as she swayed her head side-to-side. “Va al mercado. A comprar toda las cosas del mandado.”
She laughed, bringing her hand to her mouth. Orlando had never heard such a sweet laugh, and she looked just as sweet doing it. If she kept it up, his face would be hurting tomorrow, because try as he might, the goofy smile he knew he wore was impossible to flatten now. “Oh my God. I can’t believe I remember that song. I haven’t heard those lyrics since . . .” Her eyes widened again. “Oh wow, I must’ve been in pre-school and then maybe kindergarten when Doña Elena used to watch us. She only watched us for a few years before she passed. But I do remember singing that song for years after. It was my favorite. Still, it’s been forever since I last heard it.”
“Yeah, well, now not only can you hear the songs, you don’t even need a record player,” Orlando informed her as if it were the best news ever. “You can watch the videos on YouTube. It was my mom’s idea. This way he can start learning Spanish. I’d forgotten about Cri Cri myself. El Ratón Vaquero is our favorite.” He aimed his pointer fingers, feigning taking shots at her, then blew on the end of his fingers like the cartoon cowboy mouse in the video. He chuckled before admitting the next part. “Well, it was my favorite as a kid, so it’s the one I play most for him.”
“That was my brother’s favorite.” She looked even more excited now. “YouTube, huh? I’m gonna have to play it for him when I get home.” She seemed to ponder that for a moment. “I wonder how he’ll react?”
This confused Orlando. “You have a little brother?”
As if pulling her out of her thoughts, she turned to Orlando, the smile sort of waning. “Yes and no. He’s actually older, but he has Down Syndrome, so he’s more like my little brother.” The smile was back and bright again. “My boo boo.” Orlando was already beginning to ask himself how in the world could he possibly question whether his son was safe in the hands of this sweet girl when her smile flattened suddenly. She turned in the direction of his bedroom. “Is that . . .?”Before he could even decipher what she meant, she was off in a rush toward his bedroom and he followed.
He took advantage of the moment to take in the view from behind again, and hot damn it was something else. He’d always been partial to a little extra junk in a woman’s trunk, but this woman was packing the goods. Shaking off those thoughts, Orlando walked into his own bedroom behind Dani, his eyes on the bed as soon as they walked in. Baby O was just doing his usual wake up sounds. His hands touched his face and then one arm stretched out as if he’d had a hell of a nap. He wasn’t even crying, and she heard him? ”My little Oreo,” Dani said in the sweetest sing song voice. “Did you have a good nap, baby boy?” The baby turned to the sound of her voice and instantly smiled. “You did, didn’t you?” Little Man kicked his legs and shrieked as Orlando had never heard him shriek before. “Oh, my goodness!” Dani said as he continued shrieking and kicking, all animated and smiling only as big as Orlando had seen him do the last few times he’d shown up to visit him at the foster home. “Someone woke up in a good mood!” As she swooped him up in her arms, the baby shrieked again. For a moment, Orlando almost felt envious of the reaction he had to her until she kissed his chubby cheek and turned him in Orlando’s direction. “Look!” Baby O squealed again, his mostly gummy smile so big Orlando had never seen it so wide. “Look who’s here. Daddy!” Nearly jumping out of her arms, he reached out for Orlando.
Orlando took his warm squirmy baby in his arms and kissed his cheeks. “You’re a happy boy today.” To think, less than an hour ago Orlando was thinking this might be the worst day of his life and here he was holding his son who’d never seemed so happy. The warm greeting he was given was fleeting. After touching Orlando’s face and giggling when Orlando kissed his neck, little guy was distracted when Dani took a few steps away to grab her