For a moment, Santana continued to walk in silence, struck by the man that she was following. It wasn't just the man himself, although he was admittedly being very nice to them, and he was extremely attractive. Blonde hair, natural from the looks of it, cut into a deliberately messy style, bright blue eyes that were a nearly exact match to his younger brother's, and broad shoulders on a clearly athletic build made him rather fun to look at, for sure…and those lips? They were full enough that they were almost girlish in appearance, and Santana found herself looking at them a little more obviously than she would have liked before she tore her eyes away.
"Stop a second, she needs to clean her face off…"
She fished a tissue from her purse and circled around Sam to reach out to her daughter, starting to clean her face with it. Antonia tried to turn her face away, not wanting Santana to make her blow her nose, but Santana insisted.
"Antonia Cristina, you are not getting snot all over this guy because you're being a grouch. Come here."
She finished wiping her daughter off, then, sticking the dirty tissue back in her purse, looked up at Sam again. There was something about the way he was holding Antonia, with such apparent ease, that made Santana's heart clinch. She wasn't sure if it was because of what she wished Antonia had- a strong male figure in her life who loved her, who could be a father in a way Santana never truly could- or because there was something about how he looked, holding Antonia, that somehow seemed right. As though it were the completion of a picture she had never realized was lurking in her thoughts.
Trying to shift her attention back to another matter, she addressed Sam again, thoughts of the milk she was supposed to be getting long gone. "So Stevie is your brother then? Do you take care of him a lot?"
They had exited the grocery door by then, and she didn't fail to notice that Sam hesitated before speaking. He set Antonia, now fully recovered, on her feet, and he waited until she and Stevie were walking several feet ahead of them, seemingly over their anger with each other as they practically skipped towards the ice cream parlor. Then he leaned close to Santana, enough so that his breath stirred her hair and made her shiver as he explained.
"Our parents died last year in a car accident. I'm his guardian now. He knows, but I'm not sure he really understands enough to talk much about it, so it's not something we discuss much."
He saw the softness come into Santana's eyes as she listened, and she reached a hand out impulsively, lightly touching his forearm.
"I'm sorry. That must be hard, to have that put on you all at once like that."
"It is," Sam confessed, and Santana didn't think it was her imagination that he looked down at her hand on his arm and smiled briefly. "But we manage. Stevie knows I love him and he loves me, and that he's what's most important in my life. I almost feel like he is my son in a way, so we make the best of it."
"I can't imagine," Santana shook her head, her expression tensing at the thought. "My mother is so important to both of our lives, she's really all I have outside of Toni. And losing my daughter…"
She shook her head again, resisting the urge to snatch Toni up right then and there and squeeze her until she couldn't breathe, simply because she was there for her to be able to do so. But her brief lapse into empathy was interrupted as the children reached the ice cream parlor's entrance and she heard the taunting voice of her daughter towards Stevie.
"Ha ha, I get to go first 'cause ladies first, and I'm a lady!"
"Not the way you act sometimes, you aren't," Santana muttered, but she needn't have worried about Stevie being at a loss for words.
"Don't make me pull your hair again!" the little boy threatened, as Antonia's eyes grew wide, and she looked up, squawking, at the adults.
"He can't pull my hair!"
"Stevie, pull her hair and you get your video games taken away," Sam informed his brother, whose bottom lip stuck out immediately in response to this.
"No! Don't take them away! Please…"
"Then behave," Sam told him, suppressing a smile as he exchanged looks with Santana over the children's head. There was something about her returning smile, the conspiratorial eye roll shared between them, that spoke more than words; Sam knew that between them, a connection, even a wordless understanding was being forged. At least, he thought so. As though in response to him, Santana spoke to her daughter, though her eyes remained on Sam.
"Antonia, it sounds like you want to have your things taken away too. Hm, should I take away your ponies for being rude to Stevie?"
"No! Mami you are wrong, I do NOT want my ponies taken away!" Antonia cried indignantly, her mouth dropping open.
"Then behave."
As they entered the ice cream parlor, with the children clamoring to look at the flavors available in the case, Sam looked to Santana, asking her first. "What flavor would you like?"
Santana ordered both Antonia and herself a scoop of cookie dough, making sure that the little girl's was in a cup as she had said. Sam ordered Stevie two scoops of chocolate chip, and they ushered the children to sit at a table near the window. She rolled her eyes again as the children jostled for their seat, with Stevie winning out and getting the seat closest to the window, much to Antonia's displeasure. Rolling her eyes good naturedly, she turned to Sam as they too sat across from the children.
"How old is he? Six? Maybe I'm a bad judge of age though, Toni's always been so little."
Antonia looked up indignantly. "Am not little, I'm a big girl, Mami!"
Santana just laughed, ruffling her hair. " Yep, my little big girl."
"I'm five!" Stevie announced proudly. "Sammy says I'm a big boy." He stuck a tongue out at Toni as he announced, "You're littler. You're a tiny midget!"
"You are big for your age," Santana smiled at Stevie, but this faded when he calls her daughter a tiny midget, and Antonia shrieked, dribbling ice cream down her chin.
"I AM NOT TINY I AM BIG!"
Santana exhaled, wiping her daughter's mouth, and then pulled her onto her lap, since Antonia was valiantly trying to kick Stevie under the table.
"Eat your ice cream, big girl."
"Stevie, stop taunting her," Sam said firmly, shaking his head before apologizing to Santana. "I don't know why he's so mouthy today, he's usually better than this."
Antonia calmed down in her lap and stayed there, glowering at Stevie, as Santana attempted to redirect the conversation. "So, are you a student, Sam? Or are you working?"
"No, I'm not anymore. I graduated college and now I'm waiting for call backs from MLB teams. I play baseball. What about you? Do you mind me asking, how old are you actually? You look really young," Sam replied easily, giving both her and the sulky Antonia in her lap a smile.
"College boy, huh? And a player too? " Santana laughed, giving teasing innuendo to this. " I'm taking online classes, just got back into school. And I'm 21. I work part time at a day care, gets this one in free. "
Stevie made a face at Toni and stuck his tongue out again, interrupting the adult conversation.
"She's kicking me Sammy! It hurts!"
Sam was truly getting a headache now. "Well, you need to stop taunting her. She wouldn't be kicking you if you stop."
Stevie continued to pout. " I knew it you like her more than you like me… "
Sam felt bad now, so he turned his brother so that they were looking at each other.
" That's not true. You're my best friend, remember? Don't be mad at me. How about tomorrow, if you're good, you can get Captain Crunch after all."
That made Stevie perk up.
"Can I have that for dinner?"
Sam shook his head. "No, but you can have it for breakfast."
He went back to his conversation with Santana, nodding in response to her.
"Yeah, and I'm a player, but not the kind you think I am….so you're 21 and a mother, and you have your life figured out. That's really impressive."
"You know what I really like? Kids that know how to sit and eat ice cream without kicking or screaming or calling each other names. Now that really would be a dream come true," Santana said sarcastically, keeping Antonia in her lap as she tried to eat her own ice cream while keeping her in place. To Sam, she stated with raised eyebrows, "Hot guy with lips like yours, not a player? Right, just like I believe you don't dye your hair….and now I know you're a player, because you saying my life is all figured out is a a totally bullshit comment." She laughed, even as Antonia spoke up seriously and seemingly without irony.
"You said a bad word, Mami! And that isn't a dream, Mami, that's real. See how I'm not kicking and screaming and calling names?"
Santana had to laugh at this, kissing the top of her head. "Yeah, at this exact moment. Lucky me."
"No, seriously, I'm not a player, I don't have to be, watching out for Stevie," Sam protested, "I really do think you have it all figured out. And I don't dye my hair…wait, you think I'm hot?"
Stevie was tugging at Sam's arm, whining again. "Toni kicked me. She gave me a bruise. And that lady said a bad word. Can I say it too?"
"Nice, try, but no," Sam cut Stevie's request off in the bud, shaking his head firmly. "And you'll be fine, Stevie, Evans men are tough.
"I bet I did leave a bruise. I'm strong and tough and I can kick super hard," Antonia grinned, squirming on Santana's lap as Santana scolded her.
"Antonia Cristina, you don't brag because you hurt someone. You should be apologizing."
Antonia looked up at her, again serious. "But what if I'm not sorry, Mami? That would be a lie."
Santana's lips twitched again as she tried not to laugh at her, looking quickly at Sam.
"Yeah, you're hot, I said it, didn't I? Like you don't know it. Please, you probably got this "I'm just a humble hardworking dude watching my kid brother" act down pat. I bet you rent him for the weekends just to score some ladies." She was teasing, Sam could tell; he could see the glint in her eyes. "Right. Right, I got it all figured out, that's why I had this one when I was still a kid myself, because I'm brilliant at figuring out life plans."
Sam opened his mouth, intending to answer, but the children quickly derailed any effort at an adult conversation. Still in her mother's lap, Antonia spoke up, pointing at Stevie with ice cream dribbling down her chin.
"Know what? Stevie Evans is a meanie and a poopyhead and I don't like him at all. But his daddy is nice."
"Antonia!" Santana said severely, squeezing her leg, as Stevie piped up indignantly.
" He's my brother, dummy. And you're the poopyhead."
"I AM NOT A POOPYHEAD OR A DUMMY! I am very smart and YOU are smelly and you have big ears!" Antonia retorted, indignant.
"You are too! I am not smelly and my ears aren't big, stupidhead!"
"I AM NOT! I AM NOT AND I AM TELLING IF YOU SAY THAT AGAIN YOU BOOGER NOSE!"
Both adults' stern intonation of the children's names was entirely ignored as they continued their heated argument.
"I am not a BOOGER NOSE! And go run to your mommy and cry again. CRY BABY!" Stevie said gleefully, smirking.
"You are too a booger nose! And a farty pants! And I am too gonna tell but I am not a crybaby! MR SAMMMMM STEVIE IS CALLING ME NAMES!" Antonia nearly hollered, pointing at Stevie dramatically.
"Antonia!" Santana hissed, her cheeks staining red as she became aware that literally every other person in the building was staring at her and her child- who had of course started all this. "Calm down NOW."
"Oh yeah? Well you're a poopy pants and you poop in your sleep!" Stevie told Antonia, clearly pleased with his own wit.
For Antonia, this was a huge insult. She burst into crocodile tears, lifting her arms out to Sam as though she wanted him to take her rather than her mother.
"I DO NOT POOP IN MY SLEEP! SAMMMMMM SAMMMM! Do not poop in my sleep.I poop on the toilet like a big girl. Mami tell him I poop on the toilet like a big girl!"
"Steven Evans!" Sam snapped his fingers in front of Stevie, causing him to blink, but the little boy kept on regardless, wanting the last word.
"You do too! And it stinks. Poopy Pants… Poopy Pants… "
"I DO NOT! YOU ARE THE STINKY POOPY PANTS! Mami! Sammy! Mamiiii I am not a stinky poopy pants…." Toni was sobbing, turning around to bury her face in her mother's chest. Exhaling in exasperation, Santana patted her back, shaking her head.
"You started this, Antonia. But no, you aren't a poopy pants, and I'm glad because it would suck to clean up after you."
"Stevie, sit still and be quiet, why are you having such a hard time being a good boy today?" Sam asked him, shaking his head.
"I was being a good boy," Stevie told him, seeming honestly surprised that Sam thought otherwise. "She's just a cry baby. I bet she even sucks her thumb like a baby."
Antonia howled louder at this, all the more outraged because when she is tired or upset she sometimes still does suck her thumb.
"I AM NOT A BABY YOU STUPID PENIS FACE!" she hollered, lifting her head from Santana's chest to declare this.
Santana couldn't help it at this. She burst out laughing, especially at Sam's horrified expression, which only made Antonia more upset. Her daughter turned her glare in her mother's direction, now addressing her every bit as grouchily.
"Stop laughing at me Mami!"
"I'm not a penis face!" Stevie shot back, pointing at Antonia. "You are!"
"This one just learned about what the body parts are called," Santana explained to Sam, still trying not to laugh. " Apparently, that's a terrible insult, but being called a poopy pants or fart face is worse."
Stevie, not ready to let this insult die down, tugged at his brother's arm. "You going to let her talk to me like that, Sam? She's not being a good girl!"
Sam was trying not to laugh as he responded to his brother.
" I told you to stop taunting her, she's just reacting."
Sam looked at Toni and said in a gentle tone, "It's not nice to call people names, Toni. You both need to stop."
Sniffling against her mother's shoulder, Antonia hid her face, eating up the fact that she had this attention now, but actually having managed to work herself up into being genuinely upset too. Santana patted her back, even as she kept speaking to her, having stopped laughing.
"Antonia, I highly doubt you were innocent in this. If you called Stevie names, he's going to call you names back."
Antonia mumbled grumpily against her, but looked over at Sam after. She regarded him, blinking, and popped her thumb in her mouth. Then, realizing that Stevie might be watching, she hurriedly removed it. Seeing that no apology was coming any time soon, Santana signed, looking past her to Sam.
"Something tells me that this one needs to get home for a N-A-P. So…you feel like maybe having a conversation together some other time, preferably where the kids aren't around to turn it into an insult war?"
She was relieved when the young man's face broke into a goofy grin, and he nodded immediately, even as he reached for his brother's hand.
"You got it." As he scribbled out his number on a napkin, instructing Santana to text, then collected his brother with a final goodbye and wave, Santana found herself watching the two exit, and even as she gathered her grumpy little girl into the car to go, her thoughts didn't leave Sam for long.