Awakening Veronica(Divine Creek Ranch 17)(120)

“Well,” her mother said in a huff, “I hardly think threats are necess—”

“Norah,” her father interrupted. “They were little dickheads. Let’s call a spade a spade. Families make mistakes and it looks like we’ve made our fair share of doozies. Is there anything we can do to make this better, Veronica? I know I don’t want to miss my youngest daughter at Thanksgiving and Christmas anymore.”

Veronica took a deep breath. “You could join us tonight for the ceremony that binds Hank and Travis to me.”

“The what?” her mother asked, blinking, looking at the three of them before dawning hit. She slid a glance to Cord, Jackson, and Ari and then back at Veronica. “You, too?”

Veronica nodded. “Me, too.” She reached back to touch both Hank and Travis and introduced them to her family.

“Well, that explains why they seemed so protective of you,” her father said as he cautiously opened his arms to Veronica. “May I?”

Veronica nodded and went into his arms. He was trying, in his own way. “Of course.”

“I love you, baby. Please forgive me.”

Veronica looked up at him. “You know it’s not a switch I can flip, right?”

George Benedict lowered his eyes and nodded. “I know. But it’s a start.”

Her father greeted Hank and Travis while her mother hugged her and they shared a few words. Her mother made an effort to be kinder, complimenting her ring. Veronica wouldn’t call it cathartic by any means but it was a start.

Addison kept her arms crossed over her chest and waited while the others hugged and filtered out of the room until it was just Addison, Jesse, and Barry, with Hank and Travis still standing like adoring, overprotective pit bulls behind her.

Addison lowered her hands and fiddled with the skirt over her narrow hips and said, “I think part of me was always jealous that you inherited Grandma’s figure. You got boobs when you were like ten and mine…” Addison smiled weakly. “Mine still haven’t come in.” She glanced at Hank and Travis and smiled. “Sorry. TMI. Can we start over?”

“We could try,” Veronica said, not offering absolution until she saw sincerity in action.

“And we can stay for the binding…thing?”

“Of course.”

Jesse and Barry looked at her, and at Hank and Travis, seeming like they really wanted to speak openly but couldn’t.

She looked back at her men and whispered, “I think it would be okay if you would wait over there, by the back door. You can still see them, and I’ll wave if they turn into assholes again.” They both grinned and kissed her, sending glittering looks of menace at Jesse and Barry before moving off about ten feet to give them a modicum of privacy.

Veronica raised her eyebrows as she crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for them to say what they wanted to say.

Of all the family, these two were the hardest to reconcile with, not because they were the meanest but because they could have had a relationship like she had with Cord and Jackson. The disparity was painful.

Jesse finally spoke up after glancing back at Hank and Travis, swallowing with a little difficulty as if the words he need to say stuck in his craw.

Good. It shouldn’t be easy for them.

“Ron–Veronica, we’re sorry. We were little shits to you. There was just something about you that was so…innocent and soft, and…shit…and that part of you was like a red cape my inner bully couldn’t resist. I don’t know if it was because I knew I lacked that quality in myself, or if it was because I wanted to attack your innocence and weakness but I couldn’t resist bullying you, like blood in the water to a shark. And you took it, and took it, and I think that made me…”

He looked down and his face went beet red. “The way you took it without fighting back made me hate you a little. And Phil and Gordon were no different. We should’ve kicked their asses for starting that rumor instead of laughing with them about it. We knew you weren’t a lesbian. And we remember that one guy, Travis.” He gestured with a thumb over his shoulder at Travis. “He was that game warden, wasn’t he? We saw how much you liked him and we couldn’t stand it. Man, we’re fucked up.” Jesse growled to his brother. “Say something, dickhead, this isn’t only on me.”

Veronica looked over at Barry and was a little surprised to find he was teary-eyed and red-faced, too. She beckoned them forward so no one could see them from the living room and slid the box of tissues across the kitchen island where they could reach it if they wanted them.

Barry said, “When you flipped out on Phil and Gordon, that day when that guy came over, they made it sound like you went nuts on them. But I knew them well enough that I should’ve known better. I guess I was just like what Jesse described. Hating you a little because you took what we dished out and never said anything. And then when you finally blew your top we treated you even worse. I’m gonna kick both of their asses for teasing you or every laying a hand on you. Did they ever—?”