"Veronica, what the hell are you doing? One minute you swear nothing is happening and the next you're leaving your daughter home alone so you can shack up."
Ronnie shoved away from me. I grabbed her just before she could take a swing at her brother. Her face was flushed with her anger. Vinnie wasn't a complete asshole, though. All the fight left him. He pushed out a harsh breath.
"I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. Gabby was more than happy to keep Stella for the night."
"I just don't know why we have to keep doing this, Vinnie. I don't want to fight about it, but you need to back off a little."
"Okay." He hesitated like he had more to say, but he ended up shaking his head. "Okay," he repeated.
"Are you going back home from here?" Ronnie asked him.
"Yeah."
"Can I ride with you? I work this afternoon."
"I can take you home," I protested.
She rested her hand on my chest reassuringly. "Vinnie and I have some things we need to talk about. Call me later though, maybe tonight I can bring Stella to meet Wren and watch that movie?"
"I'd like that." I leaned down to brush a kiss against her temple. Vinnie made a noise resembling a growl, but he stayed silent about it otherwise.
I stayed on the porch and watched as Vinnie and Ronnie stayed about three feet away from each other as they walked to his car. They both looked like they wanted to strangle the other. If I had to guess, things could go one of two things for them. Either they'd explode and end up killing each other, or Ronnie would find some way to smooth things over with him until the next time something riled him up. It wasn't a permanent solution, but it would have to do until Ronnie and I got things worked out on our own end.
My feet stayed planted until the car had disappeared from sight. I'd been hoping Ronnie would stick around long enough for us to talk about what had transpired the night before. I assumed the easy way she'd touched me meant that she didn't regret what had happened. That was something, at least. I pushed the front door open and stepped inside.
Wren and Carter jumped away from the entryway. They were both wearing equally guilty expressions.
"Show's over, I guess," I joked.
Carter rubbed his neck and stepped away. Wren, on the other hand, was hot on my heels as I trailed back towards the bedroom to get a shirt of my own. When I tried to close the bedroom door on her, she shouldered her way in after me.
"Travis, we should talk about that."
"I'd rather not."
She sent a solid punch at my gut. I grunted. "Fuck."
"Stop being an asshole," she complained. "We heard you mention the car accident."
I fell back on the bed, covering my eyes with a groan. Wren knew the whole story. It was something I'd shared when we'd first become friends. I'd been feeling particularly sorry for myself, and John had suggested I find someone to confide in. Wren had been an easy choice. She was the least judgmental person I knew.
"It's fine, Wren. It is what it is. It's not like I'm surprised that he brought it up."
"But the timing sucks."
"Yeah," I agreed, "The timing does suck."
"Ronnie stayed all night."
"Thanks, Captain Obvious."
She rolled her eyes at me. "I'm just saying, I think you might have downplayed how serious things were getting."
I stared at the ceiling and thought about it. Were things getting serious? We'd yet to have any sort of real conversation about where things were headed. Ronnie seemed to have gotten way more comfortable with me. And letting me drive had been a huge step forward for us.
Having a daughter between us complicated things. It meant that no matter what Ronnie was feeling, she couldn't just give me the brush-off. I wasn't really sure if that was good or bad for me. I didn't want a relationship if it was only rooted in her not being able to get rid of me again.
"What kind of vibe did you get from her?" I asked.
"She was quiet. Maybe not quite as friendly as I'd hoped for." My gut felt sucker-punched. Wren kept talking. "The thing is… she melts when she looks at you. And you should have seen her when she woke up and you were gone."
"She probably thought the worst of me, that I'd bailed after sex."
"No. It wasn't that at all. She was adamant that you wouldn't have just left her like that. She thought something was wrong. Then, Carter told her you were talking to her brother. She went right to you. No fussing with her hair or worrying about what she looked like—the way some girls might've done. Her only concern was getting to you. It was really sweet, actually."
"I've spent the last several weeks trying not to expect too much," I admitted. "She literally ran away from me before. I'm scared of how easy it might be for her to do that again if she gets scared."
Wren stepped towards the bed until she was staring straight down at me. "From everything you've told me, I have to wonder if maybe she wasn't trying to run away from you so much as she was trying to outrun her own problems. She wasn't blameless, Travis."
Wren was right. No one ever wanted to talk about Ronnie's part in what had happened—especially not Ronnie herself. I'd shouldered the blame for the both of us, but maybe that hadn't done us any favors in the long run.
The whole thing was frustrating as hell. All I wanted was to move forward with Ronnie. The past seemed to keep finding ways to hold us back.
Veronica
"You sure are good for middle-of-the-day business," Hazel announced into the otherwise empty kitchen. I'd been busy slicing lemons since she had deemed me too tired to serve the one customer we'd actually had so far that afternoon. I shot her a puzzled look. "There's someone here to see you again."
My heart leaped at the prospect that Travis had already shown up after saying goodbye to me only a few short hours earlier. When I pushed through the door to the bar, I got a different surprise. Gabby was perched uncomfortably on a stool near the middle of the counter. Her posture sagged a bit with relief when she caught sight of me.
"Hey," I greeted her cautiously.
"I hope it's okay that I'm here. I was hoping we could talk."
My teeth sank into my bottom lip. I barely tolerated Gabby at home, and now she was chasing me down at work. Ordinarily, I would have written her off right away. Instead, my mind somehow drifted to Travis. I'd seen the intense way he studied me every time he saw me interact with the woman. Maybe Vinnie was right, maybe I was too hard on Gabby.
"Sure. What's up?"
Major relief floated across her face. It made me feel guilty for even considering blowing her off. She rested her hands on the counter, one over the other like the proper lady that she'd been raised to be.
"Do you think maybe I could have a drink?" Her fingers nervously tapped at the counter, which surprised me.
"Yeah. Do you want like, an iced tea or…"
I trailed off because despite the fact that I'd known her since the time I'd been pregnant with Stella, I genuinely had no idea what the woman liked to drink. I only knew she drank tea because I'd once been forced to attend an actual tea party at her mother's house. She'd had the tea party instead of a normal bachelorette party.
"Maybe a Cosmo?" she asked, only somewhat surprising me.
"Coming right up."
I smirked to myself as I remembered the conversation I'd had with Hazel the day I'd run into Travis and Laurel. I'd been completely on the mark. Gabby was a Charlotte through-and-through. I mixed the drink quickly, putting much less effort in than I normally would. Curiosity was plaguing me. Gabby had never sought me out so blatantly before.
I leaned on the counter in front of her. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I wanted to talk about…" She picked up her drink and took a huge gulp. "You have to stop being such a bitch to me."
I nearly choked on my own spit. "Excuse me?"
"Vinnie has told me all about your hometown. It wasn't so different from mine, from the way he's described it. I know how girls can be when they've come from wealthy,
society page families. But I'm not a mean girl, Veronica."
Annoyance pinched at my forehead. "I know that."
"Do you?"
"Yeah," I said, but the word wavered with uncertainty as it came out of my mouth.
Gabby tilted her head. "You treat me like I'm a nuisance. Like you're gritting your teeth every time you have to interact with me. I have feelings, Veronica. If there's something I'm doing wrong then I need you to tell me that so that I can work on it. But you can't keep treating me like a doormat, not when I've done nothing but have your back."
Her desperation freaked me out. I'd been called out for being unfriendly before, but never so politely. Normally people just called me "bitch" and moved on. It hurt more to listen to the way Gabby described it. It was all the worse because both Travis and Vinnie had both hinted at exactly what Gabby was accusing me of.
The conversation hadn't come from nowhere. I'd ridden home with Vinnie from Travis' house. We'd argued the entire way home. When I'd slammed the door at the house, Gabby had immediately come to check on things. When she realized what had happened, that Vinnie had shown up at Travis' to collect me like I was a naughty teenager instead of a grown woman… well, she hadn't had kind words for him. Not only that, but she'd flat out told him that he was wrong for doing it.
She was right—she'd had my back.
"I'm not… I'm not like you." I struggled to cough out the words.
"Who's asking you to be?"
I swiped at my eyes in an effort to keep tears from falling. I felt stupid getting so emotional. Gabby had managed to inadvertently hit a sore spot with me.
"Why is this so hard for you?" Gabby hesitantly reached out and covered one of my hands with hers. It was awkward, but the gesture was nice.
My chest hurt as I sucked in a deep breath. "Vinnie and I had different dads. His dad was out of the picture by the time my dad showed up. Vinnie took the Briggs name, but he never really bonded with my dad. There was always some distance between them."
Gabby nodded, encouraging me to continue.
"When I came along, my parents were surprised. They hadn't been planning to have kids together. They both went a little overboard."
"In what way?"
I looked past Gabby, letting my eyes rest on the dartboard against the far wall. I was struggling to keep my emotions in check. It wasn't often that someone put me on the spot the way Gabby was doing.
"I don't think they meant to, but they got a little caught up in trying to keep up with the neighbors. Other little girls in the neighborhood were doing pageants and signing kiddie-modeling contracts. I think they let themselves get caught up in the competition of it all."
"And I don't imagine little-Veronica was too keen on any of that."
Her—very correct—assumption made me chuckle. "That's the understatement of the year. All I wanted to do was play in the dirt and use my mother's vases as bowling pins."
"Sounds like Stella." Gabby grinned.
"Oh yeah, definitely just like her. She might look like Travis' spitting image, but she definitely got plenty of traits from me, too."
I tugged at the end of my ponytail, nervous to continue. Gabby kept watching me expectantly, waiting for the rest of it.
"Anyway, by the time I was a teenager, my parents had sort of given up on all of it. I could tell my mom was especially disappointed. I think it was hard on her that she didn't feel like we had anything in common. She was more like you, poised and put-together. I don't think she meant for it to happen, but I just ended up feeling like there was something wrong with me."
Gabby sat up higher in her chair. I was sure she could more or less guess at what was coming next.
"It was harder in high school. We moved a few towns over, into an even wealthier neighborhood. None of the people looked or acted like me. And my mom was constantly looking over my shoulder, wanting so badly to see me fit in with her friends' kids. I see people like you and Laurel, and it just feels like a shitty reminder of what I'm not."
"That must have been hard." Gabby played with her empty glass for a moment. "But honestly, Veronica, don't you think it's about time you move past that? I don't know anyone who felt like they actually fit in when they were in high school, but you're the only one that can't seem to move on now that high school is over."
I'd never expected that of all the people in my life, Gabby would end up being the one person that got sick of coddling me. It had been happening ever since the accident. Everyone in my life had rallied around me. It was almost like they'd started their own little club to shelter me at all costs. And I'd let them, because, to be frank, the alternative was admitting the truth.
I had become my own problem.
Gabby stood up and straightened her blouse. "I'll make you a deal," she offered. "I think I can get Vinnie to stop being so unreasonable."
"And in return?"
"Two things. One is that you have to stop treating me like the enemy."
"Of course," I agreed easily. After our little chat, I could hardly deny that I needed to be nicer and finally give Gabby the chance she deserved. "The second thing?"
"You're gonna give Travis a chance, too."
"I thought that's what I've been doing…"
She laughed lightly but covered her mouth when I didn't laugh along with her. "Sorry, I thought you were joking. I think it's pretty obvious to the rest of us that you've got one foot in and one foot out with him. In fact, I think that's part of why Vinnie is so on edge about the whole thing."
"I've been putting off talking to him," I confided.
"Do you think that's a good idea?"
I shook my head succinctly. "Definitely not."
"Travis is a total sweetheart. I think you're safe with him. You need to clear the air, though. Otherwise, y'all will never be able to move forward together. That's my two cents, anyway."
She seemed to be wrapping up to leave. I dodged around the bar and made my way to stand directly in front of her. I could tell it surprised her when I leaned forward to hug her. It took her a moment before she reciprocated. She squeezed me extra tight before letting go.
"What was that for?" she asked.
"I appreciate you coming here. I'm sure I didn't make that easy for you. It means a lot."
Gabby reached for me to give me another quick hug. "All I want is to be your sister. And I promise I'll never want you to be anyone other than who you are. Dirt and all." She smirked, clearly having become more comfortable since she was willing to tease me.
I threw my head back and let out a full, deep laugh. My heart was still uncertain about things between Travis and me, but it felt good to have cleared the air a bit with Gabby.
"I'll you get back to work. See you at home?"
"Yep, see you at home." She turned to go. "Hey, Gabby?" She glanced back at me. "Seriously, thank you."
A soft smile played on her lips as she left. I was glad to see that she looked lighter as she walked away—as if a burden had been lifted. I liked to think that maybe I would have looked the same way. It was hard to tell when I still had so many other things weighing me down.
Everything was still a little unsettled with Travis. Despite how much I wanted to fast-forward past our overdue conversation, I knew that inevitably we wouldn't fully reach solid ground together until we'd faced everything. He'd made it clear that he was ready to talk. So, why wasn't I?
Gabby was right. It was time for me to start letting go of the bad habits I'd picked up when I was younger. Vinnie had been right, too. I wasn't a kid anymore.
If I was ever going to make things right across the board, then I was going to have to start taking a little responsibility for myself. I couldn't quite erase that niggling little voice of doubt in my head, though. There would be no take-backs if I made myself vulnerable, and I just wasn't sure that I was ready to face the consequences of that.
Travis
"Stop pacing," Wren groaned.
"I can't help it," I mumbled. "She should have te
xted me by now."
Carter returned to the room with the popcorn Wren had asked for. "Maybe she's still at work," he suggested.
Wren shot him a grin I was pretty sure she hadn't meant me to see. "He already called to check. Hazel said she'd left an hour ago. He also managed to wrangle out of her that Ronnie had a visitor today at work. Her sister-in-law."
"Can you please stop talking about my life like it's an episode of a soap opera?" I rolled my eyes at her.
"Stop being such a grump." She rolled her eyes right back at me.
Every once in a while, Wren was more like an annoying older sister than a friend. The whole evening was turning into one of those moments. Not hearing from Ronnie had put me on edge, and Wren seemed to think my angst existed for her own personal amusement.
A soft knock on the front door stopped my pacing. I froze and stared.
"Dude, are you gonna answer that?" Carter took a step that way as if he was going to do it.
"I'm getting it."
I yanked the door open so hard it went flying against the wall with an audible bang. Just outside, Ronnie's eyebrows shot up. Admittedly, I'd been a little overenthusiastic. My eyes trailed down to Stella, who was unbothered by the loud bang.
"Daddy." She held her arms up for me, and I instantly obliged her.
Wren cooed as she swooped in. She had a major soft spot for babies. Stella became mesmerized by Wren's red hair. The second she stepped within grabbing distance, Stella did just that. She managed to grab ahold of a whole fistful of the curling strands.
"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry." Ronnie tried to step in to help release Stella's grip, but Wren waved her off.
"Give me that sweet baby." Wren made gimme hands until I handed the toddler over to her.
I looked back at Ronnie, noticing for the first time the worried way she wrung her hands together. I reached for her, but she side-stepped my grip. She looked past me, to Wren.
"Hey, do you think you all could start the movie without us?" Her eyes flickered back to me. "Travis and I need a few minutes to talk."
"Of course," Wren agreed cheerfully. She shot a questioning glance in my direction, but I shrugged. I was just as confused as she was.
One Wrong Move (Kelley University Book 2) Page 10