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“I’ve thought a lot about you over the years, Veronica.”
“You have?”
“I wanted to ask you out. Spend more time with you. I felt bad about being so attracted to you.”
“You were?” You weren’t, you’re just being nice. I remember myself when I was eighteen. Not pretty.
“Yes, and I’m more attracted to you now. You’re a beautiful woman. All grown up and I don’t want to miss the chance to spend time with you. Why are you shaking your head again?”
“She doesn’t believe you. Do you, Nika?”
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, and shook her head negatively. “I remember what I was like back then, guys. Drama queen. Clumsy. Geek. And overweight.”
Travis’s reddish-brown brows bunched together as he frowned. “What the hell?”
“It’s true. It’s still true.”
Travis looked past her to Hank, and stroked her slumped back as he spoke to his friend. “I’ll bet I know where that mistaken belief came from. Her family.”
She reeled as she was transported back to when they’d met. Her mother had spoken in a superior tone before Travis had shown up the day she led him to the illegal trap she’d found. “For heaven’s sake, Pudge, it’s an animal. Quit being such a drama queen. Why can’t you be more like your sister, Addison? You don’t see her making such a spectacle of herself. This is because you spend so much time in books. You should engage with the real world more often.”
Travis had been so sweet to her. He hadn’t made her feel like an idiot for caring about the eagle. He’d cared, too, as he’d carefully extracted it from the trap, promising to do what he could for it. She’d been petrified with anxiety when he’d come by the house a few days later after she’d called to follow up about the eagle. Nobody could understand the supreme guts it had taken to make that call. No one knew how her fingers had shaken as she’d dialed his number. Nobody knew the way she’d prayed simultaneously that he wouldn’t answer but also that he would. They couldn’t because then it would be one more thing they could tease her about.
She cringed at the memory. Jesse and Barry’s buddies, Gordon and Phil, had been over that day and they were waiting in the living room, having watched her like a hawk the entire time she stood outside with Travis near his truck. She’d known those two assholes were watching like a couple of buzzards waiting to pounce on her the moment she walked back inside. They hadn’t let her down. Gordon had started in first. “Round Ronnie has a boyfriend. Isn’t that sweet?”
“Too bad he’s old enough to be her daddy,” Phil had said with an evil gleam in his eyes as he’d chuckled. Jesse and Barry had been out in the garage working on their dad’s truck so they hadn’t heard a word of what those two assholes had said. Not that they would’ve taken up for her anyway. Most days they were every bit as bad.
“He’s not my boyfriend, you jerk. He’s a game warden.” But man, the crush she’d had on Travis back then…If either of these two had known that…The thought had terrified her.
“And a pedophile, too,” Phil had said, jeering as she’d blushed profusely. “Did you see the way he was lookin’ at her? Like he wanted to eat her up. Maybe he’s a chubby-chaser and a pedophile.” They’d maneuvered her into a corner as they kept at her.
As Travis had made his way down the street in his truck and out of her life, she’d turned on both Gordon and Phil and totally lost it, hitting them, crying and screaming until Jesse and Barry had come running, demanding to know what was wrong. In the end, she’d looked exactly like what they’d accused her of being…a drama queen. To this day, she still hated those two sons of bitches, who’d turned out to be friends with Brent as well. No surprise it’d been their apartment where she’d caught Brent cheating. No doubt the two had known about it and encouraged it just to hurt her.
The memories only increased the turmoil inside her and she released a shaky sigh that sounded like she’d been crying for hours.
