Rock Bottom (Tristan & Danika #2)(56)

I turned back to look just as my mother pulled slightly back from Danika. Leticia was not a large woman, was in fact a few inches shorter, but she dwarfed my tiny Danika. It was amazing how much comfort my girl contained in those toned little arms of hers.

Leticia stroked her cheek, giving her a very affectionate look. “Oh, my pretty girl. I remember the words you spoke at my baby boy’s funeral. You said just the perfect things. You brought me such comfort. I felt like my Jared was standing right next to me, when you spoke about him like that. Where’s my comfort now, though, Danika? I don’t know how to deal with this. I can’t live with what’s happened to my poor, dear Jared. Please, please, find some words to comfort me again.”

Danika pulled her close again, her eyes on me. There was an apology in their pale gray depths that I couldn’t understand. Not until she spoke. “Not long ago, Tristan and I eloped,” she confessed to my mother, shocking me. We hadn’t told a soul, until now.

Leticia sobbed and clutched her, naming her daughter, calling her our beautiful girl, finally sending a few kind words my way, admitting that I had good taste, if nothing else. I’d take it. There was nothing I was more proud of than having Danika love me.

And Danika wasn’t done. “And, Leticia, I’m telling you this because I need you to work on getting better, okay? I need you to be strong for me. I need you to sober up, because I have a very important job for you.”

Leticia straightened, wiping her eyes, looking earnest, and finally, a little sober. “A job?”

“Yes. A very important job. I’m…pregnant, and this baby will need a grandma, Leticia.”

That news did all we could have hoped for, making Leticia gush and cry, happy tears now. She rubbed Danika’s flat belly and gushed.

We hadn’t planned to tell anyone for a few more months, but I saw right away why she’d done it. She’d given my mother something to live for, and my mother held onto that something like a lifeline.

“Will you name the baby Jared, if he’s a boy?” Leticia asked, still rubbing Danika’s taut belly.

Danika didn’t hesitate. “Of course we will.”

“And Leticia, if it’s a girl?” my mother continued, ballsy as ever.

“What else? Yes, Leticia for a girl, and Jared for a boy. But, Leticia, and I’m very serious, I need you to get your act together. This is our first baby, and we’re going to need you to be there for us, to answer our questions, to show us what to do when we’re clueless. Will you do that for us? Will you get healthy again for your grandbaby?”

There were more happy tears, and apologies, some sent my way, to my shock. Effusive reassurances that, of course, yes, she would be better, because she had a grandchild to prepare for.

“Let’s go out and celebrate!” my mother proclaimed later. It was a different woman speaking then than the one I’d witnessed when I’d first entered the house. Danika had managed to transform her. It was official; she’d gotten every Vega to fall in love with her.

“Yes, let’s, but lay off the tequila, please,” Danika agreed, managing to sound both warm and wry at the same time, as only she could.

“Yes, yes, no more tequila for me. That stuff is poison.”

Leticia seemed to remember the state she was in, patting her hair, her expression horrified. “Give me twenty minutes! I would hate to embarrass you when we’re out!” She rushed off.

Danika stood and immediately began to straighten up the house.

“What are you doing?” I asked her, moving to the bottle of tequila. I took a long swig.

“Get rid of that. Dump out any alcohol you see.”

I saw her point. I moved to the kitchen. I had to hold my breath, the stench was so bad near the sink. I emptied the remaining contents, tossing the bottle into the trash.

“Find all of her liquor, get rid of it all,” she told me as I walked back into the living room.

“Okay, fine, but what are you doing? You don’t have to clean her house for her.”

“When she comes back here, and she’s all alone, what do you think she’ll do when she’s sitting around in all of her filth? You think she’ll clean it or you think she’ll go on another bender? Trust me, a cleaner house will help.”

I knew she was right, and I began to help her, cleaning and throwing away liquor. At Danika’s insistence, I even tossed her bong, grimacing slightly at all of the wasted weed. She was ruthless.

We’d cleaned a good deal of the main floor by the time Leticia made it back downstairs, looking as improved as her cleaned up house.

She made noises about how we shouldn’t have, but I could tell she was pleased. She’d needed this visit, needed to know that someone on this earth cared if she lived or died.

Danika could be bossy as hell, but she was usually right.

We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant just down the street that my mother claimed couldn’t match her homemade food. None of us mentioned that she’d had nothing but rotten food in her kitchen.

When the waiter asked us what we wanted to drink, Danika loudly butted in, ordering for us all. “Just waters tonight.”

I wanted to grumble about it, but I knew she was right. My mother needed to avoid alcohol for a while. I highly doubted she’d been sober in months, and she’d never been a good drunk.