Chapter 9: Daniel, Part 1

I hate shopping on Saturday nights but once again I'm the dumb-ass who didn't plan ahead. I should hire a maid or someone to do my shopping for me.

With my baseball cap pulled low over my eyes, I wander around the store, swinging through the grocery aisles before making my way over to toiletries. I can hear what sounds like a baby giggling. It makes me smile and reminds me

I really need to call my sister, Blanca, in the morning. I haven't checked on her since she got married a few weeks ago, and I want to see how Aaron is doing as a new stepdad. He's a great guy, but she was adamant they wouldn't live together until after they were married. Something about the kids getting too attached before things were finalized.

I get it. She had a really rough divorce from a total douchebag, who left her and the kids high and dry. They don't need to get their hearts broken again.

I glance down the aisle as I pass by the baby items and barely register a woman with a giggling baby in a carrier strapped to her chest. But then it hits me.

I stop and back up because she looks familiar, yet she looks totally different than the last time I saw her.

She blows a raspberry on the baby's cheek, making him laugh a hearty baby laugh.

Smiling, I swivel my cart down the aisle and walk toward them. "Hey," I say. "Quincy, right?"

She looks pleasantly surprised to see me and even more surprised I remember her name. I actually surprise myself with that one.

"Yeah. Um...." She gets a look on her face like she's trying to remember my name. I kind of like that she has no idea who I am.

"Daniel," I say, giving her a reprieve from any embarrassment.

"I'm sorry. I'm terrible with names," she says with a smile, bouncing the baby and patting his butt. She looks so much more comfortable with him than the first time we met. And she has a shopping cart.

"Don't worry about my name. I'm happy you remember meeting me. I wouldn't want you to think I'm a stalker or something."

I'm not sure how I missed it before - probably because she was in such a bad place last time we met - but she really is beautiful. Long blonde hair pulled up in one of those messy buns, little wisps of hair falling around her face, hazel eyes that light up when she smiles. And that smile… that smile is killer.

"Of course I remember you," she says, breaking out into that smile again. "How could I forget the man that literally saved Baby Chance from starving to death?"

I scoff. "I wouldn't go that far. Maybe just from dehydration," I chide.

She grins and runs her hand down Chance's head. "Well, whatever it was, you helped us out that night. So thank you."

I glance into her shopping cart, seeing a bunch of groceries and toiletries items randomly thrown about. "You look much more comfortable with him than the last time we ran into each other here."

"It was a rough couple of months but I think we're finally getting in a good groove." She looks down at the baby and coos at him. "Aren't we? Getting in good groove, huh?" He smiles up at her.

"So you guys just make a habit of shopping at night?"

She kisses him on the forehead and looks up at me. "He seems to be a night owl, so it seems to work better for me to sleep when he does, right after work, and do errands like this in the middle of the night," she says dismissively. "It's not ideal, but it works for now. What about you? Why are you shopping so late?"

"Me?" I say, feeling like a middle-school boy staring at his crush. For some reason, this woman is starting to intrigue me. Not just in an "I want to fuck her" sort of way. More like a "It fascinates me a single woman would take on such a major responsibility and is doing it so gracefully" kind of way.

"I have no excuse except I'm a dumb-ass."

"Why?"

"I went out of town and didn't bother to make sure I was stocked up on stuff like deodorant and laundry detergent. Now I'm back and have none of the needed essentials."

"I wouldn't call you a dumb-ass," she says with a grin. "Maybe a lazy ass."

I laugh. "I think my mother would agree with you about that."

All of the sudden, the baby lets out a huge grunt and the most god-awful noise comes from the vicinity of his hind end. My eyes get wide, and Quincy looks down with a stunned look on her face.

"Did he just…?" I start but lose my train of thought as he grunts again.