days at the shop, and she was picking Orlando up. They’d be dropping Oreo off at his mother’s together because Orlando was bringing home one of the old cars they were restoring to work on at home. Despite it being over two months since she’d been watching Oreo and over a month being in a relationship with Orlando, this was the first time she’d be meeting his mother in person, and she was nervous.
To her surprise, Orlando walked out as soon as she pulled into the driveway, so she got out quickly. He had the baby in the car carrier that doubled as a car seat in one hand and the baby bag in the other. He rushed down the walkway to her car. “Construction crew just arrived at the shop, and parts are in for some of the bigger projects we got going on.” He reached the back door, and she opened it for him. He kissed her deeply and a bit long, despite his apparent hurry. “Busy day today,” he said with a smile as he pulled away. After allowing Danica to greet the baby with tons of kisses, Orlando proceeded to slide the carrier into the car seat dock that was permanently in her car now. They each had one in their vehicles, and the carrier locked in and slipped out easily. She didn’t use the car seat much since she mostly only ever ventured out with the baby to the park and for strolls around the neighborhood. But Orlando had purchased the extra dock to put in her car for times like these when they might need to go somewhere in it instead of his. As soon as the carrier was locked safely, Orlando closed the door and pulled Danica to him with a groan, kissing her again. “I missed you last night,” he said, hugging her tightly and burying his face in her neck.
Danica smiled, wrapping her arms around him, beyond grateful for how this day was starting out. Once in the car and behind the wheel, Danica couldn’t help blurting out her good news. “Looks like the new district attorney might not be as stringent as the one who just retired.” She happily went on to explain what Blaine had said about this possibly being over and done with a lot sooner than expected. Of course, she left out the main reason why: because Ted—her attorney’s father—would be trying to pull some strings. So far, he’d been the biggest sore subject Orlando and Danica had tackled, and she didn’t want to ruin their day by getting into it about him again. It wasn’t as if she’d asked Ted to do this. He’d volunteered all on his own. Even if Ted couldn’t do anything for her, Blaine had made it sound like a new district attorney handling the case was already a positive thing. This was before he knew anything about his father being acquainted with the man. So, she was hopeful, regardless.
As usual, Orlando told her to just stay positive and everything would fall into place. She’d been avoiding looking his way with the perfect excuse of having to keep her eyes on the road so she wouldn’t start blurting out the whole truth about this too. She just didn’t see the point of getting him all worked up for nothing. When they arrived at his mother’s place, she finally turned to him, surprised to see him clutching his chest with one hand and holding on for dear life to the handle on the door with the other.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing,” he said with a pained smirk. “My heart just almost stopped a few dozen times there. Absolutely sure now that accident you were in had nothing to do with you being under the influence.”
“I am not that bad.” She frowned as she prepared to parallel park in front of his mother’s townhome. A few minutes later and after hitting the curb for the third time and not being anywhere close to getting the car parked, she had to giggle. “Okay, I’ll admit I stink at parallel parking, but my driving isn’t that bad. That accident I got my DUI for is the only one I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been driving for years.” She stopped to bring her finger to her mouth and thought for a minute. “Wait, does hitting parked cars count? Because those fender benders weren’t my fault.”
Orlando lifted a brow. “It was the parked cars’ fault?”
“Well, they were parked really bad