He almost forgot to pick up Kaira, but Gem called back around three with another question and signed off with, “I should let you go, since you probably have to go get your kid.”
Kaira was too young to hear about breaking news from her peers on the schoolyard, so she hadn’t heard about the Shield’s roster changes and was in a bright and sunny mood as she chattered away in the back seat.
While Jordy was glad he didn’t have to deal with fallout from the insensitive way children could deliver news, he hated that he’d have to be the one to shake up her whole world.
Thirty minutes later, Kaira was yelling that she hated hockey and the NHL and Vancouver and the Shield and she didn’t want to go anywhere. Jordy tried not to cry in sympathy and wished Rowan was here to make everything better.
And then, because the universe was laughing at him and probably hated him for some horrible shit he’d done in a past life, Rowan came home.
Something hard thumped against the wall in Kaira’s room. Jordy winced and accidentally met Rowan’s eyes.
“Uh,” Rowan said. From his expression, he already knew Jordy’s news. Well, that made sense; at least one of his coworkers was bound to be a Shield fan. “I take it she’s not excited about Vancouver.”
“You could say that.” Jordy didn’t even try to smile. “Just—one second.” He backed down the hall to Kaira’s room and pushed open the door. “Kaira, I know you’re upset, but that doesn’t make it okay to throw things.”
His red-faced, tearful daughter turned toward him. “GO AWAY! I HATE YOU!”
Somehow Jordy sucked in a breath through his teeth and managed to close the door before Kaira saw him cry.
He’d barely taken his hand off the handle when Rowan touched his arm.
“She doesn’t mean it,” he said gently. “You know that, right? You’re her favorite person. She adores you.”
Jordy made himself squeeze back tears instead of burying his head in Rowan’s shoulder. He had to have some self-respect around here somewhere. After another breath, he trusted himself to answer, even if he couldn’t meet Rowan’s eyes. “I know. She just doesn’t like me very much right now. And I can’t blame her for that.” He rubbed the skin under one eye with his forefinger. He should wash his face. It felt gritty.
“Hey.” Rowan waited until Jordy raised his head. “Do you… do you want me to talk to her?”
Jordy swallowed. He’d asked for far too much from Rowan already. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Jordy. I don’t mind. It’s not….” He sighed. “It’s not easy for me to know she’s suffering either. If I can help, I want to. All right? Maybe you can figure out dinner?”
Jordy’s reaction must’ve looked as pathetic as the suggestion he make another decision made him feel, because Rowan amended, “Order takeout from that Vietnamese place. Kaira will eat the chicken báhn mi. Spicy lemongrass pork for me, and you want to split the large spring rolls?”
Jordy did not. “I’ll get two orders of spring rolls.”
Rowan gave a wry smile. “Good idea.”
Then he disappeared into Kaira’s bedroom and Jordy went to go make a phone call and sulk some more.
It took a few minutes to get through to the Vietnamese place. By the time Jordy had ordered and agreed to pay a ridiculous sum for delivery, Kaira’s room was quiet.
A moment after he hung up, Rowan emerged. There was a wet patch on the front of his blazer where Kaira had obviously buried her head to have a cry.
Jordy hated himself a little for his jealousy, but mostly he was grateful Rowan had been able to calm her down. “Is she okay?”
Rowan shook his head, evidently feeling as helpless as Jordy did, even if he’d managed to soothe Kaira when Jordy hadn’t. “What’s okay, really, when you’re six years old and you’re not only leaving your whole life in a few months, your dad’s leaving now?”
Miserably, Jordy buried his face in his hands and then ran his fingers back through his hair and scratched at his scalp as if that could focus him. “She’s going to hate me forever.”
“Jordy. She’s going to forget about all of this the first time she sees a whale.”
That—did actually seem likely. Jordy let himself laugh pathetically. “Sorry. I’m just—yeah. I haven’t even had time to be upset for me yet, you know?”
“No.” Rowan sat next to him at the kitchen island. At least he was no longer avoiding Jordy. Of course, after today, he wouldn’t have to. They wouldn’t even be in the same time zone unless Jordy was in Toronto for a game. “But I can extrapolate.”
“There’s just so much to do. I want to be there for Kaira, but I’m going to have to leave, and she can’t—I can’t take her with me yet. Not until I’ve got a place to live and someone to look after her. I’m not going to ask a nanny to relocate when she’s just started working for me.” Especially to Vancouver, where housing was expensive even for Jordy.
Saying it out loud didn’t change it, so Jordy couldn’t understand why he felt calmer now that he had. Giving Gem his to-do list hadn’t taken any of the stress of his shoulders.
