Nadia was surprisingly younger than Danica expected: late forties, early fifties if that. “Good morning,” she said, smiling big as she opened the door for them to walk in.
“Mom, this is Dani,” Orlando said, kissing his mom on the forehead as he walked past her, carrying the baby in his carrier. “Dani, this is my mom.”
“Nadia,” his mother said, holding out her hand to Danica.
Dani shook it. “Nice to meet you.”
“Orlando’s told me a lot about The Baby Whisperer.” She smiled even bigger. “Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard him say he hit it out of the ballpark with his sitter.”
Before Danica could respond, Orlando corrected his mother. “She’s a lot more than just my sitter now, but we don’t have time to get into all that right now.”
Feeling her face flush, Danica smiled with a shrug when his mother glanced back at Danica after turning to Orlando, who was setting the baby’s carrier on the sofa. “Oh? As in . . .?”
“As in she’s practically living with me now, and she’s not sleeping in either of the spare bedrooms either.”
Lifting a brow, his mother turned to him then back to Danica. “I thought you were engaged?”
“She was never actually engaged to the asshole,” Orlando said, taking the baby bag from Danica. “But he’s out and I’m in now.”
Nadia turned to Danica again, still looking a bit stunned. “I’d just mentioned to Felicia, the girl Orlando was seeing when I first came to work for him, that we—well, mostly my ex—had talked about marriage,” Danica offered. “But we were never engaged, and then things just didn’t work out between us.”
“With her at the shop a couple days out of the week and the rest of the time at my place, things just clicked.” Orlando kissed his mom’s forehead again. “One thing led to another and here we are. We’ll have dinner or lunch soon, and I’ll tell you more, but we gotta go now.”
Just like that, after letting Nadia know it was nice to finally meet her in person, they were rushing out to her car.
“You still have my keys,” she said.
“I know because I’m driving.” Feeling her brows furrow, she turned to him in question. Orlando smiled, kissing her before he opened the passenger’s side for her. “No offense, babe. But I’d like to get to the shop in one piece and without going into cardiac arrest.” He kissed her again when she playfully frowned at his comment. “Matter of fact, I think I’ll drive from here on and might even look into getting you a helmet.”
“Ha, ha,” she said as she got in the car. He closed her door and rushed around it. “Seriously,” he said as he got in and started up the car. “Your cooking skills are up there with Gordon Ramsey’s compared to your driving skills.” He chuckled as he pulled out effortlessly from the tight parking space, which probably would’ve taken Danica forever to get out of. “Maybe you leave any outings that require driving when you’re at my house with the baby for when I get home.”
He teased her the rest of the way to the shop. But she preferred they stay on that lighthearted subject than go back to talking about her court case. Now that she didn’t have an excuse not to look into his intense eyes when he asked her anything about it, she might start blurting out the whole truth about Blaine.
The shop was a madhouse when they got there. Construction crews were going in and out, and it seemed everyone was scheduled today because of the parts that had come in for the big projects Orlando mentioned. Near the end of her shift, Danica got the text from Ted. She was only glad Orlando stayed so busy so she could read it without him noticing her unease about it and questioning it. She read it quickly before deleting it.
I know you don’t want me calling you, but I just wanted to share a few things about this new district attorney and what he said when I spoke with him today. Call me when you get the chance.
She didn’t dare call until after she left the shop and only did then because of the subject matter. She hated to have to need Ted like this. It felt rotten to give into talking to him only because it was convenient for her, but she needed this so bad. She would finally be free of one of the biggest mistakes she’d made in her life.
Bracing herself as she hit the call button when she came to a stop, she waited for him to answer. “Danica, how are you?”
“Better now that this mess might finally be over. Blaine explained about you knowing the DA. Thanks for offering to put in a word for me.”
“You know I’d do anything for you.” Danica squeezed the steering wheel, refusing to comment on that and he went on. “Just wanted to let you know he’s all for getting this thing taken care of for you. You just have to go along with what I told him.”
“And what would that be?” Danica asked, already suspicious because she’d known, the moment Blaine told her about Ted’s offer to help, that it wasn’t entirely selfless.
“I just had to build you up a little. Make it sound like he was helping someone who’s completely worth it in case he had any doubts. Hard worker, excellent student, zero issues during your probation, volunteering at a child therapy facility for kids with special needs. That kind of stuff. But I left out a few things, like that it’s your sister’s facility, and I wasn’t sure if you’re still in the honor society, but I told him you still are. I just wanted to give you a heads-up, in case he or the judge asks you about any of it, so you have it straight.”
Danica frowned, chewing the corner of her lip. She appreciated Ted helping her with this, but this was what she meant about his help not being entirely selfless. He could’ve easily told Blaine to pass this information on to her, but he’d used the excuse to get her to call him. Now she’d have something else she’d be keeping from Orlando—the very thing he’d specifically asked her not to. “Alright, thank you, Ted. Anything else you need me to know just let Blaine know.”
She knew she sounded like an ingrate, but she did not want to encourage Ted to start reaching out again. With or without him, Blaine had already promised her this was almost over. If she had to cut him off again and he refused to continue to help, so be it.
“Danica?”
“Uh huh?” she said, taking a deep breath.
“You given any thought to us getting together so we can talk?”
“We’ve already talked, Ted. My mind’s made up.”
She reached Nadia’s townhouse, and thankfully, no cars were parked in front of her place, so she easily parked.
“Just one cup of coffee or one drink; it doesn’t have to be—”
“No.” She shook her head as she pulled the keys out of the ignition. “I can’t, Ted, and I gotta go. I need to pick up the baby.”
Freezing when she realized what had just slipped out, she squeezed her eyes shut because he went silent for a moment. “The baby?”
“Yeah.” She cleared her throat. “My sister hooked me up with a few babysitting gigs. ShopMart just wasn’t giving me the hours I needed. But I gotta go. I’m late. Just let Blaine know if there’s anything else I need to know. Thanks again, bye.”
She hung up before he could comment further, and just prayed he didn’t put it together. More than anyone, he knew what a torment it’d been for her to give Oreo up, but he couldn’t possibly come to the conclusion that she’d managed to worm her way back into his life from that one slip, right? Deciding there was no way, she rushed out to get the baby.