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

too, and he couldn’t get enoughof watching her sleep soundly in his arms. If it weren’t for the perpetualnagging feeling in his gut, he’d answer the long-disputed question of whether therewas such a thing as heaven on earth with a boisterous, yes! Unequivocally, yes thereis! But the smile the thought brought to his face was fleeting because justlike that, his gut tightened and the chirping outside got even louder. Only itwasn’t random chirping anymore. It was an actual tune. One Byron couldn’t make out,but it sounded sad, ominous—sinister even. Wincing when it got so loud, he wassure Savannah would wake at any moment. His heart nearly gave out when helooked down and she was gone.

Sitting up suddenly, as the birds went instantly silent, heglanced around. “Savannah?” She walked into the room wearing nothing more than hisoversized T-shirt brushing her teeth. Byron shook his head confused. “How?” Heturned down to the bed where she’d been laying just a moment ago. “How’d youget up without me feeling you?”

The ominous tune coming from outside started up again as he gotout of bed. This time it didn’t even sound like chirping. It was music. Shemotioned that she had a mouthful of toothpaste and couldn’t talk. Afraid she’ddisappear again Byron followed her back to the bathroom.

Savannah leaned over the sink and rinsed her mouth. She saidsomething as soon as she was done but the music was so damn loud, he couldn’tmake out what she was saying. “What?”

Her lips moved but there was no sound. At least Byron couldn’thear any words. Except he didn’t even care anymore. He reached out for her,wanting nothing more than to have her in his arms. Once again, his heart nearlygave out on him when she slipped through his hands like grains of sand, and shedisappeared.

Byron opened his eyes, blinked twice then laid there for a moment.“What the hell was that about?”

He rarely remembered anything he dram, yet he remembered this oneso vividly. Not wanting to move, he just lay there very still, as if movingmight make him forget some of the details. He wasn’t even sure why he’dwant to remember. It’s not like it was a pleasant dream but there was somethingabout it. It felt foreboding. Though he’d never been one to buy into the dreamsmeaning something, bullshit.

Glancing down at his clenched hand on his stomach he rememberedsomething little Elsa of all people had told him once. He was over at Beast’splace one evening on Little’s duty, on a rare occasion when Beast and Ali had goneout for the night without the girls. Lucy had fallen asleep on the chaise inthe front room with both her hands on her belly. He’d started to whisper toElsa not to wake her sister when he saw her walk over and start to touch Lucy’sarm.

She’d shaken her head before he could finish and gently movedLucy’s hands from her belly to her sides. After tiptoeing away, she explainedwhy she had. “Mommy said when you sleep your whole body is like dead weight. So,your hands on your belly are heavier against it when you’re asleep than if youhad them there when you were awake. She says too much weight against your bellycan make for bad dreams. I believe it because Lucy falls asleep a lot with herhands on her belly and she has lots of bad dreams.”

Smiling, Byron remembered how carrying Xochitl up to their dorm thenight of the Frat Row fiasco, had felt like carrying dead weight. Whenhe lifted his wrist up to check the time on his watch, he was surprised to seeit was already close to eight in the morning. Chalking off the dream to hisworrying about blowing it with Savannah, he got out of bed and decided to lookforward to his upcoming day with her instead. Ali’s theory about sleeping withhis fist on his belly made sense. That’s likely where the ominous music camein.

After sending Orlando a text asking if he was free to close forhim tonight, he jumped into the shower. When he got out, he read Orlando’s responsewith a smile. His wife and kids weren’t even in town today. He planned onstaying late anyway since he wasn’t looking forward to getting home to an emptyhouse.

Perfect. He text back thanking Orlando for covering forhim. As he got ready, made coffee, and threw together a quick omelet he keptchecking his watch the whole time. Nine was already downstairs with the rest ofthe crew so Byron didn’t bother going down. He started packing his bag for theweekend instead. The whole time he thought about how he’d be spending his timewith Savannah today—pampering her—all day. Though throughout his packinghe couldn’t quite shake the tense knot in his gut he woke with. Each time hethought of the possibility that this could be it, they might be taking that nextstep in their relationship, the knot got even tighter.

Twenty-One

Just Hanging Out

Vannah

Deciding she’d text Byron this time to let him knowshe’d just arrived in the parking lot she sat there for a moment and waited. Asunderstanding as she’d been trying to be these past several weeks about Byron’spast, seeing him around other women was not a pleasant thing to have towitness. Especially when said women were so damn obvious about their interestin him. She meant it when she said she didn’t expect his past to just disappear,but if there was anything she could do to avoid the awkwardness of it, she’d bedoing it. Giving him a heads up before she arrived had been Xochitl’ssuggestion. So, it’s what she was doing now.

Thoughts of seeing how outrageously flirty the woman she’d seen athis shop the other evening, reminded her of Ms. Thang from down at the university’slab. Her husband showing up once already hadn’t stopped the woman’s shamelessbehavior. Vannah and Xochitl were now on strict orders to be on the lookout formore drama since Nena had been able to edit the video’s Annette had sentXochitl last time, uploaded them to their channels and it’d been a hit. They hadn’tgotten any more of the drama on film but