Fate

Chapter 7 - Part 2

A few things happened in the coming days. Grace and Sal got back together, and Vince couldn't have been happier. He was beginning to feel like a real crumb about passing information on to Sal that he got about Grace from Rose, but he had no choice. Sal was taking a real chance letting his sixteen-year-old, barely licensed cousin drive to and from Chula Vista, but he'd made the conditions very clear.

At first Vince had been a little worried that his wheels would be taken away because Sal had mentioned the car he was driving had originally been bought for Grace. But they didn't just get back together, Grace was pregnant now, and they were getting married. Sal's engagement gift to Grace, other than the huge rock he got her, was a brand new SUV.

For weeks Vince remained on his best behavior, and it paid off. He and Rose spent more and more time together as the summer went on. Sal even got them both passes to Sea World, The San Diego Zoo, and Disneyland the week of their birthdays. It was an awesome week. Vince had begun to feel a bond with Rose like he'd only ever felt with his brother. The need to protect her and be there for her was ever present now.

After hearing her mention more than once about her fondness for teddy bears and the collection her father had started for her before passing away when she was very young, Vince wanted to add to the collection. He'd asked her what her favorite bear of all time was, and she'd immediately said Baloo from Disney's Jungle Book, but she only had a small one of him. So when they got the chance to go to Disneyland, he was determined to get her a bigger one. Only he wasn't just going to buy her one; he was going to show his shooting skills in the game area and win her a giant Baloo.

Disneyland was the first of the theme parks they hit that week. Up until then, though he made it clear by his actions that he cared about her, he'd yet to openly express his feelings or do anything more to move things further along in their just friends' status. They hadn't even held hands. Walking through the crowded theme park changed that. At first he made it seem like a simple act of protectiveness. He didn't want to lose her in the crowd, so he'd reached his hand out to her, and she took it.

Vince didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but he couldn't help it. He'd held hands with plenty of girls before, but he'd never felt the downright giddiness he'd felt when he finally got to hold hers. There was something so sweet about holding her small hand in his. Like him she tried to downplay it, but there was no missing the twinkle in her eyes, and he knew she was feeling the same way.

It was all he could do to hold back from kissing those sweet lips too, but he held back. He had to. She'd already mentioned having to reassure Grace that they were still just friends. Each day they spent together now was better than the last. He couldn't risk getting his ass thrown back to La Puente. When Sal gave them the tickets, he reminded him how apprehensive Grace still was about Rose getting into anything serious. Sal promised him they were all over his past. Vince was proving just fine that he'd made a big change. Then in the very next sentence, he warned him quite sternly that he didn't want his pregnant wife worrying about a damn thing. So if Vince gave her something to worry about, he was gone. With that in mind he squeezed Rose's hand and continued to hold it throughout the day but didn't push his luck with anything more.

Unfortunately, because Baloo was a character in one of Disney's older movies, he wasn't being offered as a prize at any of the games. Vince settled for a medium–sized, pink bear that he traded up for after winning two smaller prizes in a row.

She took it and hugged it, kissing it on the head as soon as it was handed to her. Vince was instantly having stuffed-pink-bear envy. "It's not Baloo," he said with a small frown, "but I didn't see him anywhere."

"With the money you spent winning this one, you could've bought me a Baloo, but this one means more because you won it for me." She smiled at him, and he got caught up in her eyes for a breathtaking moment. Once again he had to fight the urge to take her in his arms and kiss her.