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

just how many she’dmade. “This isn’t a small tray, Vannah. That’s a lot of enchiladas. You sureyou don’t want to take some back with you?”

“Oh, no.” She shook her head indulging him with that sweet yet nervouslaughter again. “Xochitl made sure I made enough for us too. I figured sinceI’d be dropping them off at your job, you might want to share with yourco-workers.” She glanced out to where the guys were working. “Trust me, I’vecooked for enough guys to know all about how much they can grub. I made sure tomake enough.”

Glancing back at him, their eyes met and her previously brighteyes widened in question—or alarm. It wasn’t even until that moment,that Byron realized how hard his expression had gone. Fortunately, before hisdumb ass could start up again with any stupid and unwarranted remarks, sheadded more to that last comment that shouldn’t have been so unreasonablyannoying.

“I have two brothers and lots of cousins,” she explained quickly makingByron feel like an asshole for evidently making her feel like she needed to.“My brothers have been known to eat an entire tray like that on their own.” Shelaughed softly again but it sounded forced now, nervous. “Not in one sitting ofcourse. But entire trays that size have gone missing from the fridge in lessthan a day when they’re home all day.”

Feeling the tension ease up, not just from the initial commentbut from his ridiculous reaction to it, Byron forced a smile. “Yeah, I’ll haveto think about whether or not I want to share with these guys. Knowing them,they’ll tear through the tray in minutes.”

She smiled a bit more naturally this time. “Well, I don’t want totake up too much of your time—”

“You’re not.” He walked around the counter with the tray. “I’mtaking a break right now. As a matter of fact.” He opened the drawer where theykept boxes of plastic cutlery and pulled out a fork. “I think I’ll try these rightnow. Have you had lunch?”

“I haven’t, but those are for you.”

“Vannah.” He shook his head. “You said it yourself. You madeenough for all my co-workers and while I’m still not sure I’ll be sharing thesewith them—” or anything else about her “—I sure as hell don’t mind sharing withthe chef herself.”

Byron stopped short of adding, especially one as sweet as her. Hewas already pushing it by inviting her to have lunch with him. Yet, at the sametime his insides were also going nuts because she appeared to accept theinvitation. She’d already pulled the purse off her shoulder with a smile andcame around the counter with him when he motioned for her to do so.

Starting to pull out a chair for her, Byron thought of something.“Or we can go in the break room. Seating might be more ideal in there.”Ignoring the warning sirens going off in his head, Byron took it one stepfurther. “We can also go upstairs to my apartment. I have a full kitchen there wherethere’s more than just bottled water I can offer you to drink in that fridge,as opposed to the water dispenser in the break room.”

Holding his breath for a moment, he exhaled in relief, smilingbig when she crinkled her nose in a curious gesture and glanced upstairs. “Youlive up there?”

“You didn’t know that?” Seeing her blush intensely this time, asshe shook her head had him chuckling, but he let her off the hook. “Yeah, Ido.” He asked one of the guys to come cover the lobby while he went to lunch.“Come on, I’ll show you.”

She followed him up and despite the battle of contradicting argumentsgoing on in his head, the excitement about getting some more time—alone timewith her—was winning out. He was a grown man, for fuck’s sake. He could handle this.

Texting Gus, to let him know he’d be upstairs for a while andhe’d have to cover the lobby, Byron walked Vannah through his small apartment.

“No school today?” he asked as she took a seat at his kitchentable.

“I had classes this morning. Then I have to put in some hours instudy lab later this afternoon.”

Byron set the tray of enchiladas down on the table and grabbedsome plates. Relieved that he actually had more than just bottled water andbeer in his fridge he offered her the other options. “Aside from water, we got juiceboxes, Coke Zero and Starbucks bottled coffee.”

“Ooh, I’ll take Starbucks.”

Grabbing one for her and a soda for himself, he took the seatnext to her at the table. She’d already served them both. Three enchiladas forhim and one for herself.

Byron stared at her single serving curiously. “Just one?”

“Unlike all my siblings who eat very large servings perthree square meals a day, I eat small portions all day long.” She peered at himcuriously as she bit into her forkful of food but waited until she was donechewing before going on. To his surprise, it had nothing to do with her eatinghabits. “Juice boxes?” She chuckled suddenly. “Big guy like you is into juiceboxes?”

Byron started to laugh as he bit into his food but then had tostop as the explosion of flavors went off in his mouth. “Damn this is good,”he said covering his mouth as he finished chewing.

Before he could answer her question about the juice boxes, he inhaledseveral more bites then took a quick swig of his soda and wiped his mouth. “Nowonder your brothers eat the whole damn thing by themselves. I ain’t sharingshit with those guys down there.”

Hearing her amusement this up close did even more to him than allthe other times he’d heard that sweet laughter. But he shook it off answeringher question instead. “My nieces and nephews.”

He explained about Beast’s daughters and Nine and Orlando’s kids comingby the shop often. How for safety reasons they usually ended up in hisapartment, instead of hanging out in the shop.

“They raid my fridge and take over my TV and tablet. It’s why Istay stocked up on that kind of stuff. Cereal, rice crispy treats, ice creamyou name it. And when they spend the night, I don’t cook so I’m all over Grubhuband Uber eats.”

For