Rocked (The Everyday Heroes World) - Julia Wolf Page 0,97

needed it. I did miss Devon, more than I thought I would. And I was still raw from Ellie’s hospital stay even though she bounced back like nothing had happened. Sadly, that wasn’t her first trip to the hospital, and it wouldn’t be her last. To her, it was a fact of life. She didn’t know any different. For me, each visit shaved about five years off mine.

“I was dumb to let myself get hung up on him. So dumb.”

“You’re not dumb. I’ve never known you to lose yourself in someone. I figure you must’ve fallen in love.”

I pulled away, crossing my arms over my middle. “It doesn’t matter. He wasn’t interested in continuing our relationship here, and I can’t do long distance. I think my trip to LA proved me leaving town to visit my rock star boyfriend would be a recipe for disaster.”

“Hey, it’s one thing if you don’t want to do long distance, but nothing happened on your LA trip. You were late, I left Ells with Rose, and she was fine, just like I knew she would be.”

A ball of indignation swelled in my chest. “Nothing happened? Are you kidding? You were incredibly nasty to me, Veego. Do you not remember that?”

He sighed and hung his head for a second. “Yeah. I was frustrated and took it out on you. I’m just...I’m used to you always being here. That was a completely foreign situation for me, you know?”

“I do know. You take trips with Casey and don’t give arrangements for Ellie a second thought. I leave for twenty-four hours and it’s like the sky is falling.”

“You can take trips.”

I slapped the ground. “I have no one to take them with. And I think you made your opinion of me going away with a man pretty damn clear. Jesus, Victor, you sounded like a spurned ex.”

“Yeah.” He looked down at his hands in his lap. “I think maybe I got jealous.”

I drew in a sharp breath. “What?”

His eyes met mine, the same warm brown eyes I’d been looking at since we were knee-high. “Casey broke up with me because she thought I had unresolved feelings for you. She thought that was why I wouldn’t propose to her.”

Devon telling me Veego was in love with me echoed in my head. I didn’t believe it, even now.

“Was it?”

“No. I don’t know. I wasn’t ready, and maybe I looked at you as an excuse.”

“Me? What? Please tell me Casey doesn’t think I would ever—”

Veego cut me off with his hand on my shoulder. “She doesn’t. She never thought you returned my feelings.”

“But do you, or did you…?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t think so. But then Case left me, and I started looking at you real hard. Started seeing how pretty you are, remembering what it was like.” He shook his head. “Maybe I was convincing myself of something that wasn’t there anymore. Who knows what would have happened if the rock star hadn’t shown up.”

My eyes went wide. “I know what would have happened. Exactly nothing. I don’t see you that way, Victor. We’re friends, even though I’m half-pissed at you most of the time.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry. I don’t see you that way either. My brain was misfiring with missing Casey and I guess I laid some of that heartache at your feet. I’m not in love with you, Kathleen Murphy.”

I flicked his nose. “Thank the good lord above. I’m not in love with you either, Victor Domingo.”

We were quiet for a moment, stretched out in the late afternoon sun. The air was crisp, and it truly felt like fall.

Veego broke the silence first. “Can I ask you something?”

“Maybe.”

He snorted. “Here’s what I’ve been wondering. I did some Googling on your rocker, read about what he did to his first wife. It was a long time ago, I get that. But you were done with me the second I touched another girl. How can you be with a man who cheated?”

“I’m not with Devon.”

He gave me a long look. “Just answer me, Kitty Kat.”

It wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about it. Devon and I had even talked about it. I was convinced people had the room to change if they wanted to. A series of bad decisions didn’t mean the entire human needed to be taken out with the garbage.

But how could I explain Devon’s story with Michaela wasn’t mine? I wasn’t sure I even wanted to explain it, not with Devon on the other side of the country and