The Good Life

*Vicki*

"What time are our neighbors coming over?" Vic asked me. Jack, Alex, and Izzy were all coming over today to help us set our house up. I'm almost positive Vic was anxious to see Izzy again.

"They should be here in a few minutes. Jack said he was waiting on Izzy to get out of school and Alex to get off of work." I told him. "Why?"

"I was just wondering!" He smiled to himself.

"Yeah right, he wants to Izzy again" Mike teased.

"That's not true!" Vic said defensively.

"Yeah it is. You should just ask her to hang out with you and go from there." Mike told him.

"I don't know. What if she has a boyfriend or what if she says no? I don't like rejection."

"I can try asking Jack questions to help you a bit, Honey." I said trying to help.

"Okay Mom, just please don't make it obvious." He begged and Mike and I laughed.

“I’ll try my best.”

*Jack*

Izzy and I were sitting in the living room waiting on Alex to change from his work clothes into something more comfortable so we could help the Fuentes family. Izzy was sitting next to me on the couch trying to fix her make up for you know who.

"I'm sure Vic thinks you look fine with or without make, Princess." I told her.

"I'm not putting makeup on for him." She said and I gave her a knowing look. "Well actually let's just say I did like Vic. Do you think Daddy would care about the age difference between us?"

"Uh I'm not sure, Vic is three years older than you so he might not like that."

"He said he was eighteen that's only a two year difference." She said confused.

"His birthday is in like February, if I remember correctly, so he'll be nineteen pretty soon." I said.

"Papa! You have to tell Daddy that's it’s okay. He'll listen to you before he listens to me." She whined.

"You want me to go against your father on this matter? That won't work, we agreed that he would take care of dating and punishment related problems." I told her and she rolled her eyes at me.

"Will you at least help me hide it from him if anything happens between Vic and me?" She asked.
"Uh I can try, but you know he can always tell when I'm lying to him."

"Just don't be obvious and can you try and maybe get information out of Vicki about Vic for me. Like what kind of girls does he like and if he's single, stuff like that." She begged making me laugh.

"Okay I'll ask her." I promised.

"Ask who what?" Alex asked scaring both of us.

"What? Nothing! Are you ready to go?" I said not obvious at all. Alex looked at me then at Izzy and back to me.

"Yeeaah we can go." He said skeptically, but dropped the subject.

We walked across the street to the Fuentes old/new house and Alex rang the doorbell. Vicki opened the door quickly with a huge smile on her face.

"Hey guys!" She exclaimed and hugged us all as we walked inside. There were boxes all over the floor with labels telling what was inside.

"What can we help you all with?" I asked her.

"Well Alex you'll probably be more help with Emilio setting up the furniture back up upstairs. Izzy you can help Vic and Mike with the media room and their bedrooms. And Jack you can help me decorate the kitchen and living room."

"You got it!" Alex said as he and Izzy headed upstairs to get to work. I didn't miss the smile on Izzy's face about getting to help Vic all day.

"Let's start with the kitchen." Vicki told me and I followed her there.

"Does it feel weird being back?" I asked her. She handed me a box full of glasses to put up as she began talking.

"Surprisingly no! It does kind of bring back some um painful memories, but I'm for the most part over that." She started to speak a little bit quieter for the next part. "Emilio checked if the...girl was still working at the same company and she wasn't so we decided we would wait for Vic to graduate before coming back. It was a good break for our family and it gave me time, well more than enough time, to clear my head. I haven't exactly told the kids the truth as to why we moved in the first place so in their minds they think Emilio's job transferred him to help another department. I didn't want them to think the worst of their father or grow up despising him. Especially Vic, he's so protective of me and I can't imagine how he would handle this situation. But that’s my fault since I babied him so much."

"I totally understand and can't blame you. I probably would have done the same thing. And don't worry I won't tell the boys anything." I told her.

"Thanks Jack! So how were you and Alex through the years? You two didn't want any more children?" She asked.

"Well of course I did." I laughed. "But Alex was stuck on only having one."

"Well at least you both have the sweetest beautiful daughter ever." She complimented.

"Thank you" I said.

"Oh of course. She so cute she just has to have a boyfriend right?" She asked.

"No at this time she doesn't." I answered.

"Oh Vic . . . and Mike aren't dating anyone either." She said.

"Oh Vic's single too, that’s interesting." I was trying not to be obvious, but that wasn't working.

"Yeah it’s such a coincidence that both of our children just have to be single." She said trying to be nonchalant and then it dawned on me.

"Wait did Vic ask you to get info out of me about Izzy?" I asked chuckling.

"Was I that obvious?" She asked.

"No more obvious than I was." I said and she laughed.

"Izzy's making you do her dirty work too?"

"Yep. They’re both ridiculous." I laughed. "Izzy's a little worried about the age difference between them though. She thinks Alex won't approve of that."

"Aw that's cute. Alex must be so overprotective of his daughter." She gleamed.

"Yeah he is." I smiled thinking about it.

"Well I can tell Vic to back off if you want?"

"No Izzy would kill me. I don't think it'll bother Alex that much he’ll probably just monitor them twenty-four seven." I laughed.

"Well that's a given." Vicki said.

When we finally finished in the kitchen we moved to decorate the living room. We were in there for ten minutes before Izzy and Vic came down stairs.

"We finished upstairs and wanted to come see if you guys needed help down here." Vic told us.

"Yeah you two can hang up those pictures just make sure they're not crooked." She warned.

"Where's Mike?" I asked them.

"He's taking a nap." Izzy answered.

"I swear that boy could sleep a whole day away." Vicki fussed.

"Yeah him and Dad both." Vic added, making Izzy laugh.

"Do you think he and Alex are finished by now?" Vicki asked.

"When we passed by the Media room they were both sitting in there watching the Patriots game." Vic said and Vicki rolled her eyes jokingly.

Vicki and I went back to decorating and secreting trying to listen to Vic and Izzy’s conversation. They didn’t sound nervous around each other anymore they talked to each other like they had been close friends for a while.

“My friend Kellin and my both my dad’s tried to teach me how to play guitar, but I always end up frustrated and give up.” Izzy laughed.

“It’s a talent you have to be born with. My dad said that I came out of the womb playing a guitar.” Vic joked.

“Shut up! He was obviously exaggerating.” She laughed.

“I don’t know I think he was only slightly exaggerating.” He chuckled.

Vicki hit me on the shoulder and mouth ‘we should help them.’ I shrugged my shoulders telling her I didn’t know how we could help and she told me to follow her lead.

“You know Jack there’s this great new frozen yogurt place that just opened up I saw on my way to the grocery store this morning. It seems like the perfect place to go get to know someone better.” Vicki said out loud.

“Oh Yeah I saw it! Um what’s it called again?” I added.

“It’s called Frozen Berry. It’s right off of the highway next to target.” She said.

I looked over at Vic and Izzy who were blushing furiously, they obviously caught on to what we were doing.

“It sounds like a great place. Do you want to check it out with me this weekend?” Vic asked Izzy.

“Yeah of course!” She smiled.

Vicki and I both had to literally bite out tongues to keep from squealing.

Notes

I don't like this chapter, but it had to be done. Enjoy!