me,” Jordy said, because if he didn’t hold firm to that belief, he’d drown in guilt for how often he’d put her out this summer.
“Adrianna loves your kid.” Sully gave him a no-nonsense look. “And I love her, and that means no more babysitting, Jordy. Seriously.”
Jordy sighed. “School started this week. She has after-school care now. And Rowan only works until five most days.”
“Work?” Sully raised his brows. “So Pinocchio is a real boy again? Does that mean—”
Fuck it. Jordy should’ve kept his mouth shut. He knew better than to give Sully a scrap of material. “It means that it’s none of your business.”
They had enough problems. Aging defense, inexperienced forwards. Somehow they were too old and too young at the same time. The new guy would help—Lord knew they needed all the twenty-five-year-old skaters they could get—but unless the trainers were going to start handing out robotic knees and HGH, Jordy had his doubts about a winning season. And that meant the media was going to be brutal. They already were—calls for trades, for their coach to be fired, for their GM to be fired, for Brady to be replaced….
“Oh, so you’re already fucking him, then,” Sully said.
While they were replacing people, they could replace Sully.
“We’re not talking about this,” Jordy said firmly, slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder. Apparently not talking about it at all was the only way to avoid Sully knowing all of his business.Sully didn’t get to figure out Jordy’s business before Jordy did. That was rude.
“I’ll call you later!” Sully shouted at his back as Jordy headed for the door.
Jordy gave him the finger over his shoulder.
JORDY DIDnot want to talk about it, which sucked because he could think of about a dozen things, off the top of his head, that he really should talk about. For example, he needed to hire a new nanny, but he didn’t want to because it might push Rowan into moving out. If he talked to Rowan about it, he could forestall that by offering him one of the upstairs guest rooms instead, but then it would sound like Jordy wouldn’t rather have Rowan inhisbed, and they’d have to talk aboutthat. That would lead Rowan to the realization that Jordy had big feelings, when Rowan had already been clear that he could not commit to Jordy because Jordy was inevitably going to leave Toronto, whether that be next month or next year, and Rowan would try to spare Jordy’s feelings by, again, moving out.
Then there was the whole thing where Jordy already felt like Rowan was avoiding him, but he couldn’t come out and say that because Rowan had started a new job this week so of course he was tired. Jordy didn’t want to make that about him. Obviously not talking about it was the way to go. Either Rowan would become more available this weekend and next week and Jordy could relax, or he wouldn’t and Jordy would….
Jordy would….
Jordy would figure it out when that happened.
Today, camp had finished early enough for Jordy to pick Kaira up on his way home, so he focused on that.
Kaira had been in daycare before, and obviously Jordy had chosen a nice one. But day care pickup and first-grade pickupwere in totally different leagues as far as how much of a pain in the ass they were. When Jordy was Kaira’s age, he took a school bus and liked it. But these days parents all wanted to pick their kids up from school in person because they were—understandably—paranoid, which meant traffic nightmares even in cities that were not Toronto, which meant Jordy sat in his car for fifteen minutes while fifty other parents also sat in their cars, all waiting for their turn to be allowed to collect the correct child.
