out, but don’t worry. I will.”
He spoke with his mom for a bit longer, leaving out that he wasn’t crazy about leaving the baby in an environment where the attendants—some of them practically kids themselves—were watching thirty or forty other kids at one time. Most places he’d already checked out did have older women in charge, but the ones doing most of the watching of the kids were young girls. Too young to know much about caring for babies in his opinion. Not that he knew a whole lot, but at least he’d only have one he could give his undivided attention to. For weeks now, ever since he stepped foot into the first daycare center, he’d been seriously considering hiring a nanny. But the process for that might take a while. It’s why he’d be needing to take some time off. Once off the phone with his mom, he lay there on his mattress, doing the same thing he’d done every night since he found out about his baby: wondering what he was doing at that very moment. Was he crying? Was his missing his mom? His dad? The little guy had begun to show signs of getting attached to Orlando. At first, the courts had allowed a one-hour visiting time a week! Of course, Orlando had pushed for more time with him given his circumstances. The baby hadn’t been taken away for abusive reasons. They’d found nothing too damaging on his record except for some stupid shit he’d done way back. It was so long ago they couldn’t hold any of it against him. So, while they didn’t turn him over, he at least got three two-hour visits a week. And Orlando had made every last one of them. The last several times when Baby O had cried because Orlando had to leave, he’d barely made it to the car before getting choked up himself.
“This better happen this week, damn it,” he muttered, feeling choked up again. It really was insane how fast and profoundly this little guy had sucked him right in. Orlando was now feeling the same undeniable vulnerability he’d only ever seen in his hardened friend Beast’s eyes when he held his own baby. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed hard and decided to go about this another way. One he’d only shamefully ever resorted to when he was really desperate. He brought his hands together and closed his eyes. “Dear God. I don’t know how much more I can take . . .”
Chapter 5
Danica
Thankfully, Ted still didn’t suspect anything. Danica had almost blown it the day they had the oil change done at Orlando’s shop. First, she almost lost it when they’d driven by after running some errands in that area and she saw the moving truck outside the shop. The story of the abandoned baby had made the local news, so she knew Orlando was trying to get him back. But it wasn’t a big enough story that Ted had heard it. Danica had only found it because she’d been digging and searching for anything regarding it. As far as Ted was concerned, she’d simply informed the dad whose name she’d made up that she could no longer take care of the baby, and he agreed to keep him. Unfortunately, because it wasn’t a big headline, there hadn’t been anything big enough to update since it had initially been reported. Still, she’d been checking in vain for months for updates.
When she’d seen the moving truck outside the shop, she hadn’t known what to think. She’d insisted her car needed an oil change, made up some bullshit story on the spot about noticing a noise it’d been making for days. With Ted being such a stickler about keeping their cars up, she’d been quickly reprimanded for not saying something sooner. She’d convinced him that a co-worker swore by that shop, that it was the best price in town, and she didn’t want to wait another minute. Even back in the days when she’d gotten herself into so much trouble, she’d always sucked at lying. But she’d known from the moment she realized how torturous giving up the baby would be, she’d have to step up her game and learn to be as convincing as she could. Somehow lying came easier for her when it came to certain people, and Ted was one of those people. It had paid off and she’d managed to get them in there. She thought back to her performance that