did he know how close his words were to being true.
ME: I’ve only been in Europe for a few months, and you act like I haven’t even been in touch. You heard from me last week. I cannot say the same for you. What the heck has happened while I was gone that you didn’t tell me?
My phone lit up with Truck’s goofy smile. Sometimes it was hard to remember that, for most of my life, I’d called my brother Travis. It wasn’t until he’d gone to Texas A&M’s Maritime Academy and found his friends Eli and Mac that the nickname had taken hold. Mac and Travis were both huge, muscled men, and they’d been deemed “Mac Truck” by the officers. Now, hardly anyone remembered my brother’s real name was Travis.
“Hey,” I said.
“How was Spain?” he asked.
“Decent. I think we’re going to have a shot at the Conquistar de la Atlántica cup. But enough with the chitchat. What the fuck’s going on?”
“So…Jersey and Vi’s dad died,” he said. “We went to New London to take care of the shitbag’s remains.”
Truck had no love for Jersey and Violet’s dad. I didn’t either. He’d killed a woman, cost Vi her spleen, and then proceeded to take it all out on the two of them like it was somehow their fault. He’d been in jail for most of the time I’d known them, but I’d heard he’d been released on parole.
Regret hit me. Violet and Jersey’s dad had died, and I’d missed it. Yet another important event in their lives I hadn’t shown up for. I’d missed a host of birthdays and holidays. I’d missed Vi’s most recent graduation ceremony because of deadlines with the shipbuilder in Italy. Two of my worlds had eclipsed the third…the most important one being shoved to the back.
“How’d they hold up?” I asked.
“Normal Banner women. With the patience of saints,” he said.
“What does that have to do with Violet running the B&B?” I asked.
“Ava was hospitalized because of complications with the baby, so Mandy and Leena went to Texas. Violet is helping them out.”
Shit, I really had missed a lot. My whole world had flipped while I was away. All of it. Mandy and Leena were gone. Violet was here. The solid metal shields between my personas were being battered with more bullets than I’d known to watch out for.
“Are Ava and the baby going to be okay?” I asked. Truck’s two best friends had become, for a short time, a bigger part of his world than I’d been. As a teenager, I’d been jealous. After I’d moved to New London with Truck, I realized how they’d filled the hole in his life that should have been named family.
“It looks like it. Mostly precautionary,” he said, but I could still hear the worry in his voice for both Ava and his friend.
The vision of the black-haired powermonger from the coffee shop returned to me. I wanted to know, but I didn’t. Violet with a boyfriend. It was enough to make me want to toss the limited contents of my stomach.
“Who’s the idiot here with Violet?” I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral.
Truck sighed. “I don’t know, Daws. She’s been with him a while, but they’ve hit some kind of bump in the road. He came running after her to New London to figure it out.”
It was stupid to think Violet hadn’t had any boyfriends since leaving New London for UC Berkeley. But in my head, I’d kept her at age sixteen, safe from guys’ advances because of her underage status. Even after I’d seen the proof of it being otherwise every time we’d been together with Truck and Jersey. She’d grown out of her teenage limbs, still lithe and slender, but with softer, fuller curves.
I swallowed hard.
“He seems like an asswipe,” I said with a growl that Truck couldn’t mistake.
“Honestly, we’ve never cared for him. It’s like he wants her to be his sidekick when we all know that’ll never be Vi.”
She was never meant to blend in. Only stand out. It was why Jersey had created a superhero for her comics modeled after Violet.
“Do I need to do something about it?” I asked, body tightening up because of the multiple implications of that. Interfering in her life. The rebound it could mean on the other worlds I’d kept hidden from Truck.
Truck chuckled. “I’d like to see you try. Violet would cut off your nuts.”
“I know how to bury a body,” I said, teasing but also