Rising Tide: Dark Innocence (The Maura DeLuca Trilogy Book 1) by Claudette Melanson Page B

her mind.  “No,” her tone
was flat and lifeless. 
    *Ack!  I’d never get anything
out of her now*, I thought, scolding myself a moment later for being so
callous. 
    “Oh boy,” I muttered rising to go
back to the blender, “time for some more damage control.”
    I doubled the tequila in this
batch.  It would be far better if Caelyn could forget this night.  I
took a large sip from my mother’s drink, but not before peeking to make sure no
one was watching.  I was a good girl, but I had my limits.  I carried
the tray out onto the patio.
    “Here ya go, ladies,” I said
cheerfully, setting the drinks down in front of them quickly, before anyone had
time to protest.
    “What a perfect hostess you are,
Maura,” the receptionist, Betty, remarked.  “Caelyn, that daughter of
yours is growing up into some kind of beautiful.”   I giggled
dutifully.
    Caelyn must have been getting
sloshed.  “She is isn’t she?  Looks just like her father.”  She
bit her lip in regret when that slipped out.
    I changed the
subject…expediently…”So are you guys going to be able to survive without my mom
after she transfers to the Vancouver office?”
    The accounting officer answered
after emitting a deep sigh, “Honey, your mother is irreplaceable.”
    “Oh I know that.”  I’d
wandered to Caelyn’s side and handed off her margarita.  I’d reached down
to squeeze her other hand in a gesture I hoped she found comforting.  She
did look up and smile weakly, before taking a long draw from her drink.
    “Mmm that’s good, Maura.”  The
words were a bit slurred.
    The marketing manager, a perky,
little blonde thing, spoke up, perhaps in response to my mother’s
incoherency.  “It’s getting late, girls.  We’d better get going…after
we finish our drinks, of course.”
    I turned to go back into the house,
several echoes of, “Thanks, Maura,” at my back.
    Less than a half hour later, they
meandered into the hallway to collect their shoes and coats.  I got up,
reluctantly, from the episode of Inu-Yasha I’d been watching and went to
say my goodbyes.  Everyone had drunk a bit too much, and so the four of
them were sharing a cab to their various destinations.  Betty almost fell
when she was attempting to slide her foot back into one of her shoes.  All
of them erupted into hysterical giggles.  I couldn’t help but notice that
Caelyn didn’t join them.  She leaned against the wall, a morose expression
making her features heavier.
    I knew she was thinking about my
father, the look in her eyes was very familiar.  I instantly regretted the
margarita idea, reminding myself too late that alcohol was a depressant.
    I helped Molly, the new girl, who’d
made the unknown faux-pas about Caelyn’s relationship status, into her black,
wool coat.  She fell back against me when she settled into it and laughed
a, “Whoops, Sorry!”  I chuckled edgily, still regretting the part I’d
played in my mother’s current mood.
    After they were all out the door
and I’d seen them safely into the waiting cab, I went back into the house,
footsteps dragging, to clean up the mess I’d made.   Caelyn was still
frozen in place.  I catalogued through our movie collection in my head,
trying to find something light.  I couldn’t think of much that didn’t have
romance in it.  Maybe she would watch one of my more violent animes with
me?
    “Mom…” I started, meekly.
    “Come here, Maura, I want to talk
to you.”  Her words were no longer slurred.  Had it just been an act
to get rid of the other women?  She’d finished every drink I’d brought
her—well, half-finished the last one.  I followed her to the couch, wincing
already at the imagined things she might say to me.
    She turned off the TV and patted
the couch cushion.  I sat close to her so I could take her hand
again.  “Are you okay, Mom?”  My voice came out a hushed creation,
not quite a whisper.
    “Maura, I know you wonder about
your father,”