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

sister this but, it’s the onlytimes I was almost turned off even when I thought it was you doing the laughing.Not that there’s anything wrong with her laugh.” He smiled that beautiful smileshe’d been struck by from that first day, then leaned in and kissed her softlybefore adding. “It just didn’t even come close to doing to me what yours didfrom the moment I first heard it.”

Vannah wondered if she’d ever get used to how easily he could makeher heart wallop. But she was beginning to not even care about breathing in sowhimsically whenever he did. That only made him smile bigger.

 “No one’s ever been rude about it or anything whenever thesubject of our differences comes up. And trust me Nena would be the first to startswinging if she thought someone might be saying something to hurt my feelings.”

He laughed at that. “I guess it runs in the family.”

“Oh, don’t get me started.” She shook her head as he leaned inand kissed her forehead. “I guess after eighteen years of hearing the comparison’sand her getting all the exciting references it not only got old, I began hidingbehind her personality. She is by far the most outspoken, I felt like I wasliterally in her shadow all the time. It also felt good to be able to mention havinga sister without all the usual inquiries I get when I mention we’re twins. It’slike whatever topic I might’ve been talking about goes right out the window becausethat part of my identity is clearly far more intriguing than anythingelse about me.”

“That’s bullshit. People are just nosey.” He kissed her sweetly andVannah smiled loving that it seemed he couldn’t go very long without doing so.“I’m proof, you’re absolutely captivating. This whole week I hung on your everyword and had no clue you had a twin.”

Smiling big because it just couldn’t be helped, Vannah shrugged. “Well,it’s just how it’s always felt. So, I thought it’d be an interesting experimentto not have that part of my life be the first thing I told people about myselffor once.” She had to laugh now. “Guess it sort of backfired on me, didn’t it?”

His eyes went wide but he smirked holding her a little tighter.“You think?”

“Oopsie?”

“Given the alternate and infuriating impression I wasunder most the day yesterday and again this morning.” He groaned burying hisface in her neck. “You’re so fucking forgiven. But hey.” He glanced upat her. “Being that I know a whole lot about everything else about you now, doI get to ask all the curious questions about being a twin?”

Vannah smiled tilting her head. “I’ll tell you without you havingto ask because I pretty much have them memorized. No, we don’t have telepathy.We know each other so well we can easily tell when the other is upset or something.But we can’t read each other’s thoughts. No, we don’t feel when the other onegets hurt physically. Yes, we’ve switched places to trick people when we wereyounger but only people who didn’t know us very well fell for it because I’d alwaysblow it since I’m nowhere near as outgoing as her.”

He held up a hand his smile flattening now. “You keep sayingshe’s the more outgoing. What’s your definition of outgoing? Because my firstimpression of you was hardly that of someone who wasn’t outgoing. Quite theopposite actually. Each time I saw you, you were surrounded by friends laughingand chatting and very obviously enjoying your time with them.”

Vannah stopped to ponder that. “Maybe outgoing is the wrong word.Maybe far more brazen or blunt are more appropriate words. It’s just if eitherof us were in a situation where say someone is obviously stretching the truthor embellishing for the sake of bragging or even being rude to someone else in frontof us, I’d likely bite my tongue and just let it go if it didn’t concern me.”She shook her head and chuckled. “Not Nena. She’ll straight out call you out onit.”

“Hold up,” Byron chuckled shaking his head. “I’m calling bullshiton that too. Frat Row Friday? I seem to recall a certain tiny little thing, in three-inchheels no less, bulldozing her way toward me like she was ready to go to blows. Andbite your tongue, my ass. You let me have it.”

Dropping her head back with a laugh, Vannah shook it. “That’sdifferent. That did concern me. I’d been looking everywhere for my dangerouslyinebriated friend and then someone tells me some horndog who looked like hewanted in her pants bad, had just walked out with her. Then I see youtrying to get her in your car. How was I supposed to react?”

Wrapping his arms around her again firmly, Byron groaned lettinghis head fall back now. “As pissed as I was at first about the accusation, inhindsight even that was hot as fuck. The way you charged to her rescue with apurpose.”

Shrugging, Vannah had to smile at him gazing down at her. “Shewould’ve done the same for me.”

He pecked her as he continued to peer at her. “I still have morequestions. You still have more answers?”

Taking a deep breath, she went on. “We stopped dressing alike in gradeschool. Yes, we’ve been known to finish each other’s sentences but not allthe time. Despite my experiment about not telling everyone I’m a twin firstthing, I do like being a twin. I wouldn’t have it any other way. This was just mewanting to try something new for a change. And even though my sister is themore brazen and I the more timid of the two, there is no evil one.” Vannahgiggled in spite of what she just said. “She can be when she wants to be, but Isuppose anyone can be. Only in a fun way, not a mean way.”

“I didn’t know there was a fun way to be evil.”

“Sure, there is.” She smiled big. “Like when you tease someoneover something silly to embarrass them. Or like the times we tried tricking peopleinto thinking we were the other. That was always her idea.”

“Anything else?”

Vannah thought about it for a moment. That was pretty much allthe things most people asked