2. Isaac Quintel

Chapter two

Isaac Quintel

S ince the best part of my day was making my daughter smile, we went to a lot of parks. Dezi’s favorite activity was the swings, followed by the slide. Good thing San Francisco had dozens of parks, because she was like catnip to all the moms. I was trying out this one on the Embarcadero because I figured there would be more tourists than locals.

It wasn’t that I wanted to be single. It was fucking hard being a working single parent, but most of these mom’s weren’t looking for anything serious. And the nannies were all basically children. I didn’t have the mental bandwidth for a fling, let alone the time to try building a relationship.

Dezi was my whole world from the moment I looked into her eyes, but a DNA test confirmed she was mine. I turned thirty-five with the knowledge that the next eighteen years of my life would be spent focusing on her. And that was how it should be.

With the eyes of every person on me at this park, I was wondering if I should sell my condo and move to the suburbs for a house with a yard. I could buy her a swing set with a slide and we’d never have to be the topic of gossip. Or maybe I could buy a ring and pretend I was married? Probably wouldn’t stop them.

“No, Daddy, ‘gain!” Dezi squealed, and I realized I was holding her back without letting her go forward again. I released her seat and was rewarded with her beautiful giggle as her pink, polka-dot sweater hood flew off to reveal her curls.

Grabbing her on the backswing, I laid kisses on her cheek before pushing her to swing more. This was her favorite game, and I could ignore the blatant stares for Dezi any day. I kept it up while Dezi continued giggling and asking for more.

Feeling eyes on me, I saw a tall, thin man with dark hair and tan skin standing up from the group of nannies. I thought he might be a big brother or young father, but I saw him go towards the climbing structure and call out for Nachos. I was confused enough to keep watching, and I noticed that the boy at the top of the metal frame called him Tío Leo .

Ah, so he was Nacho as a name, and the man was his uncle, if my high school Spanish knowledge was still intact. It was cool to see a little kid be bilingual. The nannies rarely hung out with parents and family members, though, so I was surprised they let him in their group.

Maybe Tío was a nickname? Everyone my parents knew was my uncle and aunty when I was growing up, and I noticed a lot of cultures did the same. He could be a manny. Though I supposed nanny was gender-neutral, right?

My thoughts had distracted me so much I almost missed when the young man, Leo, and the boy were about to pass me. He was wearing a long-sleeved, green Henley and matching cargo pants. Stylish, but casual.

Why was I thinking about his style?

“No, Daddy,” Dezi pulled my attention back to her and I knew she was done. No and Daddy were her two main words, and she used them liberally. I started pulling her out of the toddler seat as Leo waved to the nannies who’d been gossiping about me.

“Time me,” the little boy, Nacho, yelled before taking off across the grass. It was still morning, so the space was mostly clear of people. Leo held up his watch like he was really timing the boy.

Dezi’s stroller was right next to where he stood, so I ended up only feet from the man I’d been oddly focused on. I tried buckling her in, but she got irritable and started chanting, “No, no, no!”

Noticing a bit of drool, I kneeled down to wipe her chin. When she bit my finger, I pulled it back with a curse. “Fu–fudge sticks,” I corrected.

“Learning not to cuss in front of little ears is not easy,” a soft, masculine voice commented, and I looked up to find Leo smirking at me. “Good for you.”

“Thanks?” I replied, confused by the sense of pride at being told I did something right as a parent. “I’m usually good about it after the first time Dezi said the s-word. But she bit me.”

“Naughty girl, Dezi.” Leo glanced out to where Nacho was making his way back towards us and then knelt beside me. “Looks like she has all four front top and bottom teeth in. Eighteen months?”

“Uh, yeah,” I confirmed. Was he really good at guessing ages? Pulling out her sippy cup, I handed it over to sooth Dezi. “How did you know?”

“I have a degree in early childhood education and have been the full-time nanny to my nephew from birth,” Leo explained. So he was a nanny, or manny, and also the boy’s uncle. He glanced back towards Nacho then to me, “Has she started getting any of her molars?”

“Uh, the back teeth?” I asked like an idiot.

Leo only smiled, “Yep. The front molars and eye teeth show up around sixteen to twenty-two months. It causes irritability and drooling, plus they get bitey.”

“Like little vampires,” I chuckled and Leo joined me.

“Did I beat my time, Tío?” Nacho sucked in a deep breath from his run and Leo pressed a button on his watch.

“Almost, mijo,” Leo gave the boy a big smile and pulled a water bottle out of the pocket on his cargo pants. Must be nice not to have to travel with a diaper bag and stroller. “In the top five for sure.”

“Yes,” Nacho cheered and then looked at me and Dezi as he gulped down the water. He held out his little hand and I took it, still on my knee beside Dezi’s stroller. “Hi, I’m Jose Ignacio Ibarra, but everyone calls me Nacho. Are you my tío, Leo’s, friend?”

“Nice to meet you, Nacho.” I couldn’t help smiling at the boy’s exuberant introduction and followed his example, “I’m Isaac Quintel the third, and this is Destiny Valentine, but everyone calls her Dezi.”

“Quin means five, and I’m five,” Nacho stated, like it wasn’t odd for a little boy to know Latin prefixes. “So you should have a son to be the fourth and then your grandson can be the fifth Quintel!”

His precocious idea of my being a father to two, let alone a grandfather, had me choking on a laugh. I stood but Leo stayed low, at Nacho’s level. “I only became a father last year. I’m not ready to be a grandfather.”

Nacho looked me up and down, “You’re old, but you’ve got time.”

“Nacho, we don’t call people old,” Leo chided the boy but we were both laughing. He stood up to face me and I was caught on the dimple in his left cheek. “Sorry, he’s too smart for his own good, sometimes.”

“I’m seven times his age, so to him I am old,” I commented, feeling my age in my knee after kneeling on the grass for too long. Leo licked his lips and I couldn’t help feeling like he was checking me out. I wasn’t into guys, so I changed the subject, “Dezi is teething, then?”

“Most likely, but I’m not an expert,” Leo shrugged. I admired his humble statement of facts. “They make teething rings, but frozen fruit to munch on is a great way to numb her pain and get her chewing on nutritious foods.”

His competence was attractive. I mean–not attractive–impressive. I coughed and buckled Dezi into her seat. “I’ll have to try that.”

“Are we gonna go to the market now?” Nacho started to tug on his uncle’s hand, but for some reason, I didn’t want Leo to leave yet. I rarely got to talk to people who knew things about young children.

Definitely wasn’t trying to get him to talk more. I just wanted his knowledge. That was why I asked, “Have any other advice?”

“She might get a low fever and more pain, so baby aspirin might be needed,” Leo smiled down at Dezi, who had dropped the sippy cup and was falling asleep. “Cuddles from Daddy help too.”

Hearing Leo use Daddy in reference to me had a very different response than I was used to, over the past ten months. My dick twitched and I realized it had been way too long since I’d gotten laid if a man saying Daddy got me going. “I’m a good cuddler.”

Why the fuck had I said that? I needed more sleep.

“I bet you are,” Leo looked me up and down with a grin until Nacho tugged on his hand again. “We have to be going. See you around, Mr. Quintel.”

“Sure. See you,” I waved as they turned to go. Though, with the city so big, I doubted we would ever meet again.

Shaking my head to clear it when I realized I was watching the young man and his nephew make their way out of the park to cross the Embarcadero, I looked down at my daughter.

It wasn’t the first time a man attracted to men had chatted me up, but I was seriously sleep deprived if I was getting horny at the park. Time to go home and hope Dezi napped for me.

If I also carved out some private Daddy time to have a little one-handed relief, no one had to know.