Chapter 80+81

The girls gasped at his comment seeing a picture of Bruno and Evie in Hawaii earlier in the month. Piers lamented about how girls’ hearts were breaking. Bruno sympathized but didn’t say much more an about the two of them completing forgetting to mention Lucy. He did that on purpose, but she’s not going to think that. Evie thought looking over at Lucy laying on the floor with her cousins.

”Mom…why isn’t there a picture of me? I thought he would have told everyone about me too.” she questioned her mother.

”Did you see pictures of the rest of his family, Luc?” she asked her daughter.

”Well…no…I didn’t see Jaimo….” she said.

”That’s because he doesn’t want people to come look for you and to take pictures of you. Do you remember when we were at the airport and there were some cameras there?” Evie replied.

”I think so…” she pondered. ”But why can’t they take pictures of me? I have a pretty smile.”

”But Luc….there is a time and place for pictures. Like you don’t need to have your picture taken at the airport or when you’re with people at a restaurant or shopping….you take pictures when you’re ready to. And we weren’t ready for the cameras. And when people find out about the wedding, baby…they will want to take pictures all the time.”

”I’m always sready!” she exclaimed standing up smiling.

”Until you’re 18, missy, I get to tell you when you’re ready for pictures. Okay?”

”But mommmmm….I want everyone to know that you are gonna marry Bruno!” she answered.

”Well, let’s wait a little, okay, Luc?” she asked her daughter.

”Fine. ” she responded with a sigh going back to coloring something.

**

After everyone had left the house Evie sat down on the couch opening her books to start reading for her first class the next semester. She had her music on and was in her own world when she heard the door open. She turned to see Bruno stumbling into the house.

”I drank too much.” he told her loudly.

”Shhh…Brunz. Lucy is asleep.” she told him taking his hand leading him to the table.

”Oh….right. I forget about her.” Bruno said sitting down taking a sip of the water she had poured for him.

”And eat this.” she handed him some cookies.

”Oh these are good.” he smiled at her.

”I made them this afternoon. But you’ll have to find someone else to make them once I go back to school.” she smiled back at him.

”You have one semester left. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it.” he laughed at her.

”I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it either.” she responded.

”You can do it. And then we can run away and get married.” he told her taking her hands kissing them.

”Bru…I really…I know…I want to wait until I pass the bar.” she told him.

”Oh right. That test.” he nodded his head.

”Bruno…I’ll have the letters at the end of my name, but I won’t be able to be a lawyer I don’t pass the test. I’d be an intern for the rest of my life.” she explained.

”But you don’t have to do that…” he told her. can take care of you. Do you really expect me to give up on something I’ve worked for that long?”

”Well…when you put it that way…” he told her.

”I know you’re going to be here to take care of us. And I don’t know what I would do without you, Bruno…but I need to do this. I know it’s been hard and there have been times, even last week, when I wanted to give up. But I can’t.” she told him. ”And the bar isn’t until September…so we’ll have to wait a little longer.”

”Baby…I don’t care when we get married. I just don’t want you to forget that I’m here or you and that I love you.” he said half smiling almost about to fall asleep.

”God, thanks for inviting me.” she sighed seeing that he was still drunk.

”You had the kids.” he smiled at her.

”You just better make it up to me.” she winked getting up to go back to her book. He walked passed her kissing her good night.

”You better not be up when I wake up.” he turned around looking at her.

The next day Evie took Lucy to school, went to the gym and then sat on the couch reading for class knowing that the house was going to be empty while Bruno was rehearsing for his upcoming tour in South America.  She was startled out of her reading hearing a noise come from the back of the house.

”No way!” Bruno exclaimed standing next to Ryan.

”I swear dude! Come on!” Ryan answered.

”What are y’all bitching about?” Evie turned around from the couch looking at them.

”He wants to get a dog.” Bruno told her.

”A dog? You really think that’s a good idea?” Evie asked. ”I have a kid. You can have her for a day.” she smiled.

”Yeah…but Lucy doesn’t have a puppy smell.” Ryan laughed.

”Oh my god! Did you really just say that?” Evie exclaimed.

”Yeah. He did. That’s my kid that you’re talking about!” Bruno pushed his friend.

”Okay…okay…I’ll go get that stuff and see you tomorrow, bro.” Ryan said heading out the door..

”I don’t get y’all some days.” Evie said watching Bruno move her books over to sit next to her.

”It’s really better if you don’t understand, Eve.” he said kissing her forehead.

”What are we doing for the rest of the day?” he asked her.

”Wellllll….at 3 we have to go pick up your kid from school and then after that I don’t know.” she smiled. ”Bruno…did you really mean that?”

”I meant every word of it. Why would I have said it?” he asked her confused.

”I just didn’t know that you thought of her that way. Like she was mine and and you were just saying that dad stuff to make us happy.” she admitted.

”Baby….I would never had said those things if I didn’t mean it. I want us to be a real family…” he took her hands holding them up squeezing them looking into her eyes. ”I want her to be my daughter.” Evie looked into his eyes trying not to cry. Oh my god. Did he just say that? As the thoughts ran through her head she felt the tears come down her cheek. ”I want to adopt her.”

”I….don’t…..I don’t know what to say, Bruno.” she said wiping the tears off her cheek.

”Say yes.” he said taking his hand to her cheek.

”Bruno….you need to talk to Lucy about that. I can’t make those decisions for her. We know what her answer will be….but my caseworker also knew what we would say about my parents but they still had to ask us if we wanted them to adopt us.” she told him. ”And if she says yes we can’t just do it with a snap of our fingers. Files have to be pulled and a lawyer has to put it together and everything….”

”But you can do all that….” he told her not understanding the process.

”I can’t Bruno. Not yet. And even then it’s too weird. It’s a blurry line. And right now, just starting…I couldn’t do that. I know who can. Who can get it done fast…but it’s complicated. You know that.”

”Well let’s talk to Lucy about it.” he said trying to keep Evie from getting to emotional.

”Okay. We’ll talk to her about it tonight.” she told him leaning in to kiss him moving toward his ear whispering in his ear. ”We have an hour until we need to pick up Lucy…”

An hour later Evie jumped in the car driving to pick Lucy up from school in her new car. ”Damn this smells so good.” she smiled turning down the street turning up her music. She pulled up to the parent pick up area waving to Lucy who ran toward the car jumping in the backseat.

”Mommmm….we read your favorite book today!” she exclaimed.

”You did? Do you want to read it when we get home?” Evie asked.

”Can you and Bruno read it with me? Like before bed?” she asked.

”Yeah. We can do that Lu-lu.” Evie answered pulling into the driveway.

”Mommmm….Bruno’s home?” she asked her mother.

”Yeah. He’s home for another week. But he’s practicing a lot. So you gotta make it count.” Evie smiled opening the car door watching her run to the back door letting it slam in Evie’s face. When she walked in to the house she smelled cupcakes and saw a trail of frosting leading from the dirty counter to the trash can. ”What a…..oh my god….” Evie smiled seeing them sitting at the table eating homemade cupcakes Bruno had made while they were gone. Evie looked at Lucy who had frosting on her lips.

”Lucy…are they good?” Bruno asked her.

She nodded her head trying to talk with her mouth full the same way Evie did.

”Calm down, Luc. No one is going anywhere.” Evie laughed taking a bite of a cupcake.

”Lucy….can I ask you a question?” Bruno asked her moving the cupcake from her plate.

”What?” she asked.

”Lucy….will you change your last name to mine?” he asked her.

”To Mars? That’s silly.” she said to them. ”Mom….”

”No, Luc…to Hernandez.” Evie told her.

”But my last name is Greene…mommy you change yours to that because you’re going to marry him. I change my name to whoever I marry….” she told them.

”Lucy…did you know that my last name was Jenkins once?” Evie asked her.

”Like Mallory and Megan’s?” Lucy asked.

”Yeah…but then when I went to live with Mimi and Papa I changed it to Wilson.” Evie explained to her glancing at Bruno who was lost as to how talk to her about all of this.

”Oh…so it’s like I get to live with Bruno and you…..” she said. ”Not daddy anymore….”

”Exactly.” Evie told her.

”Okay. Then I want to change my last name.” she said taking a bite of the cupcake.