by Erin Trejo
“I know that, they aren’t us, Lala. Look at them. Those little girls deserve everything we can give them.”
“They are beautiful,” she whispers softly. I kiss her once more as we watch Cato wrestling with Laney while Kelsey toddles around with her fake hammer trying to help put together the swing set.
“Are you happy?” I ask her needing to know. I know we have our moments. I know we still have fights and I wouldn’t want her any other way. Everything we’ve gone through has brought us to this place. I moved us out of Grape Vine. I didn’t want my daughters to grow up the way Layla and I did. Those girls mean more to me than that.
“You make me happy,” she whispers, turning to kiss me. I hold her face in my hands and kiss her roughly.
“I never thought I’d have this.”
“The house with the yard?” She teases. I laugh and slap her ass.
“No, a family. I was used to having Clarissa but this, this is so much more.”
“You didn’t think you’d have kids?”
“Not really, however I don’t think I would change that for the world,” I admit.
“I told you once that I only loved one person.”
“Don’t do this, Layla.” A tear slides down her cheek as she looks at me.
“I love you, Acen.”
“I love you too, Lala.” She snuggles into my arms as we watch our girls play with their uncles. All in all I think we did the best we could do. We graduated just like we were supposed to. We made a life, a home for our girls. We’re family and we’re growing up, but we will always be the Grape Vine Crew. Nothing will change that or our positions in the crew. We may have moved our girls to something better than we had but we always return to our roots.
The End
