Page 3 of Leo

Oliver looked to Hannah for confirmation and she nodded, “Leo is so right. You don’t want to take a boring walk with grownups.” He seemed appeased and went back to fighting her on the removal of his coat.

Hannah was only nineteen to my twenty-three, and sometimes the age gap was obvious. Leaning back on the bench beside her, I kept an eye on my nephew over on the climbing structure. He’d just turned five and thought he could do everything himself. Thankfully, we were past the stage where he threw food and needed diaper changes.

“Are you saying you wouldn’t?” Alexis asked under her breath on my other side.

Shrugging, there was no point denying the man was sexy, “You’re not wrong.”

We were right across from the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero, where a rainbow flag was prominently displayed. Living in San Francisco as a gay man had its perks. One of them was being able to check men out openly at a children’s playground.

The sexy older man was looking at the little girl in his care with a sweet smile as she giggled with each swing forward. Everytime she came back to him, he grabbed her seat and pretended to eat her with kisses to her cheek. He loved her, that was clear, and I could see the resemblance. Where she had lighter bronze skin and hair, and his was a warm russet brown, they had the same dark brown eyes. I was going with Hannah’s assumption he was the girl’s father.

“Our luck, he swings your way,” Hannah teased and finally let Oliver go to climb the play structure that looked like a ship. I lived closer to Washington Square, but my nephew preferred this park, and that ship was part of the reason why.

When my big sister, Camila, told me she was going to get pregnant by surrogate and wanted me to move in, I was on board. If it got me out of our parents house in San Jose, all the better. Cam and I loved our big Mexican-American family, but they could be overbearing and judgemental. They stoppedspeaking to her when they found out she was having a baby on her own at twenty-nine, but they came around for their grandson.

Cam had a great paying job, a three-bedroom rent-controlled place in North Beach, and I could help her save on childcare while I finished my degree in early childhood education. I’d moved in right after high school and hadn’t looked back.

Sadly, my job lent itself to meeting a lot of women and straight parents, not available queer men. I was a nanny to my nephew while I finished college, but he was about to start kindergarten and I was going to work at a preschool in the same building. It would mean more pay—since my sister covered my rent, food, and college, but not minimum wage—but also less time with my favorite human.

“Nacho,” I called out when I saw my nephew trying to stand on top of the climbing web. He’d probably be fine, daredevil that he was, but I didn’t want other kids getting ideas to imitate him. “Come on down, now, Nacho.”

Some other nannies had joined Hannah and Alexis in gossiping about their employers, so I walked towards my nephew and let them get on with it. I was usually the only male nanny, and the only one who worked for family, so I didn’t always fit in with the ladies.

Nacho saw me approaching and finally decided to listen, descending past the other children and rushing to my side, “Tío Leo, did you see how high I was?”

“I did, mijo,” I took his hand as Nacho launched into a story about being king of the park because he was taller than everyone else. I could tell he still had a lot of energy, which we needed to run off before I crossed to the farmer’s market behind the Ferry Building. “Do you want to show me how fast you can run?”

“I’m superfast, tío,” Nacho insisted, holding my hand as we made our way out of the play area to the open grass. I waved to the girls and noticed the handsome dad was pulling his daughter out of the swings. “Time me!”

Nacho took off like a rocket across the grass, and I had to smile. He was a great kid. Bilingual and already reading in both languages, I was proud to have been a small part in how he turned out.

Next week, I’d start dropping him off at the fancy charter school my sister picked out. But the most amazing part was that I would only be one building away if he needed me. I lucked out when I went with Cam and Nacho for his pre-entry interview. The director was impressed by Nacho and Cam told him about my degree. They offered me a job on the spot.

Right now I was basking in the last few days I got to be free with my schedule. I wouldn’t be Nacho’s nanny anymore, but I wouldn’t stop being in his life. Stage one, wear Nacho out, was well on its way to completion. Next we’d buy a few things and head home to make an early dinner.

My sister would say the next phase of my life was to have fun and go on dates, but she didn’t know I had a particular type of man in mind.

A different kind of Daddy.

Chapter two

Isaac Quintel

Since 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-fivewith 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 himTío 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.

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