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

Twenty

Lingering Disquiet

Byron

Slowing when he thought he heard footsteps in thehallway, Byron brought the phone down to his side. He took a deep breath pissedthat he let Irma get to him and raised his voice. After a few seconds ofwaiting in case Savannah might walk into the kitchen, he pulled the phone backto his ear when she didn’t but walked further away from the hallway and loweredhis voice. Irma was still going on about needing her phone charger. She was certainshe’d left it at his place and only wanted to stop by to get it, assuring himthere’d be no drama. She’d already apologized for her outburst the nightbefore, but Byron wasn’t having it.

“I told you,” he hissed into the phone in a much lower voice thistime. “I haven’t seen any phone charger here aside from mine. But if I do, Ipromise I’ll let you know, and I’ll mail it to you first thing. But what I saidlast night, still stands. So, unless you hear back from me about the damn charger,I don’t want you using it as an excuse to show up here or keep calling,understood?”

“It wasn’t an excuse, Byron. You know why it’s so important I haveto have my phone charged at all times—”

“Well, then buy a spare one, damn it.”

Feeling his patience wane once again as Irma went silent, Byronran his hand through his hair. He glanced back at the still empty doorway tothe kitchen. Why the fuck had he answered? In an effort to sound moreempathetic for the sake of keeping her on his good side, he took a deep breathagain. “Look, I promise I’ll look for it. If it’s here, and you need it thatbad I’ll let you know ASAP and you can come by and pick it up at the front desk.But only if I let you know I found it, okay?”

“Okay,” she said softly and before she could go on, Byron let herknow he had to go and got off the phone.

“Last time,” he muttered under his breath.

That was the last fucking time he’d be taking her calls. In fact,once he was sure she hadn’t left her charger at his place he’d be blocking her.Putting his phone down he spun around ready to go check on Savannah but frozewhen his eyes met hers as she stood at the doorway holding her empty plate andcoffee mug.

“Wasn’t trying to eavesdrop or anything I just—”

“That was Irma again,” he said determined to be as honest aspossible without having to drop to his knees over something that technically hadn’tactually happened. “The girl from last night. She can’t find her charger andthought maybe it might be here. I think she’s just making excuses to call,especially after last night’s incident. But I’m blocking her now.”

Lifting his phone from the counter he motioned to Savannah withit, then made a show of tapping his phone screen. He glanced up when shestarted toward him but didn’t say anything.

“Done,” he said putting his phone back on the counter andreaching out to Savannah as soon as she put her dishes down in the sink.

Thankfully, she didn’t resist. Instead, she allowed him to kissher before resting her face against his chest. She was only there for a secondbefore she glanced up at him.

“Your hearts beating so fast.”

Swallowing hard, he nodded praying she wouldn’t read more intoit. “I told you this is all new to me.” He spoke quickly—too nervously. “I knowit makes me sound like an asshole, but like I told you last night before now,I’ve never cared. I’ve never even thought about how I’d handle girls showing upwhile I was entertaining someone else or getting phone calls from them in thepresence of another girl. And now it . . . it just unnerves the shit outta—”

Her finger on his lips quieted him before he could go on with hispathetic rambling.

“I’m nervous too.” She smiled before leaning in and kissing hislips softly. “In fact, it’s why I was on the phone with my mom for a whilethere. She asked more about you—about us—and I admitted I’m nervous.” Before hecould ask about what exactly, she went on. “It just scares me to think if I couldbe feeling everything, I’m feeling this soon, how the heck am I supposed tohandle anything going wrong once I’m even deeper?”

“It won’t,” Byron said with conviction but liked how she wasthinking. At least getting in deeper was now a consideration despite what shesaid to her dad yesterday. “It might take me a little time to get my shittogether and make sure there are no more incidents like this and last night,but I promise you I will not hurt you.”

“I believe you.”

Byron wrapped his arms around her even tighter and buried hisface in her neck. He was beyond relieved now that today happened to be his dayoff. He’d since heard Orlando and Nine downstairs getting everything going andthere was no need to rush down or even go down at all today. Savannah yelpedthen screeched, when he picked her up and whisked her back into the bedroom forsome more marathon making out.

It’d been almost three weeks since the weekend Byronhad met Savannah’s parents. Just as long since he’d heard from Irma. Of course,he never did unblock her after so animatedly doing so in front of Savannah. Butthere was no other charger at his place beside his own so there was no need tounblock her, and he had zero intentions of reaching out to her everagain.

While technically, it’d only been a month since they’d startedgoing out. But being that he’d met her parents after just one week, it hadn’teven felt weird when she told him her mom had asked if she was bringing him toher grandparents wedding anniversary that coming weekend. Since the time he’dhad to be away from her the weekend she’d gone home for Labor Day had felt likean eternity, he was quick to say he’d be happy to go to her grandparents’ partyif she was inviting him. Labor Day weekend she’d been so busy spending timewith her family,