She sighed. “Can we not play this game where we pretend he’s not important?”
And that broke him. “I’m not pretending he’s not important. But he doesn’t want me.”
“I don’t believe that either. I was there, Jordy. I saw you two together. You weren’t the only one looking all settled and domestic, you know.”
“Just because he—he likes me and having sex with me”—he ignored Emma’s indrawn breath and the mortification of having snappedthatat his sister and barreled on—“doesn’t mean that he wants to give up his life here and follow me around.”
“Wow. Okay, lots to unpack there, and because you sound so sad, I will graciously ignore the whole sex-having part of that statement, even though I’m dying of curiosity about your situationship. Instead, let’s focus on the whole ‘doesn’t want a life with you’ thing. And because I know boys, I gotta ask, Jordy, have you asked him?”
“What?”
“Have you straight-up asked him to come with you? Let him know you want him to? Has he specifically and directly said no to an offer of domestic bliss?”
Jordy opened his mouth to say yes, of course he had. But now that he thought about it, maybe he hadn’t. Maybe they had just talked around it. “Well… he said he thought it was a bad idea to start something not permanent.”
“Right. But you didn’t actually offer anything permanent.”
“He meant stationary. Not subject to transcontinental moves at a moment’s notice.”
“Okay. But Jordy, sometimes people need to know they can have something before they’re willing to ask for it.”
Jordy wished that didn’t make sense. “When did you get so smart?”
“I’ve always been smart,” she sassed back. She really was his sister. “But outside perspective always helps. Why do you think I always run to you for advice?” He’d been her first call after the third panicked pregnancy test came back positive. “Also, I’m highly motivated to find a solution here.”
“Oh?” He wiped his cheek of the tear that had escaped.
“Yeah. When I visited, you looked… so happy. Happier than I can ever remember you being. Obviously I want to help you keep that and anyone who makes you smile like that.”
And after an emotional conversation where Emma landed careful, unpulled punches, that one landed a direct hit. Jordy was laid flat. KO.
He knew what he needed to do next, even if it blew up in his face. Jordy wanted—and for once he was going to try for—something that wasn’t hockey or fatherhood.
ON HISlunch break on Tuesday, Rowan signed his lease paperwork.
That one-bedroom, one-bath apartment with a balcony—overlooking an alley, sure, but still a balcony—would be all his come mid-December. Which meant Rowan should start saving money now for all the furniture he’d need, never mind stocking his pantry. Which meant he should stop asking coworkers to go out for dinner or picking up takeout to eat in the car just because Jordy was home.
So after work, Rowan went straight home.
Today, there was no extra car in the driveway—no nanny. Jordy must’ve picked Kaira up from school himself. Rowan hitthe garage door opener and was confronted with the fact that yes, Jordy and Kaira were home.
He parked the car, grabbed his bag, and girded his loins.
He forgot all about his loins when his nose registered what was going on in the kitchen.
“Hello?”
“Rowan!” There was the sound of bare feet slapping on tile. Kaira had outgrown her unicorn slippers, and the new pair hadn’t arrived yet. She latched on to his leg at the knee. “You gotta come help Daddy! He’s beingso silly!”
Rowan widened his eyes comically. “Your dad?Silly?” He scooped her up and tossed her in the air. “I don’t believe it.”
“Yes. He’s slicing pizza cheese with aknife, Rowan. Everyone knows you have to shred pizza cheese.”
So the scent in Rowan’s nostrils was rising yeast and a homemade tomato sauce, soon to be followed by homemade pizza. “We’d better go save him, I guess,” Rowan agreed. He set her down and followed her into the kitchen.
The kitchen where Jordy was wearing the world’s tightest T-shirt under the Kitchen Daddy apron.
“It’s perfectly normal to slice fresh mozzarella for pizza,” Jordy protested. “Ask anyone Italian. They’ll tell you. Or just go to a fancy pizzeria.”
