The Sister Between Them

Chapter 20

When Rocco got Gavin tucked into bed, he had expected he'd find Dani passed out somewhere. She woke once when he stopped for ice cream but seemed out of it. It was funny when she stumbled into the house with a deer-in-headlights look. He reminded her where she was, and she smiled and started giggling.

From Dante's pained texts, it sounded like she was doing much better than Lexi, who kept Dante up to suffer with her.

Rocco was surprised to find her awake and sitting on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her. She was eating some ice cream with the remote in her hand. Apparently, she had found his coke stash and had a can sitting on the table beside her.

"I thought you would have passed out by now," he chuckled dryly; honestly, he'd been anxious to get home and pour his troubles into a few good shots of bourbon. He couldn't do that with her cute little drunk self sitting in his living room.

"I found a movie," she grinned and took a big bite of ice cream lying back against the couch; she curled her legs underneath her.

"Oh yeah?" He walked over to the couch to glance at what she had found. It was Family Man with Nicholas Cage.

"Isn't this a Christmas Movie?"

"Sort of; it's cute." She pouted at him. "Come on, sit down and watch it with me."

He couldn't bring himself to say no to that face.

"Yeah, just give me a second; I see you found my coke stash." He pointed to her pop with a smirk.

"Guilty; I'll help you keep it stocked," she promised.

He headed into the kitchen and grabbed a pop and a glass, screw it if he was going to sit up and watch a damn Christmas movie with this girl; he wasn't doing it sober. He grabbed his premium bottle of bourbon from the cupboard above the fridge and returned to the living room to join her.

"Thanks for the ice cream." She held up a spoonful and smiled at him again; he could get used to that. "This was always my favorite; my dad and Kev liked chocolate. Jillian and I always wanted cookies and cream."

"Speaking of your aunt, the bear..."

"Kiki," she corrected with a sloppy grin.

"Yeah, Kiki," he smiled; she was an adorable drunk.

"Your Aunt Jillian gave that to you?" he asked softly.

"Yeah," she smiled. "It was a miracle he survived the fire."

"That meant a lot to you," he said, "It... Gavi will understand. You can't just give that away."

"Stop Rocco," she said. "Seeing how much Gavi loves Kiki makes me feel so like... I'm as good as her to him, or as she was, I don't know."

"You've become a really important person to him in a short time, and Kiki is a reflection of you to him. That's why he loves it so much."

"Rocco." She sniffled back a few tears and wagged her finger at him, "Don't do that when a girl's been sipping tequila." 

"Sipping you say?" He arched an eyebrow.

"Well it started that way," she offered. 

"You are something else, Valentine." He poured himself a half-short glass of the amber liquid and sniffed it before taking a slow sip. He couldn't indulge in it as often anymore, but man, it tasted good right now.

"You're drinking whiskey with a coke chaser, and I'm something else?"

"It's not a chaser; it's a side drink." He gave her a duh look, and she giggled.