Orlando laughed, wiping his mouth. “What? Are you bilingual now?” He waved back at him, smiling big. “Hola!”
Dani laughed now too. “The lady selling the avocados said it to him, and he said it right back. My jaw fell open, and the lady didn’t even think it was a big deal until I told her he’d never said that word.”
“Say Papa,” Orlando said, tilting his head toward the baby. The baby lifted a half-mushed bean from his plate and showed it to Orlando. “Papas.”
This had Dani giggling again. “Oops, that’s my fault. We’ve always referred to food in general as papas at home when we talk to Dominic. Time for papas. I sort of started using it with Oreo. It’s why he’s showing you his food. He’s been repeating the word for days. I thought you’d heard him.”
“I probably have. He’s just been sputtering out so many different new words I didn’t catch it.” Dani pouted playfully, making Orlando smile and lean over and kiss her. “It’s okay.” He turned to Oreo, opening his mouth to accept the mushed bean his son was offering him. He chewed on it making mmm noises to show Baby O how much he liked it. “Delicious.” He turned to Dani as he picked up another crooked-ass and slightly burnt taquito. “You are getting better.” He dipped it in the guacamole and sour cream and bit into it. “It’s not pretty, but it is good.”
The taste of the burnt parts was completely worth seeing Dani smile so proudly. All through dinner they coaxed the baby to say new words. Short easy words like fork, drink, and bread. For the most part, Oreo babbled out stuff that sounded something like what they were asking him to say, but mostly it was all gibberish. The few times he got close enough to what they asked him to say they applauded and made a fuss.
By the time Oreo got through all the mush Dani had prepared him and he was bored with the word game, he began getting fussy and repeating one of his latest favorite words, up! He was ready to be out of his highchair and done with dinnertime. It was also obvious he was getting tired by the way he rubbed his eyes. “Bath time,” Orlando said, pulling him out of the highchair.
“It sure is,” Dani said, ignoring how Oreo reached out to her. “You and daddy can get ready for that while I clean up a little.”
“You don’t have to, babe,” Orlando said, kissing the baby on the head. “I can get that once I put him down.”
“No, no,” Dani assured him as she started cleaning off the highchair. “I’ll meet you in the bathroom as soon as I’m done here.”
She explained how she’d cleaned up as she cooked and all she had to do now was clear the table and load the dishwasher. Orlando headed to the bathroom in his master bedroom and set up the baby bathtub on the bathroom counter. He was glad now that the his-and-hers sinks were far enough apart it left plenty of room for the tub. He’d since bought a special faucet with a sprayer that reached perfectly for him to rinse the baby off. He worked diligently, surprised by how good he’d gotten at this since his first bungling attempts. So good, he was done before Dani ever made it back to the bathroom. He even got the baby into his jammies and ready for bed before she made it back. Once done and Oreo was all warm and toasty in his fuzzy pj’s, they headed back to the kitchen to fetch a bottle. Orlando could hear the TV on in the kitchen, either that or her phone, and wondered if she’d gotten caught up watching something. When he walked into the kitchen, he was surprised to see the under-the-cabinet TV wasn’t on and she wasn’t in the kitchen. But he followed what sounded like a news broadcast of some kind around the corner of the kitchen into the larger walk-in pantry. Dani was standing halfway in the pantry, engrossed in whatever she was watching on her phone. “Hey.” Seeing her jump nearly out of her skin and clutch her chest had him wincing. “Sorry—”
“No, no.” She shook her head, clearing her throat as she brought her phone down to her side, even as whatever it was she was watching kept playing. “I just . . .” She glanced down in the direction of her phone but didn’t lift it. “I didn’t hear you come in the kitchen. You startled me.”
Curious now, Orlando glanced down at her phone. “What were you watching?’
“Someone—” She cleared her throat. “Ted sent me a link to a press conference he did today.” She shrugged indifferently as Orlando felt his entire body go taut. “He’s running for office. I guess since he’d been talking about doing so forever, he wanted me to see it’s finally happening.”
Their eyes met for a moment, but she glanced away quickly before hitting something on the phone that turned the sound off. “Office, huh?” Orlando said, trying not to sound as irritated as this made him because it shouldn’t. It was just a video. “What’s he running for? Mayor?”
“No, he’s already on the city council. He’s trying to move up to the county board of supervisors.” She walked back into the kitchen and over to the sink as Orlando eyed her closely. Something about her demeanor made him nervous. She seemed nervous, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was there something she wasn’t telling him? Then something dawned on him. Felicia’s text. Could it be just a coincidence that she’d texted him that obscure text the same day Dani would get so sucked into whatever link her ex had sent her that Orlando startled her?
“So, you still keeping in touch with him, huh?”
“Not really.”
Trying desperately not to overreact, Orlando bounced the baby in his arms as he peered at her, swallowing hard. “Not really?
“Well, just a little. Stuff like this. Always him not me. He’s sent me a few articles and such; some I didn’t bother to read. They’re not all about him either. Like the one I did read the other day.” She reached up into the cabinet and pulled a bottle out. “You haven’t made him one yet, have you?”
“No.” Orlando shook his head. “What was the article about? The one you did read?” Dani turned to him for a second but then brought her attention to the bottle she was making for the baby. “He’s always been into politics and keeps up with all the news. There was an article about the gentrification in my neighborhood. He’s always sent me articles and whatnot since day one. He’s all about staying in the know and sends all his friends and family members links and videos and such about stuff he thinks they should be keeping up with.”
Shaking the bottle to mix the formula well, Dani turned to Orlando and smiled, as if that was all she was giving him. Working his jaw, Orlando held back what he really wanted to say: that things were over between them and this fucker had no right to continue to dictate anything in her life, including what she should or shouldn’t keep up on.
But he couldn’t keep it all in. “Is that right?” he asked, cautiously, because again, the last thing he wanted was her comparing him to her controlling ex. “So, he’s still sending minor orders from headquarters?”
Dani glanced at him as she placed the bottle in the microwave. To his relief, she smiled. “My sister said the same thing. It’s why I don’t bother responding. But one text I read from him recently did catch my interest.”
This had Orlando raising a brow, but he was determined to keep his cool. “Did it now?”