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Veronica turned to her sister, noting her men were close by as promised, and tilted her head at Addison’s subtle, but cutting tone. Her specialty, inherited from her mother.
“Why is it surprising—wait. Before you answer that, I’d like to ask a favor,” she said, firmly drawing strength from the gentle, callused hand that grasped hers. “Please don’t call me Ronnie, round or otherwise, anymore. Don’t call me Pudge or Chubbs, either. My name is Veronica. Now, why is it surprising that I’d make lots of friends here.”
Addison shrugged, not even offering an acknowledgment or apology for her request to not use the nicknames. “I don’t know. I figured that you’d wind up holing up in a cabin somewhere and writing the whole time you were here. You were always so standoffish and unsociable.”
“You know what?” Jesse said as he and Barry sidled close, obviously not having found anyone else to talk to yet. “I figured the same thing. That you were playing the hermit somewhere, writing your books.”
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 “Are you saying that the way you were, so withdrawn, is our fault?”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?”
