Page 60 of Textbook Defense

“Auntie Emma is coming?” she shrieked.

“Yup. Her flight gets in tomorrow morning. She’s going to come here for lunch, and then she wants to take you on an adventure.”

“An adventure?” Kaira squirmed in her seat and cocked her head.

“Yup. Auntie Emma has booked a room at a hotel for the two of you to stay in on Friday night. She says you’ll do lots of fun girly things.”

“We will?”

“Uh-huh. She wouldn’t tell me what.” Jordy mock pouted. Rowan wanted to nibble his bottom lip. “Because I’m not a girl.” Kaira giggled. “But she did tell me that the hotel has a pool with a very cool waterslide.”

By eight that evening, Kaira had asked Jordy a million and one questions when he was available and turned them on Rowan when he wasn’t. Unfortunately, Rowan knew even less than Jordy, a fact Kaira needed frequent reminders of.

By the time she passed out forty-five minutes after her usual bedtime, Rowan was all but ready for his own bed. He groaned and flopped onto the couch, primed for mindless entertainment.

Jordy chuckled as he settled into an armchair. “Told you it was better to wait.”

Rowan lifted his head off the couch and stared at Jordy, so far away. Guilt churned in his stomach for having taken up so much space that he chased Jordy out of his usual spot. “Sorry,” he grumbled as he sat up to give Jordy more room. But Jordy didn’t move over.

“I forgive you for doubting my wisdom,” he said magnanimously and turned on the TV.

Rowan was definitely not going to think or obsess about Jordy’s seating choice tonight. Definitely not.

JORDY HADmixed feelings about Emma’s arrival.

On the one hand, Kaira loved her aunt. Some people had complicated relationships when it came to intrafamily adoption. That had never been an issue with Emma. If she felt the least bit maternal, or jealous of Jordy’s relationship with his kid, or regretted giving her up, she had never given the slightest indication. She played the part of fun aunt perfectly, from the colorful outfit and outrageous heart-shaped sunglasses she wore on her arrival to the way she pretended not to recognize Kaira: “Now, where’s my niece? Have you seen her? She’s about this tall”—she held her hand out at knee height—“with brown hair and brown eyes…. She looks a little bit like you, actually, but you’rewaytoo tall—”

Kaira shrieked with laughter. “Aunt Emma, it’sme.”

Emma clutched her chest in mock surprise. “Oh my goodness! My little Kaira!” She knelt down for a hug. “What is your dad feeding you to make you get so big, huh?”

Jordy raised his hands on cue. “I promise I haven’t given her HGH.” Even if he did know where to get it.

With one last smacking kiss to Kaira’s cheek, Emma stood and planted one on Jordy too. “Hey, big brother.” She patted his stomach. “Off-season’s going well, I see.”

Kaira giggled again, although she almost certainly didn’t understand Jordy was being teased for putting on the necessary muscle, and the layer of fat that came with it. “Good to see you too, Em. Congratulations on the new job.”

She beamed. “Thanks.”

The teasing didn’t bother him either. That was just standard sibling stuff, the same banter Jordy exchanged with his teammates every day. And it would’ve been a pretty sad situation if a little jab about his belly bothered him when he’d developed it on purpose.

No, the problem came Friday afternoon, when Emma packed Kaira into her rental car and waved goodbye to Jordy and Rowan, leaving Jordy without a convenient waist-high buffer between himself and the object of his affections.

Why couldn’t Emma have gotten time off for her visitbeforethe New York trip? Back when Jordy was cheerfully living in ignorant bliss of the fact that he’d somehow asked a handsome, kind, funny guy to move in with him and then fallen unwittingly in love?

Jordy had never felt more like the dumb jock stereotype.

He should have seen this coming. Hadn’t he even thought, months ago, when Rowan rescued him from that awful dinner, that there might be something between them? A fact he’d conveniently forgotten because he needed Rowan for something else.

He didn’t regret that. Kaira and Rowan’s mutual adoration society was something out of a wholesome children’s book. Hejust wished he’d opened his eyes a little sooner so that he could have protected himself.

Of course, he probably wouldn’t have done anything differently. He just would’ve been prepared for his own complicated feelings.

Sully was going to laugh his ass off. Baller’s I-told-you-so would probably come in a singing card full of explosive glitter.

Meanwhile, Jordy had to contend with Rowan pacing the house, glancing at his phone every twelve seconds to see if he’d missed a call from U of T. At one point he started chewing a fingernail, which objectively should have been gross, but apparently putting fatherhood first meant Jordy had repressed his sexual desires so far that now he couldn’t stop staring at the damp corner of Rowan’s mouth.

“Maybe we should do something,” Jordy said when he couldn’t take it anymore.

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