“Her leaving affected you too,” Wolfe pointed out.
Caleb nodded. “She was my friend. Of course it did. I miss her. I loved her. But we can’t stay angry at her.”
“I never loved her.”
Caleb snorted. “Of course not. You don’t believe in love.”
No, love was something people said. But they had no concept of loyalty. Of sticking by family no matter what. Genevieve had said she loved Aleki.
Then she’d left.
“What are we going to do about this?” Caleb waved his hand at the screen.
Aleki raised his eyebrows. “We don’t do anything. Vivi doesn’t need us. She never did.”
“That’s not true,” Caleb insisted.
“How would you know?” Aleki asked him, crossing his arms over his chest.
Caleb sighed. “I talked to her a few times after the two of you broke up.”
“Why? Were you hoping to get in there? Her father would have approved of you dating her. White and rich. Not a poor, brown-skinned kid.”
“Shit, Aleki. That wasn’t it at all.” Caleb looked shocked at his words.
“Maybe she wouldn’t have left if we’d shared her back then,” Wolfe mused.
“What?” Aleki snapped.
“Then she’d have had Caleb to take home to her father for approval.”
Aleki groaned, running his hand over his face. “Wolfe, I wasn’t gonna be her dirty little secret. Hiding in the background, while Caleb was taken home to Daddy and paraded around.”
“Like I would want that anyway,” Caleb said.
“I don’t care about being the dirty secret. No woman who’ll take on all three of us will want to take me home to her parents. Or probably be seen with me in public. I’ve always known I’ll be in the background.”
Both men gaped at him.
“That’s not the way it will work when we find our woman,” Caleb told him.
“Why not?” Wolfe asked.
“Because you deserve better than that, Wolfie,” Aleki said with sad eyes. “You deserve a woman who wants all of you. Who is proud to be with you.”
“We’ll never find a woman like that.” He’d once thought Genevieve . . . but no.
“We will,” Caleb told him firmly. “We’re not settling for less. I could try to email her, but I’d rather call her. Aleki, could you find her phone number?”
Aleki shrugged. “If I wanted to.”
Caleb sighed. “Come on, guys. All I want to do is make sure she’s all right.”
“I have a basketball game to get to.” Aleki stood up and slammed his way out the door.
“Shit.” Caleb ran his hand over his face.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” Wolfe mused.