Hank closed in on her other side and she smiled when Jesse and Barry backed away just a bit and Addison frowned.
“It’s funny how a lifetime of teasing and bullying can condition a person to take the abuse and to withdraw from their family and even their world,” Veronica said before looking up at Hank and Travis. “It’s also pretty amazing how love and acceptance is capable of drawing an introvert like me out of her shell.”
Addison shrugged and rolled her eyes. “We did our best, Ronnie, you can’t blame us. We constantly tried to draw you out of your shell and all you did was whine. I always felt bad for you but—”
“Please shut up, Addison. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You didn’t try to draw me out, you did your best to force me deeper and wound up succeeding admirably, all three of you, with lots of help from Phil and Gordon. And don’t ever call me that horrible nickname ever again.”
Jesse scowled and shrugged, “I always figured Phil and Gordon were kinda assholes to you, Ronnie, but if you’d stood up for yourself—”
Veronica cut him off and skewered them both. “Call me Ronnie again and you’ll see just how well I can stand up for myself. And Phil and Gordon were incredibly abusive toward me and you were aware of it and did nothing.”
“We wanted you to defend yourself, Ronnie—Veronica,” Addison said, rolling her eyes. “Are you saying that the way you were, so withdrawn, is our fault?”
“No. I’m an introvert. That’s not your fault, but neither did I need to be cured of it. You took every opportunity to insult my personality, my appearance, my weight—”
“I figured that eventually you’d get the message that you needed to lose weight.”
Veronica gave her a tight smile. “I got the message that I was never going to be good enough for you, or Mom for that matter.”
Addison glanced at the gathering in the living room to see if anyone was watching or listening. In a defensive tone, she said, “We only wanted what was best for you, Veronica.”
“No, I don’t believe that at all, Addison. You need to take a long hard look at the way you treated me, the way you still treat me, and be honest with yourself. Same thing with you two jerks,” Veronica whispered as she poked Jesse and Barry in their beefy chests.
“Jeez, sis, when did you get so formidable?” Cord asked as he and Jackson sidled up with Ari. His tone was playful but the look in his eyes was anything but.
“When I realized there was nothing wrong with me, but with the way I was raised,” Veronica said softly. Tears misted Jackson’s eyes. “Stop that or I’m going to cry, too.”
Ari sniffled and smiled at her and nodded in encouragement before she looked at Addison and curled her lip. “Addison, I listened to you talk about Veronica the whole way to Divine, and I gotta say, there must be something to what she’s saying.”
“What do you mean?” Addison asked in shock.
Ari wobbled her head from side to side mimicking Addison and then said, “Let’s just say maybe there’s a good reason you’re still single. And the two of you—” she said, looking at Jesse and Barry. “You Montana Benedicts are a trip. I don’t know where you got your information, but Veronica is the one who kicked that lazy freeloader to the curb for cheating on her. Weren’t you friends with him?”
“Yeah,” Jesse said, a frown growing on his face. “He never said anything to us about that, did he?” he asked Barry.
Hank finally spoke up. As protective as they were, Veronica was surprised that he and Travis had kept quiet as long as they had. “You mean to tell me that your sister was in a breakup and you knew about it and you never once thought to check on her?”
Travis said, “You took the word of that miserable jackass over your sister?”
Barry looked at Jesse, and then at Hank and Travis and shrugged but the look on his face was a little sick. “I guess when you put it that way, that was a screwup on our part.”
Veronica’s heart pounded with sudden sorrow. “You guess? Is it any wonder that I don’t come home anymore, even though the apartment was less than an hour from the ranch?”
Addison looked at her shoes and didn’t say anything, and Ari went to Veronica’s side. “Girlfriend, if I’d known you, I would’ve come to see you and we could have drowned our sorrows together. But it all worked out, didn’t it?”
Veronica nodded, happiness resurfacing. “Yes.”
Ari grinned. “Love is like that, isn’t it?”
Veronica nodded and placed her hands over Hank’s and Travis’s on her shoulders, loving them even more for their warm assurance, and adoring her new sister-in-law so much it hurt.