They say there's nothing more precious than seeing a baby smile for the first time, but if that's the case then I'd say seeing Gloria's smile and hearing her laugh louder than I've ever heard her before has got to be a close second.
"She hasn't stop smiling all day." Julio said, watching our sister too.
"And I don't think I've seen Mirabel this happy since we rebuilt the casita." Bruno said, standing beside Julio.
"It's definitely a sight I'm happy to finally see." I thought, feeling a smile slowly form on my face. "So," I said sitting on the floor next to my brother. "Did you and Antonio have fun today?"
This time it was Julio's turn to smile as he started telling Bruno and I about the animals Antonio brought today and how he let Julio to ride on a couple of them. As he talked, Julio started trying to imitate some of the sounds of the animals Antonio had and even tried to replicate how they walked. I heard Bruno laugh a couple of times at this and I felt my face get hotter each time he did. But eventually, I heard the tell-tale sign his day of fun would be coming to an end soon. His stomach growling.
I let Julio keep telling Bruno and I about his day as I stood up and took his hand. The three of us started walking toward the steps and made our way to the bottom to meet Gloria and Mirabel.
"Hola Rosa." Mirabel said, waving at me.
"Hi Mirabel. I'm guessing you lovely ladies had fun today."
I saw Mirabel open her mouth to say something but Gloria beat her to it. "It was the best!" she beamed. "I thought after 10 years we'd have nothing in common, but it's like we've only been apart 10 minutes!"
"Oh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I didn't want to let on I didn't think they'd have anything in common anymore, but I was also very curious as to what exactly they talked about.
"We talked about our families, the struggles of having older siblings-"
"You only have one-" I interrupted but Gloria continued.
"-everything that's happened since we last saw each other, she's going to teach me how to embroider and craft, I'm going to do some cooking and garden. So…I may have to borrow Julio a few more times."
I looked down at Julio to ask his opinion on spending more time with his other sister. He didn't seem to have an opinion either way as he was still trying to imitate the walk of a capybara. I looked at Bruno and he seemed to be thinking the same thing I was. He looked down at my little brother before giving me a side smile and shrugging his shoulders.
"All I ask," I began, looking back at Mirabel and Gloria "Is you keep him safe and watch him carefully. Both of you."
"No worries, Rosa." Mirabel said. "Julio and Antonio never left our sight."
I let out a small "Hm." before looking back over to Bruno. "Well, I should probably be going home. I have a hungry mouth to feed and I don't want to overstay my welcome."
"You-" Bruno started before Gloria rushed to my side and interrupted him.
"You can stay here and I'll handle dinner tonight, Rosa!" Gloria smiled at me, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. "It's been a while since I've spent this much time with our little brother. I think I'm starting to like the little guy."
"You make dinner?" I asked before Gloria nodded her head. I glanced over at Bruno and I could tell from the look he was giving me that even though he's spent the last 10 years in the walls of his house, he probably smelt Gloria's first attempt at cooking. Lets just say there's a connection to Gloria's cooking, and my tio Samuel starting up a construction business.
I think Gloria saw the looks Bruno and I gave each other as well as Mirabel trying to hold in her laughter because she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I'll make some soup. I don't think I can burn that."
"You'll find a way." I smirked before turning back to Bruno. "Thanks for letting me stay for a while. I had a lot of fun."
"It's no problem!" Bruno grinned. "Come back anytime, you're always welcome here."
I let out a small laugh before shaking my head. "Wish I could say the same for my house."
"If you'd like to watch another telenovela," Bruno said scratching the back of his head "There's a new episode in a couple days."
I slowly started nodding my head and smiled at Bruno. "I would like to figure out why the dog turned on his family. And maybe-"
"If you're making dinner, I'd like some tonight please!" Gloria yelled. I turned around to see her giving me a sly look and holding onto Julio's hand while Mirabel was standing beside her looking around. I rolled my eyes and looked back at Bruno.
"I guess I should be going. But I'm looking forward to your next telenovela."
Before Bruno could say anything else I pulled him into a hug. Even though I've hugged him before, somehow this one felt different somehow.
"I guess he didn't get all the sand out his clothes." I thought as I pulled away from him, even though something in me was telling me not to. Something was also telling me not to let go, but I did that anyway as well. Both of us just looked at each other smiling for what seemed like hours until I felt a slight tug at my skirt.
"Rosa?" I looked down to see Julio latching onto my skirt. "I'm hungry."
I giggled as I bent down to pick my little brother up and ruffled his hair. "Well, I guess I need to be going. I'll be around."
With one last goodbye from my siblings and I to Mirabel, Bruno walked Gloria and I to the door with Julio still in my arms and waved us goodbye.
"I thought you were never going to leave." Gloria laughed as I set Julio down and we started walking home.
"Well just like you and Julio have been doing all day, I wanted to talk to my friend." I retorted.
"Friend?" Gloria said, raising an eyebrow. I nodded my head. "Rosa, you are not friends. At least, I don't act like that around my friends."
"What do you mean?" I asked, rolling my eyes.
"Rosa…rosa, rosa, rosa." Gloria sighed. "Friends don't keep finding reasons to keep talking and not leave. Friends can't have a whole conversation with nothing but their eyes. Friends don't get chills and turn red in the face with every touch."
"Gloria," I groaned, shaking my head. "I'm not going to have this conversation in front of Julio with you."
I heard my sister let out a small laugh and started kicking the rocks under her. "Yeah, Julio's the reason we're not going to talk about Bruno. You can lie to me all you want and say you don't see it. But I know you do, and Bruno sees it too."
I opened my mouth to say something in retort, but decided anything I said would only add fuel to Gloria's fire and possibly give her something to talk to her friends about later so I decided to just stay quiet. This method worked for a while (which with Gloria is a lot longer than I expected it to) before she started talking again.
"Friends also don't come visit you in the middle of the night after disappearing for 10 years just to say hi."
This immediately stopped me in my tracks, remembering the night Bruno was in our garden a few nights after the casita was rebuilt.
"What are you talking about?" I said, hoping Gloria is just bluffing to make talk again."
"The night you and Bruno were in the garden. The garden that's right under my bedroom window. How do you think papa, who could sleep through an earthquake, woke up?"
It seemed like my brain and my thoughts moved at a hundred miles a second as soon as she said that. It didn't click with me until she said that how heavy of a sleeper papa is and how much it would take to wake him up. "You almost got Bruno killed that night, Gloria." I said, glaring at her as we started walking again.
My sister just shrugged her shoulders and acted like it was nothing. "I saw the man who broke your heart and mind in our garden holding your wrist, I didn't know if you could handle it yourself so I had to do something. But if it makes you feel better I just told papa I heard a noise under my window. I didn't tell him anything about Bruno. I wanted to see how the scene played out."
There was silence between us after that. I started debating if I should thank Gloria for looking out for me, or be angry for being nosy and potentially being the cause if Bruno was injured. Bruno would never hurt a fly and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have a problem fighting anyone with the amount of anger and resentment I had bubbling inside me at the time. But Gloria didn't see that. She just saw someone in our garden that shouldn't have been and a sister potentially in danger.
"I like Bruno." I heard Julio say in his tiny voice.
