the baby’s mom seemed to care about him. She certainly made sure everything was unmistakably labeled and even left a typewritten list of the foods he’d need to shop for. The note on the baby formula firmly stated, “This is the ONLY formula he can have. NO EXCEPTIONS!” Clearly, she cared about him. So how could she just leave him at his doorstep?
Already, Orlando was in love with the pacifier. That thing was godsent. The moment he stuck it in Little Man’s mouth, it shut him up and calmed him. Even that was labeled “use sparingly.” Fuck that. Until he got the hang of this dad thing, he was using every cheat he could find.
“Dad,” he whispered as he laid the baby down on the bed.
The more he thought this might actually be a possibility, the more terrified he felt for two reasons. For one, he was in no way ready to be a dad—much less a single dad. Already, he had no idea what to do next. But the second was a dread that was growing with every passing minute he spent with the kid. He crinkled his nose. No matter how stink-ass he was, what if they did take him from him? He shook his head, deciding he wouldn’t start worrying about that just yet.
“Beast!” he called out, staring down at the baby’s wiggling legs. He held his nose as the stench got a little stronger. “Yo, man, can you come up here when you get a minute?” He glanced down at the smiling baby. “You stink.”
The baby smiled so big the pacifier fell out of his mouth, but he didn’t cry. Instead, he giggled, kicking his legs a little harder. “You doing that on purpose?” Orlando asked, pinching his nose even tighter. “You’re making the smell worse, dude.”
As much as the pungent smell made him grimace, Orlando couldn’t help smiling. He’d since been corrected. The little guy wasn’t as toothless as he’d first thought him. He had one tiny tooth—that Orlando could see anyway. He hated to jump ahead of himself, but something in the twinkle in the baby’s eyes reminded him a little of himself. Feeling the weirdest flutter in his heart, he swallowed hard. Could this really be his kid?
Beast walked in the bedroom. “Whoa, that’s bad.” He lifted his shirt to his nose.
“Can you do this?”
“Hell, no.” Beast lifted the shirt even higher over his nose. “I do everything for Elsa except change sloppy diapers. Well, so far I’ve managed to avoid it anyway.”
“But you’ve changed a diaper, right?”
“Yeah, but only when she’s just wet.”
“Well, walk me through this, man. I’ve never even done that.”
Beast walked him through it, the whole time holding his shirt to his nose. He started laughing when Orlando gagged but then gagged himself and started to walk away. “Get back here, ass,” Orlando called out for him in sheer panic.
He grabbed a handful of wipes as Beast instructed and started wiping. It took a while with Nine getting curious and sticking his head in the room only to run back out of there cussing like a little bitch. By the time he was done, Orlando was sure he’d used far more wipes than he was supposed to. But it was over. Beast offered to hold the baby while Orlando ran outside to throw everything out in the dumpster. Beast was coming down the stairs when Orlando walked back in. He looked way more comfortable holding the baby than Orlando had felt so far. But then the guy was a dad.
Before Orlando could take the baby from him, his phone rang. Remembering the call he was waiting on, his heart rate spiked. He rushed to his phone, and sure enough, it was Slater.
The first words out of Slater’s mouth the moment Orlando answered the phone were, “Call Child Protective Services.” Instantly, Orlando felt his stomach drop as he listened intently to everything else the guy had to say. “I just got off the phone with someone who knows about this stuff. Even if it is your kid, this needs to be reported. Do you know who the mother is?”
“I have no idea,” Orlando admitted. “He’s three and a half months according to the note, so this has to be someone I slept with last year. I don’t have a fucking clue.”
“Well, first things first, call Child Protective Services, and they’ll take it from here.”
“Whoa, whoa, wait.” Orlando turned back to Beast still holding the baby. “What if he is mine?