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

dad and brother being soclose by made him nervous as hell. Since Vannah had driven to the gym with herfamily she had to go back in and leave with them. Byron said he needed to gethome and shower anyway. She’d laughed when he said he had a knot in his gut nowfor an altogether different reason.

“I’m having dinner with your family after just one date?”

Though Vannah had nervously laughed it off, she was just as anxious.It’s why she kept to herself it wasn’t just her, dad, Nena, and her brotherthey’d be dining with. Her other brother Gordo and her mom would also be there.They just hadn’t been around for the show when it happened.

Of course, her family had a bunch of questions for her when shegot back into the gym, but thankfully her mother had come to her rescue and toldthem all to just stop already. Though she had given Vannah that, we’ll talklater, look.

Nena opted to go back to Vannah’s dorm instead of doing somesouvenir shopping with the rest of the clan until their dinner and Vannah knewexactly why. She’d be getting grilled. No sooner had her parent’s SUV drivenaway than Nena started the inquisition.

“Why hadn’t you told me about this guy, Vannah?”

“I only started seeing him a week ago,” she explained.

Nena’s jaw dropped. “And he was that incensed about seeingyou with other guys?”

“We had an incredibly romantic date last week,” Vannah explained inhalingdeeply as they reached her dorm room. “We talked on the phone a few timesduring the week. He’s hands down the best kisser I’ve ever kissed, and we didso much of it last week.”

“Well, that’s not saying a whole lot, sis.” Nena teased as theywalked into her dorm. “Not like you’ve kissed a whole lot of guys.” She turnedto Xochitl who was in front of her laptop on the sofa as usual. “Hey, girlstudying again? Every time I’m here it’s all you’re doing. Live a little, willyou?”

“I have a paper due at midnight.”

Nena turned back to Vannah shaking her head. “You see, this iswhy I took this first semester off. After twelve years of school, I needed alittle time off.”

“Yeah, well I have a set timeline,” Vannah said opening thefridge. “I’m not trying to waste time.”

“But you don’t have time for anything. When’s the last timeyou’ve even thought about making a video for our YouTube channel?”

Vannah winced feeling guilty as she took a swig from the waterbottle. Nena didn’t even give her time to respond when she was back to Byron.

“Have you met this Byron guy?” she asked Xochitl.

Xochitl turned to Vannah in question. She knew all too wellVannah hadn’t wanted her sister to know about him. “We ran into him at thegym,” Vannah explained so she’d know she was free to talk about him now.

“Yeah, I’ve met him.” Xochitl nodded at Nena. “I don’t reallyremember meeting him, but I’d seen him before that day.”

Vannah explained to Nena about their nightmare night out at Frat Row,laughing at each one of Xochitl’s exasperated groans. She told her about theenchiladas she made and gave Byron when she’d dropped off his clean gym clothesat his shop. For the millionth time she sighed deeply. She figured she might aswell admit now to her sister about how he’d thanked her with the most heavenly kissshe’d ever been treated to.

“Then he promptly asked her out that very night.” Xochitl shookher head. “And this one here didn’t think he was into her.”

Nena’s jaw dropped again. “That was just this past Monday?”

“Yes,” Vannah nodded, her insides going all wild again.

“Oh my God, Xochitl.” Nena’s eyes went even wider. “You should’veseen him today he looked ready to explode. Well, he kind of did.”

“Explode?” Xochitl asked understandably confused.

Nena filled Xochitl in on the happenings of the day. How Byronhad confronted them, and Taz reacting in his usual hot-headed way.

“You’re kidding me?” Xochitl turned to Vannah, this time she didthe jaw dropping. “No wonder he sent that text. This makes total sense now.”

Vannah winced as Xochitl told Nena about the text he’d sent Vannahyesterday. How they hadn’t been able to figure out what had gone wrong sincehe’d been so into her all week when they’d spoken, and video chatted. Butremembering his genuine explanation and how tightly he held her today, hadVannah smiling again.

“He couldn’t just ask you about seeing me with another guy? Sendingthat text was a jerk move of him,” Nena said with a frown. “I should bring itup during dinner tonight.”

“No, you shouldn’t,” Vannah responded immediately. “Unlessyou want me to point out in front of mom, daddy, Taz and Gordo that it was onlybecause he saw you sucking face with another guy and he thoughtit was me.” Before her sister could even try to retort, Vannah scrunched herface. “Really? Sucking face at King Taco, Nena? Didn’t you just meet this guy afew weeks ago?”

“Not in the restaurant. He kissed me when we got to thecar and then again when we got in the car.” Nena explained then laughed. “And yougotta lot of nerve. You’ve known this guy one week and already you’re bringinghim to dinner with the whole family.”

“Daddy’s idea not mine.” Vannah touched her forehead. “I justhope Taz and Gordo behave.”

Nena was laughing again. “This is gonna be fun.”

Thankfully, Xochitl knew better than to ask Vannah why she hadn’tmentioned such a huge fact about herself to him during all the talking textingand video chatting they’d done all week. It’s why Vannah had purposely madeless of their nonstop chatting all week when she mentioned it to Nena. She wascertain her sister thought that’s all it was. Vannah hadn’t known him long enoughand likely hadn’t talked to him too much yet. But Xochitl knew better.

When she first met Xochitl she hadn’t told her about her twin either.As she’d done with Byron, she’d of course mentioned having a sister she was veryclose to. Just left out the part about Nena being her identical twin. Itwasn’t even until Nena had called to tell her she’d be stopping by to visit herat their dorm for the first time that