The Good Life

Chapter 116

"Mommomomomomomomomomomommmmm....." Rosie yelled through the house finally stopping in front of her mother who was holding an 8 month old Angelo.

"What?" Marla asked her.

"Look what I found..." she said to her mother holding out a picture of her and Bruno in Las Vegas in 2011.

"Where did you get this?" Marla asked.

"I have to do a timeline for school. Before dad left he gave me a box of pictures..." Rosie told her.

"Did he say you could use these? I don't know..." Marla responded. "I don't know what these are from..." she told her daughter flipping through pictures of the two of them with Ryan and the rest of his first band.

"He said that I could use any of them....mom...I like this one..." Rosie handed her a picture of the two of them in Hawaii right before she and Bruno were married.

"That is pretty, mama..." Marla answered. "Do you want me to help you with it?"

"Dad just said to pick the pictures. He was going to do the rest for me." Rosie told her mother. "But momma...you can help me pick the pictures...." She said to her mother handing her a picture watching Angelo take the picture moving it near his mouth.

"I don't think you'll like that, baby...." Marla told him taking the picture away from him setting it on the table. "We'll pick pictures when you get home from school...okay?"

"Okay. I'm ready for school...." Rosie said picking up her backpack heading for the door.

"Hold on, Rosalia. I have to get the babies." Marla said to her daughter who sat down near the door waiting for her.

"Mom...they're old enough. They can stay by themselves." Rosie told her mother.

"You're not old enough to stay here by yourself, Rosalia...Come on..." Marla said pushing the door open with her foot holding the twins in their car seats. She was without Bruno for a few days while he went to New York to finish some writing he was doing with a new artist. Rosie sat in the front seat pushing her seatbelt behind her head watching Marla pull out of the driveway.

"Momma..." Rosie started as they neared the street.

"Yeah?" Marla asked keeping her eyes on the road.

"Do you remember when you first loved daddy?" she asked.

"Of course." She answered half lying. Bruno had told all the stories. She was still repeating them for everyone.

"No, mommy. I mean in your heart. Not when daddy or everyone else said..." she responded.

"Yes." Marla answered. "It might not have been the times that everyone else tells me about, but I remember. Why are you asking?" Marla asked.

"I think I love a boy." She told her mother.

"Oh, you do? When do I get to meet him?" Marla asked trying to contain her laugh.

"It's Leo, mommy. Daisy's brother." She told her mother.

"Oh, yeah?" Marla tried to recall which boy Rosie was talking about. If she recalled correctly Leo was her friend's 10 year old brother. "He's kind of old for you. Is he a cougar?"

"No, mom! He's a Lion." She answered referring to the school's mascot.

"Oh. I forgot." Marla replied. "When did you decide you loved him?"

"Yesterday. He gave me a cookie when I was waiting for you to pick me up." Rosie replied.

"Oh, well. He knows the way to your heart." Marla laughed as they neared the school.

"I'll remember it always." Rosie told her mother as she started to get out of the car. "Bye, mommy. I love you." She said blowing her mother a kiss. "And you two, too." She said looking at the babies in the back of the car.

Marla drove the short distance back to the house pulling the babies out of their car seats laying them on the floor handing them toys looking over to the pile of pictures Rosie had left on the table. "You know what, babies? I wish I remembered all of it. But this is what I got." She told them watching them look at her perplexed. "Okay...go do your baby thing..." she told them handing them toys watching them crawl to each other's toys as she went to pick up the pictures. She picked a handful up flipping through them quickly before stopping to examine each one in more detail. She picked one up on a beaten up restaurant with a small old woman standing in front of it. She turned over the picture seeing Bruno's handwriting on the back. Our first date. She flipped to the next one, an empty room with a book in the middle of the floor. Where we first met. She continued flipping through the pictures reliving their lives together. "Oh...." She stopped at the picture of her holding Rosie's hand with her hair in a messy bun and a long white dress. "I know this one..." she said to herself jumping up from the table. "Stay there..." she told the twins going into a spare bedroom. She pushed a few things aside finding the long flowing dress in the closet in a zipped bag. She unzipped the bag leaning in to smell it. She could swear she smelled Bruno on the dress. His faint cologne and her perfume from the day they were married. She took the picture from her other hand looking at the dress again. "I'm wearing this again...." She said zipping the bag pushing everything back to where it was before. As the bag zipped she heard the babies start to cry. "I'm coming!" she exclaimed running into the room seeing Angelo laying on top of Hope with a toy ripping it out of her hands. "Hey! That's not nice!" she told him picking him up moving him away from Hope picking her up trying to comfort her through her tears. "Calma, mi amor..." she told her daughter rocking her slowly. "Let's get you something to eat...." Marla got her daughter to calm down by feeding her peaches and mangos. She fed both the babies putting them down for a nap finding time to do laundry and go back to the pictures reading over his notes. "This is why he doesn't want her to use them...the notes..." she told herself. As she went through the pictures she heard her phone vibrate. She picked it up seeing a text message from him.

You leave me breathless. The only air I want to breathe is you. Girl, your best is effortless. Oh you're the one I want to get into. ;)

"Keep that up and you will, Bruno." She said to herself in response to his text of Boyz II Men lyrics.