“Dane, I know this isn’t easy for you?—”
“It’s not just about that, ma.” Leaning forward, he shook his head. “I fucked up.”
“Watch your mouth,” she warned, watching his head turn slightly in her direction as he hung his head.
“How can you not be mad at me? How can you still want me around after everything?” he questioned.
Guilt had been getting the best of him. It was one thing to lose his father, but he barely knew Danilo. Lala dying and being so distant from his mother is what was killing him the most. Now, all he could think about was all the ways to make it up to her.
“Because you’re my son, and I love you.” Inari grabbed his hand in hers. “Danilo did everything he could to turn you against me, and he knew exactly how to do it, by going against everything I said and did. He made me the bad guy in the situation, so he could come out looking good.”
“I was stupid. I should have known better.” Dane gave her hand a squeeze. “You ain’t ever let me down, Ma. I should have known you had a valid reason to feel the way you did. I guess part of me was just kind of hoping it could be different, and maybe we could be something like a real family. Something I never had.” Dane shrugged.
“Nothing wrong with that, Dane.” Letting go of his hand, she reached out to place her hand on his neck and rub the back of his head.
“Nah, Moose was right.”
“Moose?” Inari’s face bunched into a frown. “What does he have to do with anything?”
“Oh, we just been talking.” Dane leaned back.
“Since when?”
“A while now. Since everything went down anyway and he got arrested. He had a cell phone, even though he wasn’t supposed to be on it and be in recovery, but he would take my calls. Mostly at night when neither of us could sleep,” her son expressed.
This was news to Inari as she lowered her hand from his head and turned her attention to the other side of the room. She was grateful that her son had someone to talk to, even if it wasn’t her. That damn Moose, always full of fucking surprises. He’d been doing that shit since she met him, too.
“What else did you talk about?” she pried, swinging her head back in his direction.
“Sports, school… you.” Dane’s eyes drifted to his mother, who tried to remain unreactive.
“What about me?”
“He just wanted to know how you was. What you were up to. If you were happy. I couldn’t answer all the time because we weren’t talking much. I know you were sad, because of Lala. Didn’t help that I was acting like a little kid either. I know seeing Rara made you happy, though, so I told him that.”
“Listen, I was sad, okay, and I missed my son and my sister. Lala was gone, but you… you were right here, and it was like I couldn’t even reach you.”
“I know, and I’m sorry about that, ma. For real. I won’t ever do no shit like that again.”
“Language, Dane! Damn.” She rolled her eyes and reached for her shot glass on the table. “But there’s something we need to talk about. It’s Lala.”
“What about her?”
“She’s alive,” Inari confessed.
“What?” her son replied, brows crowding together above his eyes. “Ma, you sure you ain’t had too much to drink?” He nodded to her glass on the table.
“No.” She snickered. “I don’t know how it happened. I just know that she is. Moose, Kong, and Mozzi went to get her. A while ago, actually.” She raised her arm to check the time on her watch.
It had been nearly two and a half hours, so she was getting worried. She reached for her phone to check notifications, but there weren’t any. The minute she went to pull up Kong’s number, headlights flickered off the window, and someone pulled into the driveway. Inari hopped up immediately with Dane on her heels. She quickly unlocked the front door and pushed the screen open before bolting out into the brisk but cloudy spring evening. Holding her breath on the porch, she watched the car park but couldn’t make anyone out behind the thick tint of the car windows.
“Ayla,” Inari whispered, watching Kong step out first and then extend his hand to help her sister.
She was smaller, fragile. Not like Ayla. Her baby sister may have been meek, but she’d never been weak. She was unsure as she looked around, taking in her surroundings carefully. If she’d walked by her on the street, she’d have to look real hard to recognize her. She looked homeless, with no shoes, hair standing tall, and stained clothes.
Moose hopped out the front, and Mozzi on the passenger side while Kong walked Ayla up the driveway to the sidewalk leading to the front porch. Inari didn’t budge. Her sister locked eyes with her from the bottom of the stairs. Dane pushed past his mother so he could run and hug her. Although weak, Ayla took comfort in her nephew’s arms around her and fell into his embrace with her eyes shut.
“I can’t believe this!” Dane kissed her cheek, her forehead, and all over the top of her head before pushing back but not letting go, so he could get a look at her.
