The Hook-Up (Part Two)

Chapter 284

Lauren glanced over her shoulder quickly leaning down to whisper in Ezra's ear. "Let me know if you see her." she told him like he would understand what she was talking about. After adjusting Ezra onto her hip she turned to her side to see Bruno quietly talking to one of his aunts. She reached for his hand seeing Everee's hand reach for his hair at the same time. "Ev!" Lauren laughed at her pushing her hand away. "Bruno..if you cut your hair for any reason it's so your daughter doesn't pull on it." she said to him without him noticing. She still felt like she wasn't a whole part of their family since their relationship had moved so quickly. She didn't feel like Cindia who sat between cousins and aunts and uncles like she was part of the family. She never expected it to happen that quickly, but it just became painfuy apperant how unconventional their relationship had been for his family. His immediate family loved and adored everything about them, even through their ups and downs, but there was a sense of apprehension for those that weren't directly involved in any of their dramatic affairs.

"Laur...are you okay?" Bruno asked feeling her hand tighten around hers.

"If I said I wasn't worried that she would show up I would be lying." she told him.

"Stop it, mama..." he turned from his previous conversation to place his hands on her cheeks to calm her down. "If she's here we'll ignore her. That's all we can do." he tod her.

"I know..." she said pushing him forward a little to see that everyone was moving forward toward what the family had planned on doing with his mother's cremated remains. She let go of him to let him go with his sisters and uncles and grandmother to complete whatever they had planned. Lauren felt herself start to tear up feeling a finality to what they were doing. It hadn't quite sunken in for her that his mother was gone. She was always so supportive of the two of them. After they had a moment together Bruno stepped back to Lauren, with Everlee still in his hands through the whole thing.

"Stop looking back there. She's not here." Bruno told her quietly.

"Look a little closer." she answered him moving her eyes to their left and back a bit.

"That's her dad. He was going to be here." he answered her.

"No. Closer. She doesn't have her fucking stripper shoes on." Lauren whispered back to him.

"Oh shit." he answered her in the same quiet tone. "Stay here.."

"No, Bruno..we said we were ignoring her. So let's stick to the plan." she said adjusting Ezra in her arms. "And we don't need anything to happen." she told him taking two flowers and passing the set of flowers along to him to pass to the next person as part of Bernie's memorial. After the flowers passed to everyone in the group, including Damaris that Lauren had looked at several more times, they all walked toward the edge of the coast. Lauren put Ezra down on the ground holding his hand hoping that he would be able to stand next to his sister. Everlee grabbed his brothers hand babbling to everyone, completely unaware of what they were all doing.

"Evee...shh." Bruno told his daughter bending down next to her holding her flower for her. Lauren bent down holding Ezra's other hand successfully with him standing next to them without moving. He held onto the flower almost putting the stem in his nose as everyone else was listening to family members share their stories about Bruno's mother. Lauren waited for her cue to throw the flower in the water with her son. She pointed to the flowers everyone was throwing helping Ezra throw his flower in the water with hers and the rest of their family's flowers. After throwing flowers in the water Lauren grabbed Ezra and picked him up to walk back to the car after the ceremony. She smiled at all the people behind her as they walked away from the group, Bruno just a few steps behind them. She clutched her fists around Ezra as she neared the last of the group to icoluse Damaris and her family.

"Don't do anything, Lauren. Don't even think about it." Brunosaid through his teeth the same way his sister had talked just a few days ago about their instability.

:I won't." she told him walking through the crowd finally making eye contact with Damaris. She stared at her with a controlled rage that Bruno could feel between the two of them. After the tense moment passed Lauren glanced back at Damaris and gave her a very large smile and mouthed I won to Damaris kissing her son on the top of his head. Lauren kept her eyes on Damaris not knowing that Bruno was watching the exchange seeing Damaris mouth Bitchright back to Lauren.

"Stop it." Bruno responded to their exchange. "You started it that time."

"I'm done." Lauren told him reaching the car.

"I swear, Laur. Sometimes you try to make it worse. We're fine. Everything is okay. Quit making something out of nothing.

"I'm not!" Lauren snapped at him putting Ezra in the car seat reaching over to pull Everlee's seatbelt as tight as Ezra's was.

"It sure looked like it..." he told her.

"Are we really going to argue right now?" she asked him. "It's done. That was it. I promise."

"Lauren..." he started pressing her against the back of the car with the back door still open so they could hear the babies. "I know it's done. But it actually has to be done. Nothing else about her can be said. It's in the past, baby...it's done. Over. She's not part of our lives anymore. She's not worth either of our time." he said kissing her forehead. "I love you."