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.

“You’re welcome,” he said smiling back and immediately took her hand in his again.

The rest of the theme parks they visited had been just as exciting, and except for when his cousins or Grace were around, they held hands all the time. He was really beginning to enjoy everything about her. He especially loved teasing her. It was hilarious the way she’d scrunch up that cute little nose and get all defensive.

Like the time he teased her about her choice in music, only it ended up backfiring on him. They were on their way home after an awesome day at Sea World. She’d connected her iPod to the car’s stereo, and halfway through one of her songs, he had to protest. The song wasn’t all that bad, but she was into it, so he had a feeling she’d get all defensive. “Is that one of them washed-up boy bands we’re listening to?”

It paid off; she was already scrunching her nose, and he laughed. “I’ll have you know NSync was one of the biggest things out there in their day.”

“Exactly! In their day, but even then they were cheesy.”

“They were not!”

Vince rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t that way before your time anyway?”

“Sort of, but Grace loved them in middle school, so their music was constantly being blasted in our room. And this song…,” she turned it up and closed her eyes swaying to the music then sang along, “This I promise you.” She opened her eyes, and the way she smiled at him made his breath catch.

The car behind them honked, snapping Vince out of it, and he realized the light at the stop had turned green. Feeling a little stupid, he stopped staring at her and started driving. He’d been totally mesmerized just watching her get so caught up in a song like that.

“This song is probably my favorite of theirs. It’s not all pop and band-boyish as you would put it. It’s deep. I think it’s really beautiful. There’s even a Spanish version that’s equally as beautiful.”

“That’s the thing,” Vince said staring ahead still trying to get over what she’d done to him so easily without even trying. “Most of those boy bands probably have pretty good songs, but then they go cheese it up with their stupid dance moves and shit. If another artist gets a hold of the same song and does it some justice by toning the cheese down and just working the music, it would probably be better. In fact, I’ve actually seen it done; this song, for example, could probably be badass.”

“It already is badass,” she insisted.

Vince decided to just let it go. The song was over anyway, and something better was playing now. He’d meant to tease her for his own amusement; instead he’d rattled the shit out of himself. Without knowing it Vince was letting Rose way under his skin, and that scared him a little.

They never actually talked about it, nor did the subject of what their relationship was now ever arise. Vince liked it that way. Talking about it would be admitting that what was happening was the very thing Grace was afraid of—things were getting serious. Yet Vince made it a point to look her deep in the eyes when he played with her fingers during any of their comfortable moments of silence. He wanted her to see he was feeling much more for her than just friendship. The few times she’d brought up other guy “friends,” Vince tried not to, but his remarks always came across a little pissy until the day he’d nearly snapped.

They were at Sal’s house. Nervous every time he saw Grace eye them suspiciously, he often asked Rose if his days here were numbered. Usually she’d laugh at his paranoia. This time she went a step further to convince him that everything was just fine. She turned to Grace, who’d just walked back inside, as they sat in the shallow end of the pool on the stairs. Grace had brought out some snacks, but when she saw them giggling so closely in the pool, she’d seemed unnerved.