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

Afraid of giving into the temptation of bringing up the subjectof her friends again, he steered clear of it. Once they came up for airhe went with another topic. He talked about their evening and how he’d brought outhis nieces a few times for this. “Those two have me wrapped around their littlefingers.”

She smiled sitting up and crossed her legs as she licked her lips.“My uncles and aunt have always spoiled me and my siblings as well. My mom sayswe were probably more spoiled than my cousins since my dad was the first of hissiblings to start a family.”

Hoping she’d eventually lie down again, Byron stayed in that position,but sat up just slightly leaning against his elbow. “That’s probably the same thingwith me,” he said playing with her fingers. “Though, technically Nine was thefirst to bring a kid around us with his stepdaughter. A little different but Ispoil her too.”

“Nine?”

“One of the other owners of the shop,” he explained. “One of theother guys I refer to as my brothers. His kids call me uncle too.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that today but is his name really Nine?”

“Nah,” Byron smiled. “He’s just gone by it for years. Somethingabout his pitching days, always went nine innings and shit, but I don’t reallyremember. I just met him as Nine, so he’s always been Nine to me.” He chuckledas he thought about it. “I can’t even remember his real name. Speaking of namesthough. What’s up with your friends name?”

“Xochitl?” she smiled then laughed sweetly when he nodded wideeyed. “When I saw the name of who I’d be rooming with I panicked.” Sheexplained about immediately doing her research on the unusual name and even practicinghow to pronounce it before she met her. “It’s Aztec and she’s Hispanic like me.You are too, obviously? Mexican cartel and all?”

“Yeah,” he nodded kissing her hand and pulling her down next tohim again because he was already having withdrawals. Hearing her sweet laugh didn’thelp. “Almost born in Mexico,” he said before kissing her so deep his heart wasthudding again.

He was tempted to ask her what it was about her that had himfeeling this way. Like she’d know. But again, the fear of freaking herout like he thought he might’ve those first few times she’d caught him gawkingat her won out. Pulling away he searched her eyes and shook his head withoutthought.

“What?” She tilted her head.

Panicked and feeling like an idiot, he cleared his throat and glancedaway.  “Just trying to remember who you remind me of.” Glancing back at her hewas glad for the distraction of her pulling stuff out of the bag she packedsnacks in. Before she could make too much of his comment he added, “You made this?”Byron pointed at the fancy salsa that looked restaurant bought.

She nodded pulling a chip out of the bag. “Yeah, I just threwtogether what I could find. I didn’t have cilantro and only half a jalapeno, soI threw in some cayenne pepper, but I overdid it. Thankfully, I found a mango, dicedit in there and it sort of mellowed it down.”

“You know your enchiladas are pretty much gone.” He leaned in andkissed her because he had to, then pulled away and gazed at her. “And the only otherperson I shared with was Nine, but he inhaled about six of them. Is that whatyou’re studying?”

Frowning, she shrugged as she dipped a chip in the salsa. “No. Iactually haven’t made up my mind what I want to major in. For now, I’m justgetting my general Ed out of the way. On paper, I’m majoring in business.”

Byron reached for one of the quesadilla slices and dipped it intothe salsa. Just like her enchiladas had, the flavors exploded in his mouth.Didn’t even matter that the salsa did have a hell of a kick to it. It was stilldamn good.

“Well, I think . . .” He wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Judgingjust from the two things I’ve tasted you made so far, you should definitely lookinto majoring in the culinary world.”

Tilting her head again, she smiled. “My parents said the samething. They . . .” She paused peering out toward the tide. “Is that them?”

Turning toward the water, Byron saw the moonlit shiny slitheringof the grunion. “Yep, that’s them.”

For the rest of the evening, he decided to keep the conversationon safe stuff. He told her about the first time he’d been out to see thegrunion run and then moved on to one of his favorite subjects, his nieces. Hetold her about their day at the Zoo and how it’d been Lucy’s first time seeinga lot of the more exotic animals.

“I’ve seen photos of my first time at the zoo.” She smiled big,shaking her head. “But I don’t remember it I was so young. The first trip therethat I do remember was on a school trip in the second grade. I remember thekids snickering because we were assigned partners if we didn’t pick our own. Juanwas the only boy who picked a girl—me. And we had to stick together and holdhands the whole day. It’s weird looking back now because I’ve always been soshy. You’d think I would’ve avoided holding hands with a boy because in thesecond grade that was just asking for merciless teasing and we did it socasually. Even became best friends after that.”

Glancing out at the grunion trying to sound as casual as thestory she’d just shared Byron had to ask. “So, your best friend is a dude?”

“Was, through grade school, before his family moved backto Mexico.” She shrugged picking up one of the last pieces of the quesadillaand dipping into the salsa. “Didn’t see or hear from him again until highschool and even then, it was only via social media. His parents opened up somekind of cell phone store business out there and are doing really well.” Shesmiled at him wiping her mouth after eating the quesadilla. “Xochitl is my bestfriend now.”

Done with getting tense every time