Orlando took his warm squirmy baby in his arms and kissed his cheeks. “You’re a happy boy today.” To think, less than an hour ago Orlando was thinking this might be the worst day of his life and here he was holding his son who’d never seemed so happy. The warm greeting he was given was fleeting. After touching Orlando’s face and giggling when Orlando kissed his neck, little guy was distracted when Dani took a few steps away to grab her phone by the nightstand. Immediately he was reaching out for her and whining.
Dani turned to them after picking up her phone with a frown. Baby O continued to whimper, practically calling out for her. Orlando’s and Dani’s eyes met for a moment before she broke the eye contact, glancing down at her phone. “I put it on silent. It was supposed to be just until I could get him to sleep.” She winced, looking up again as she reached for the baby with a smile. “He probably needs to be changed.”
The moment he was in her arms he buried his little face in her neck, and she kissed the top of his head. “Holy shit,” Orlando said unable to take his eyes of her again. “Felicia wasn’t kidding.”
Glancing up at Orlando for just a second, Dani glanced away quickly then started toward the door, and Orlando followed. “I saved him from the big bad TV today, Orlando. I’m his temporary new hero.”
Chapter 12
Danica
With her heart speeding up, Danica prayed the baby would tone down the neediness for her at least a little. She’d researched and anticipated the real possibility of him remembering her. It was something she’d hoped for and looked forward to, but now it made her nervous. There was no way Orlando would make the connection, would he? Obviously, he knew about Angie’s overdose, right? She pushed back the feelings of guilt, because it made her heart ache to think the little angel was likely feeling the very anxiety she was, of being separated again. But she wouldn’t worry about that now. She was with him now and that’s all that mattered. What she should be worried about and concentrate on instead, was dealing with him making it so obvious this wasn’t just an instant connection. She was someone he remembered—and clearly missed. Orlando was still going on about how incredible it was that the baby had taken to her so quickly as they walked into the nursery. Danica scrambled to think of ways to veer the subject onto something else. Inevitably, the baby would continue to show how taken he was by her. No need to continue to harp on it and get the wheels in Orlando’s head spinning. Reminding herself the chance way she ended up here had been just perfect, she tried not to worry too much. Nine had offered her the job at the shop and Orlando had practically begged her to watch the baby. No way could he figure out she’d planned to weasel her way in there. At least there was no way Orlando might suspect she had. As far as he knew, this was all his doing.
“How young can a kid develop a crush on someone?” Danica glanced up at Orlando, who stared at the baby all snuggled up at her chest then turned to meet her eyes before his eyes moved down to her lips. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he has a major one already.”
Danica glanced down at Oreo, remembering their love fest the moment Felicia was out of sight. Orlando didn’t know the half of it. The baby glanced up at her and reached for her nose. Taking his little hand, Danica kissed it, and he smiled big. “Daddy’s a big silly, isn’t he?” Not wanting to add any merit to Orlando’s comment, that’s all she’d say about it. She glanced around the changing table. “I noticed earlier when I changed him that he had a few little red bumps in the crevices of his legs.”
She put the baby down on the changing table, and he was immediately kicking and making silly noises. Thankfully, Orlando didn’t comment again on what a great mood the baby was in. Instead, he explained about how he’d recently changed the brand of diapers he used because he’d heard good things about the new brand.
“I think his skin was used to the other ones.”
Danica nodded in agreement, as they discussed diaper and baby wipe brands and the kinds of things to look out for. After changing him, the conversation moved onto his teething, then his eating solids, and a few minutes later they were in the kitchen. “First and foremost, babies, like adults, need structure. You have to start building good habits and making sure you don’t start bad ones.” She frowned, shaking her head, but smiled the moment she kissed Oreo’s head. “Me falling asleep with him on the bed is one of those things that will absolutely lead to bad habits if it keeps happening. He gets used to that, and you’ll never get him to sleep alone in his crib again.”
She noticed Orlando smirking strangely, but she didn’t comment. Instead, she went on because, even if he thought this was amusing, it wasn’t a good way to start by breaking some of the cardinal rules. She went over the kinds of foods he should be introducing first, as she prepared his cereal, among other feeding do’s and don’ts.
“You wanna try and feed him in the same place as much as possible. Get him used to it so he knows when he’s sitting in the highchair, say in the dining room, it’s mealtime. Versus when you sit him in it like you said you did yesterday to just snack while you tidied up. And you want to do it around the same time every time for each meal. It just builds a routine, and routines are important for babies. Makes it easier to get them used to naps and bedtime.”
She started to pick up the highchair to move it to the dining room, but Orlando took it from her and carried it into the other room for her. They sat down across from each other at the dining room table with the baby at the head of the table. “This is a good place for him to get used to eating. This way, once he’s out of the highchair, you can put a booster on one of these chairs and keep the routine going right here.”
Orlando smiled that odd way he had earlier, and this time Danica waited for him to say something. He shook his head. “No, that just reminded me of something. When I lived with Nine and Beast in a house we rented, only thing we ever used the table in the dining room for was to work on car parts or play cards. Never to eat a meal.”
That made Danica smile. Of course, three bachelors wouldn’t be having formal meals in the dining room. She wondered if he and Felicia used this one but didn’t ask. She continued with her baby lessons, speaking occasionally in a coddling voice when the baby would turn and reach out for her. The whole time Orlando spoon-fed Oreo, they discussed all things baby-related until the baby was done and got a little more demanding when reaching out for her to pick him up out of the highchair. Danica cleaned his face and hands to keep him from reaching out to her so anxiously, then picked him up before the flaying arms could start up again. Afraid Orlando might start up again on how incredible it was that Oreo was so drawn to her so quickly, Danica used one of the conversation changers she’d since mentally lined up. “So, what was the unexpected errand you had to run this morning, if you don’t mind me asking? Everything okay?”
Orlando seemed fixated on the sight before him, making Danica gulp with anxiety. His son was now latched onto her hip and leaning his head on her shoulder, sighing blissfully, completely unaware of the unease his obvious contentment gave her. Orlando’s eyes went slowly from Oreo to Danica. His somewhat still awestruck expression morphed into a bit of a frown as if her question suddenly sunk in. “My other partner, Beast, you may’ve heard of him.” Danica nodded, stopping short of saying, ‘of course I know of Beast!’ The man was famous and scheduled to fight against the current heavyweight champ in a the next year. She’d keep to herself all the extensive research she’d since done on the shop and their owners before deciding if giving the baby up to his father was the best way to go. Not that she’d heard anything bad about Orlando, she just hadn’t heard enough.