Page 23 of Man Advantage

“Good. Thanks.”

He gestured for me to come in, and I did, gritting my teeth the whole way.

Chats—Tim Chatsworth—wasexactlyBryan’s type. He was taller than me, and he had the hockey physique that was Bryan’s catnip—powerful thighs, an ass that didn’t quit, and six-pack abs. I liked to think hockey had been kind to me and that I wore the results well, but Chats was the player who had all the fans— men and women alike—openly drooling over him. He was probably hot as hell anyway, and the sport had chiseled him into something utterly stunning.

He was also an insufferable asshole, so apparently “opposites attract” wasn’t a thing between him and my ex-husband.

I kept that catty thought to myself and joined the happy couple in the kitchen to catch up on everything before I left with the boys.

Chats leaned against the counter and grinned at me. He probably wanted me to roll my eyes or work my jaw—somehow let on that his smugness got to me.

I didn’t give him the satisfaction, and instead turned a neutral look on my ex. “Do they have soccer this week? Or does that start next week?”

“They have practice on Thursday.” Bryan narrowed his eyes a little. “I assume yournannycan handle that.”

“That’s his job,” I said dismissively. “And the coaches have his email now, so he’ll get notifications about schedule changes and moved games, too.”

From the sour look on Bryan’s face, he wasn’t pleased by that, but I didn’t care enough to read into why. Instead, I moved the conversation to catching up about school, though I was mostly kept in the loop there thanks to the teacher’s emails. The year had just started, so there wasn’t much going on yet that might be causing any issues for either of the twins. Right nowthey were still in that period of adapting to being in first grade instead of kindergarten, and they were thriving; a lot of their friends from last year were in their class, and they saw the rest at recess, soccer, and after school.

“So the boys are meeting Cam today,” Bryan said flatly. “Is that right?”

I nodded. “Yes. He’s at the house right now, so I’ll talk to them about it in the car, and introduce them when we get home.”

His lips thinned, and he exchanged unreadable looks with Chats. Facing me again, he asked, “And what happens if they don’t get along? Or the boys aren’t comfortable with him?”

I had a cold prickle of suspicion that he’d planted seeds of doubt in their heads. That he’d made sure they wouldn’t get along with Cam and wouldn’t be comfortable with him.

At the same time, though… no. That wasn’t who he was. He might not have liked me or Cam, but he drew a very hard line at weaponizing the kids, at least in ways that caused them stress or anxiety. He’d happily weaponize them in ways that causedmestress and anxiety, like his custody ultimatum, but it was always well out of the twins’ sight.

Keeping my voice even, I said, “If there’s an issue, we’ll address it. But you’ve met him.” I inclined my head. “Is there any reason you can think of why hewouldn’tget along with the boys?”

Bryan worked his jaw and shifted his weight as he crossed his arms over his chest. That was body language I recognized—when he couldn’t refute an argument and was seriously annoyed by it.

Yeah, that’s what I thought,I didn’t say out loud.

Instead, I went with, “I don’t think it’ll be a problem. If it is, we’ll figure it out.”

He shrugged. “All right.” I recognized that, too—he was sort of agreeing with me, sort of giving me enough rope to hangmyself. Either way, he wasn’t completely admitting he was wrong.

Fuck. No wonder our marriage had been so exhausting.

Finally, we were all on the same page, Bryan and Chats said goodbye to the kids, and we headed outside. Once the boys were buckled in, I got into the driver seat and pulled away from the condo.

As I headed out to the main road, I said, “So you guys know hockey season is starting, right?”

“Yeah,” Zane said. “Dad told us.”

“Okay, well, did he tell you we’re going to do things a little differently this year?”

There was silence for a moment. Then Zach cautiously said, “We’ll be staying with the new nanny while you’re gone?”

Ah, so Bryan had filled them in. I tried to trust that he hadn’t dripped any poison in their ears; that for all we could fight like cats and dogs, he really did draw the line at parental alienation. His boyfriend… well. One could hope.

“Yes,” I said. “His name is Cam. He and I have been friends for a long, long time, and he’s going to be living with us now.”

“Oh,” Zane said.

Zach made a quiet grunt of acknowledgment. Neither seemed particularly bothered by the whole thing. My teammates had babysat them a few times, and they’d stayed with family members before, so they were accustomed to people other than Bryan or me watching them. They weren’t prone to separation anxiety like some kids their age. Hell, the first day we’d taken them to preschool, we’d been ready for them to cry and not want us to leave. Instead, they’d taken one look at the other kids and all the toys, and immediately forgotten we existed.

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