The way Aaron Sachs holds his eight-month-old daughter betrays a tentativeness that most first-time dads don't have. Roque (pronounced Ro-KAY) is perched on his knee as he sits at a picnic table in the verdant back yard of a mid-century ranch-style house in Riverside, California, that belongs to Roque's grandma. It's the week after Christmas, and the electric candles are still in the windows. Sachs has just taken the wriggling, dark-haired bundle of joy from her mom, Aimee Carrillo Rowe, an attractive 45-year-old professor. As he cradles her, Sachs, 31, also a professor, gently rubs Roque's back, then sets her down to crawl across the picnic table.
"The last time I was here, she wasn't crawling," Sachs says, gazing at her with big warm eyes. "She doesn't look that much different this time, but she seems happier." This is only Sachs' sixth visit with his daughter. He and Rowe are not a couple—in fact, both prefer women. Sachs has a new girlfriend in Oakland, where he lives. Since arriving three days ago, Sachs has been sharing babysitting duties with Roque's grandmother, Alicia ("my co-parent," Rowe, who's currently single, says), when Rowe needs a break. She's got a hair appointment right now, actually, so she takes off, and 30 minutes later Roque starts to get fussy.
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