Page 24 of Textbook Defense

Rowan squawked. “Your claims are accurate and hurtful.”

“I know,” Taylor said, and then said nothing while she waited for him to break and fill the silence. Why was Rowan surrounded by so many perceptive and confident women?

“There is nothing else to tell! I ran into Jordy and Kaira, and she thinks I should rectify my lack of firsthand knowledge of armadillos posthaste. So now I’m off to the zoo.”

“Right. So you’re not going just so you can stare at Jordy Shaw’s ass.”

“That’s just a bonus.”

“Some bonus. Zoos are full of sticky, screaming children. Why are you agreeing to go on your day off from sticky, screaming children?”

“Excuse me, children do not scream in my library. My shushing skills are unparalleled.”

He could hear her roll her eyes. “I’m sorry, sticky, quietly noisy children.”

“I’m sensing a lot of hostility toward children right now. Is there something you need to get off your chest?”

“Har har. I am just someone who knows that regular breaks are essential for maintaining composure around children.”

Rowan couldn’t deny that. And yet he was looking forward to his trip to the zoo, and not just because of Jordy’s aforementioned lovely bum. He actually wanted to see Kaira and watch her reaction to the armadillos and hear her lecture about the animals.

“I should hang up,” he admitted. “They’ll be here in fifteen minutes, and I’m not fully ready.” He bit his lip and looked at the envelope once more. He had time to read it….

“You going to open that letter first?” Taylor asked, not unkindly.

“No, I don’t think so. No. I can’t. Not knowing is definitely the lesser of two evils.”

He was tying his shoes when a knock came at his door. He checked the peep hole and then opened it to Jordy’s terribly handsome if inscrutable face. Rowan was not going to be ashamed of his shithole flat. He was not.

“Hi! I’m ready to go. Just let me get my keys.”

He grabbed them off the shelf, stepped out, and locked the door. His lack of shame didn’t mean he wanted to give Jordy a tour.

“Weren’t you bringing a couple people with you?”

Jordy motioned over his shoulder, and Rowan could see his point. His large SUV sat a few feet from where they stood. “Kaira wanted to come too, but I figured you probably didn’t want two six-year-olds poking around your stuff for the next half hour.”

Definitely true. Rowan’s place wasn’t kid-proofed. Maybe he should consider a locked container for his adult-only toys.

If Rowan thought the drive to the zoo would be awkward, he hadn’t accounted for excitable children. Kaira and Clement talked the whole way, wandering between their plans for the day and various other topics of interest. Rowan loved how their little brains jumped from creating a detailed zoo-visiting battle plan to “my favorite show isBluey” to “look at that doggy!” to “Mr. Rowan, have you ever eaten an ice cream cone with chocolate on it?”

At the zoo, Jordy seemed to have a definite plan of his own, and he navigated the parking lot decisively, as though he’d been here enough to have a favorite spot. Once he got both kids out, he slung a backpack over one shoulder, locked the car, and said, “Hands,” firmly to both kids. Kaira and Clement interlocked hands. Then Clement took Jordy’s left and Kaira took Rowan’s right.

At the gate, Jordy led them through the prepaid aisle with tickets on his phone and handed Kaira and Clement one of the free maps. Only once they’d moved well into the park and away from the busy entrance did he pull everyone into a huddle and ask, “Where to first?”

Unsurprisingly, Kaira wanted to see the armadillos first, which made it a done deal. Rowan had only met Clement five seconds ago, but it was clear that Kaira was in charge. She studied the map with an officious manner, grabbed Clement, and then pulled him down the path.

“I guess we just follow, then?” Rowan asked, already moving.

As they fell into step, Jordy smiled. “Pretty much. In case you weren’t aware, that is what you signed up for today.”

Rowan had to hand it to Kaira and her obsession—without hesitating, she marched them past enclosures designed to mimicthe Australian outback and a woodland filled with snoozing wolves.

“She’sreallyinto armadillos,” Rowan observed, with a longing look at the sign for the polar bears. Maybe they’d head that way later.

“She’s really into armadillos,” Jordy agreed. “Her aunt gave her this book a year ago,Bilbo the Armadillo.”

“I’m familiar with it,” Rowan said. It was a decent picture book with a couple of sequels.

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