Page 194 of Reverie
My brows knit together. “What do you mean?”
She clears her throat and says, “I was jealous of the attention Adam was giving you, of the looks he’d give you when he thought no one was watching. You are so beautiful, Winter. You were so beautiful then too. When your parents died, you got even more attention, and I was nothing more than the ugly friend.”
I know my face must look alarmed and confused because that’s a hundred percent what I am.
“Ugly friend?”
Her sigh is short. “Yes. You were the light-skinned, naturally smart girl that everyone wanted to be around. You didn’t see it, but boys were drooling after you back then. It was effortless for them to be attracted to you. But with me? I was the athlete, the dark-skinned sidekick who was funny but not really that smart, and who was one of the guys. I wanted to bedesired, Winter, even though I didn’t call it that back then, but no one was clocking for me at all, and here you had this older guy who I thought was hot lusting after you, and I couldn’t take it.”
I couldn’t be more shocked at this moment, at the confession. Veronica’s feelings that she’s revealing right now were nowhere on my radar back then, but then again, I couldn’t see anything outside my pain.
I’ve only now started to be able to do that, despite all my years of therapy and education.
“I don’t blame you, Rons. I don’t hold this against you at all. I love you,” I say because that’s all I can come up with: the truth.
“Once I knew what was happening, I felt like I’ve been a horrible person to you for thinking that way. What he did to you was about power, I know that. But at the time, I didn’t…I wasn’t able to see it that way. I think my way of atoning has been to keep you safe for as long as there’s breath in my body. Because I really do love you, Win, and I’m uninterested in doing life without you as my family.”
Right then, the baby decides to give me a swift kick in the ribs, so I take the signal and go to her, grabbing both of her hands in mine.
“Veronica,” I say with all seriousness. “Please don’t make me start singingThe Cheetah Girlsat you because we are sisters, and we stick together, okay?”
I start humming along to the main theme song from the first movie, and that causes Veronica to cackle before sobering and looking at me directly.
“Winter, I am sorry. You’ve already apologized too. And there’s so much more you don’t know—but nothing like me harboring secret jealousy as a child. Just…other stuff. I don’t want there to be any more secrets between us.”
I nod along, agreeing with her.
“Well, except for what you and Brigham do in the bedroom because y’all are on some freakshit, and I really don’t need to be all up in that situation.”
She delivers the lines so simply that it takes me a moment to register them. When the words land, I let out a full-throttled laugh that’s so loud that Hunter peeks his head into the room to check on us.
“Everything’s fine, baby,” I say, pulling Veronica back on the bed. “Now have someone go get us some snacks. I have a lot to catch up on with my sister.”
Hunter tilts his head and exits the room with a content smile, and Veronica squeezes my hand.
When the latch catches, I say, “Now, don’t think I didn’t recognize Rio holding my niece, so bitch, you better spill the tea, andpleasetell me he’s fucking your brains out.”
Veronica’s mouth pops open in anO, and when I drop my head to look at her beneath my lashes, her face cracks into a guilty smile as she flushes.
“You so are! Girl, tell me everything!”
Veronica pulls in a breath with a wince.
“Well, let’s see….”
When we goton the plane, Hunter wanted to stay up and create a plan with Misha and the rest of the team, but I bullied him into lying down.
He zonked out as soon as his head hit the pillow. It’s been three days since everything went down on Isla Cara, and Hunter has been working non-stop with the rest of them. Most of their time has been dedicated to getting all the trafficking victims home, but another big part of his focus has gone to The Legion, The Architect, and what the fuck happens next.
“Hasn’t anyone told you that it’s rude to stare?” Hunter speaks without opening his eyes, and I chuckle, lifting my hand to rest my head on my palm.
“It’s not my fault. No one told you to be so good-looking,” I reply. He lets out a long, put-out sigh.
“Yes, I guess this is my cross to bear, isn’t it.”
I laugh when he releases a puff of amusement. Slowly, he cracks one eye open and then the other. I settle back into the pillows, and we simply look at each other.
“What were you thinking about, Sunbeam?” he says with a yawn. It’s very early for us, five am East Coast time, and we’ve been in the air for two hours at this point. But where he’s understandably tired, I’m wired for some reason.