response. But for some reason—and his gut knew that exact reason—he knew he needed to do the right thing. So, nothing short of honesty would cut it now. Felicia deserved at least that much. No more dicking around the way it’d felt when he’d ignored her calls in the past weeks. “My life’s gotten pretty complicated, Felicia. With my mom watching the baby twice a week, it doesn’t feel right to be asking her to watch him so I can be social. I need to focus on my son right now.”
She started to say something but then seemed to take it back. Orlando had a feeling why that was. This wouldn’t be the first time she countered his excuse for not getting together by assuring him he didn’t need to get a sitter just to hang out with her. She was cool hanging out with him and his son. But he could tell she’d picked up on just how much things had changed lately. She was likely rethinking the possibility of sounding too pushy, maybe even a little desperate. Their unspoken understanding before Dani showed up likely still stood with Felicia. Comments like the one she made to Dani about being willing to step up and take on the mother role to Oreo made one thing clear. Felicia was feeling more for Orlando now than he’d ever anticipated. Keeping things going even in the casual way they’d been doing was out of the question now. Not without feelings being hurt, and he just wasn’t willing to chance that. They might not have been exclusive or even gone out in weeks, but in not so many words, they’d sort of agreed to give each other a heads-up if they’d moved on. Not that Orlando had, but he wanted her to know she was free too if she wanted to. So, before she changed her mind and swallowed her pride, he spoke up first.
“Listen. I’d say maybe we could hang out some time or something, but I prefer to be honest and upfront with you about this. I don’t anticipate having time for a social life anytime soon. Things are different for me now that I’m trying to get a routine going raising the baby and keeping up with the shop.”
He explained how on top of it all they’d gotten the go-ahead on the expansion and things would be getting even more hectic for him in the coming months. Any downtime he had would be trying to recoup and catch some Z’s. But he wasn’t counting on too much of the latter. He told her they could keep in touch but hoped she got the hint—she wouldn’t be hearing back from him after today. Without further discussion, she said good-bye, and they were off the phone. As awkward as the call had been, Orlando was glad he’d gotten it over with. It was the right thing to do. Though for a fleeting moment after he hung up, he felt a little bad. But one look out the kitchen window at Dani’s car pulling into his driveway had Orlando smiling big. He turned to Oreo, letting his shoulders slump when he saw what a mess he was. “Cookie Monster again.” Rushing over to him, he grabbed a wipe from the many wipe boxes he now kept all around the house. For a few minutes, he tried to wipe him down as Oreo objected, moving his face away and whining.
“Is that my little Oreo I hear?”
As usual, Oreo’s eyes lit up at the sound of Dani’s voice, and his smile was as big and goofy as Orlando’s felt. He went from whining to squealing almost instantly. Orlando took advantage of his more cooperative mood to get some cleaning in. Since he’d given Dani the code to get in his front door and told her she never had to knock, she could just come in whenever she arrived now. He could hear her putting things down in the front room as he hurried to get the baby clean.
The moment she was in the kitchen, Oreo went wild as he always did. “Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!” She rushed to him, cradling his little face and kissing it all over. “Good morning to you too, my little cookie monster.”
“Yeah,” Orlando said with a chuckle, shaking his head. “I was trying to clean him up before you walked in and we were getting ready for breakfast. Believe it or not, he was clean just a few