Not Even Close (A New Generation) by Elizabeth Reyes (books to read in a lifetime txt) 📗

Books by Elizabeth Reyes

Moreno Brothers Series

Moreno’s

ForeverMine

ForeverYours

SweetSofie

WhenYou Were Mine

AlwaysBeen Mine

Romero

MakingYou Mine

Tangled—AMoreno Brothers novella

Tall, Dark& Obnoxious (Free Short Story)

5th Street Series

Noah

Gio

Hector

Abel

Felix

Blind Side (FreeShort Story)

Fate Series

Fate

BreakingBrandon

SuspiciousMinds

Again

Rage

Histo Guard

Uninvited

Boyle Heights Series

Lila

Beast

Nine

Orlando

Looking Glass Series

Girl in the Mirror

We Were One

Stand Alone Books

DesertHeat

DefiningLove

Remi’s Choice

Not

Even

Close

By

Elizabeth Reyes

Not Even Close

Elizabeth Reyes

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents areeither the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, andany resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments,events or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. This e-book is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase anadditional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did notpurchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return toyour favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting thehard work of this author.

Copyright © 2021 Elizabeth Reyes

To my sexy, unnervingly intense, sweet teddy bear. Ilove you, Mark!

Table of Contents

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Epilogue

Also By Elizabeth Reyes

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Prologue

The splatter of blood to Byron’s face jerked him out ofthe trance he’d entered. Barbara’s cries and the tugs at his arms from thefrantic frat boys telling him that the guy he’d just beat to a pulp was outcold, barely registered. He got off his knee and stood as his previouslyblurred surroundings came back into view. For a moment, he considered callingBarbara a whore, considered telling her he never wanted to see or hear from herlying, cheating ass again. But despite his still breathless and enraged mien,he didn’t care about her even half as much as he knew the stunned crowdsurrounding them now were thinking. This hadn’t even been about driving up andseeing Barbara making out with another dude. If the guy hadn’t gotten out ofthe car and called Byron out like an obnoxious asshole, Byron might’ve justdriven away.

Without uttering a word, and before the cops rolled up and threwhis dumb ass in the backseat of a squad car, Byron had the presence of mind tojust walk away as he should’ve to begin with. He drove slowly, his eyes goingfrom the road before him to the bloodied knuckles clenching his steering wheel.Breathing in deeply, he tried in vain to forget what his rage tonight hadreally been about. He did not want to sink back into that darkness.

His rage today stemmed back to the last time he’d had to nursehis bloodied knuckles. His mother’s untimely death had been the impetus for afew fists through walls and even a window. She was the reason he’d givena relationship with Barbara a shot to begin with. It’d been nine years sincehe’d considered doing more than just bagging random girls. His mother was theone who’d pulled him out of the darkness he’d sunk into the first time. Thenshe waited years to point something out that he’d never even contemplated.

When he’d slunk in one morning earlier that year from a night outwith yet another might-as-well-be-nameless girl, his mother had asked, as she’dbegun to do more often, about the girls he’d spent the night with. As usual,Byron couldn’t tell her much since he always made it a point not to get to knowthem. She’d shaken her head disapprovingly, but mostly she seemed concerned.

“I know Lizette was your first and only girlfriend, Byron.” She’dspoken with obvious caution. “I know losing her was an unexpected and tragicshock. But you two were just fifteen, and you two hadn’t even known each other thatlong. How profound could your connection have been?”

When he’d begun to protest that she’d been his first love, hisfirst everything, she countered that it was because she’d been his firsteverything that he’d put her up on a pedestal that no other girl couldever reach now. “Honey, I don’t doubt that you loved her but only as much as afifteen-year-old is capable of loving. At that young and impressionable age,everything feels that much more frantic. You can’t go the rest of your lifehoping to replicate exactly what you felt for her because you’ll never befifteen again. Your heart and soul are older now. While a new relationshipmight not be the same, trust me, it’ll still feel frenzied. Just in a differentway.”

After his mother’s sudden and unexpected death just weeks afterthat conversation, he’d vowed for her sake to be more open to finding loveagain. So, when he met Barbara a few months after his mother’s death, and sheshowed interest in trying for more than just his usual, he decided to give it ashot.

Because of his indecision about his future after high school,he’d gotten a late start and, at twenty-four, was older than your typicalcollege senior. But at least he was almost done. Against his better judgment,he’d decided to get a little more serious with Barbara, despite her being anineteen-year-old sophomore. Byron knew firsthand that so many girls that age,just starting adulthood, were free spirits. It’s why it’d been so easy for solong to do the nameless bedhopping without any drama. Now he felt like an idiotabout not going with his gut.

In hindsight, he knew the rage he’d felt today was more of thepent-up sorrow he’d been holding in since the loss of his mother. Not sinceLizette had he allowed himself to cry. It served no purpose other than to sinkhim further into that dark place.

But seeing Barbara blatantly making out with another guy, whenByron had just been with her two nights ago, had been a blow to his ego.With his temperament, it hadn’t taken much to get him to react as if he reallycared about her. Lesson learned. He could only imagine how much that might’ve hurthad he felt more for her.

He flexed his aching bloodied knuckles with a frown. “Well,shit.”

As if trying to keep his vow to stay open to love hadn’t alreadyfelt like an impossibility, on top of all the emotional baggage he wascarrying, trust would now be a huge issue to add to his already broodyattitude.

One

Jailbait

A