Not Even Close (A New Generation) Read online

  Books by Elizabeth Reyes

  Moreno Brothers Series

  Moreno’s

  Forever Mine

  Forever Yours

  Sweet Sofie

  When You Were Mine

  Always Been Mine

  Romero

  Making You Mine

  Tangled—A Moreno Brothers novella

  Tall, Dark & Obnoxious (Free Short Story)

  5th Street Series

  Noah

  Gio

  Hector

  Abel

  Felix

  Blind Side (Free Short Story)

  Fate Series

  Fate

  Breaking Brandon

  Suspicious Minds

  Again

  Rage

  His to Guard

  Uninvited

  Boyle Heights Series

  Lila

  Beast

  Nine

  Orlando

  Looking Glass Series

  Girl in the Mirror

  We Were One

  Stand Alone Books

  Desert Heat

  Defining Love

  Remi’s Choice

  Not

  Even

  Close

  By

  Elizabeth Reyes

  Not Even Close

  Elizabeth Reyes

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Copyright © 2021 Elizabeth Reyes

  To my sexy, unnervingly intense, sweet teddy bear. I love you, Mark!

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Epilogue

  Also By Elizabeth Reyes

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Prologue

  The splatter of blood to Byron’s face jerked him out of the trance he’d entered. Barbara’s cries and the tugs at his arms from the frantic frat boys telling him that the guy he’d just beat to a pulp was out cold, barely registered. He got off his knee and stood as his previously blurred surroundings came back into view. For a moment, he considered calling Barbara a whore, considered telling her he never wanted to see or hear from her lying, cheating ass again. But despite his still breathless and enraged mien, he didn’t care about her even half as much as he knew the stunned crowd surrounding them now were thinking. This hadn’t even been about driving up and seeing Barbara making out with another dude. If the guy hadn’t gotten out of the car and called Byron out like an obnoxious asshole, Byron might’ve just driven away.

  Without uttering a word, and before the cops rolled up and threw his dumb ass in the backseat of a squad car, Byron had the presence of mind to just walk away as he should’ve to begin with. He drove slowly, his eyes going from the road before him to the bloodied knuckles clenching his steering wheel. Breathing in deeply, he tried in vain to forget what his rage tonight had really been about. He did not want to sink back into that darkness.

  His rage today stemmed back to the last time he’d had to nurse his bloodied knuckles. His mother’s untimely death had been the impetus for a few fists through walls and even a window. She was the reason he’d given a relationship with Barbara a shot to begin with. It’d been nine years since he’d considered doing more than just bagging random girls. His mother was the one who’d pulled him out of the darkness he’d sunk into the first time. Then she waited years to point something out that he’d never even contemplated.

  When he’d slunk in one morning earlier that year from a night out with yet another might-as-well-be-nameless girl, his mother had asked, as she’d begun to do more often, about the girls he’d spent the night with. As usual, Byron couldn’t tell her much since he always made it a point not to get to know them. She’d shaken her head disapprovingly, but mostly she seemed concerned.

  “I know Lizette was your first and only girlfriend, Byron.” She’d spoken with obvious caution. “I know losing her was an unexpected and tragic shock. But you two were just fifteen, and you two hadn’t even known each other that long. How profound could your connection have been?”

  When he’d begun to protest that she’d been his first love, his first everything, she countered that it was because she’d been his first everything that he’d put her up on a pedestal that no other girl could ever reach now. “Honey, I don’t doubt that you loved her but only as much as a fifteen-year-old is capable of loving. At that young and impressionable age, everything feels that much more frantic. You can’t go the rest of your life hoping to replicate exactly what you felt for her because you’ll never be fifteen again. Your heart and soul are older now. While a new relationship might not be the same, trust me, it’ll still feel frenzied. Just in a different way.”

  After his mother’s sudden and unexpected death just weeks after that conversation, he’d vowed for her sake to be more open to finding love again. So, when he met Barbara a few months after his mother’s death, and she showed interest in trying for more than just his usual, he decided to give it a shot.

  Because of his indecision about his future after high school, he’d gotten a late start and, at twenty-four, was older than your typical college senior. But at least he was almost done. Against his better judgment, he’d decided to get a little more serious with Barbara, despite her being a nineteen-year-old sophomore. Byron knew firsthand that so many girls that age, just starting adulthood, were free spirits. It’s why it’d been so easy for so long to do the nameless bedhopping without any drama. Now he felt like an idiot about not going with his gut.

  In hindsight, he knew the rage he’d felt today was more of the pent-up sorrow he’d been holding in since the loss of his mother. Not since Lizette had he allowed himself to cry. It served no purpose other than to sink him further into that dark place.

  But seeing Barbara blatantly making out with another guy, when Byron had just been with her two nights ago, had been a blow to his ego. With his temperament, it hadn’t taken much to get him to react as if he really cared about her. Lesson learned. He could only imagine how much that might’ve hurt had he felt more for her.

  He flexed his aching bloodied knuckles with a frown. “Well, shit.”

  As if trying to keep his vow to stay open to love hadn’t already felt like an impossibility, on top of all the emotional baggage he was carrying, trust would now be a huge issue to add to his already broody attitude.

  One

>   Jailbait

  A Year Later:

  Byron

  Once again, the annoyingly cute and now contagious laughter distracted Byron from his crowd control duties. As usual the crowds were huge whenever 5th Street held one of these signings. In the last several years they’d only gotten bigger and bigger for good reason. The big-name athletes participating in the signings weren’t just boxers anymore. They’d since added a multitude of super star athletes from the other sports to their list of signing athletes at these events. It’s why Byron volunteered to come in and help out if they were ever understaffed. He never knew what new big name he’d get to meet in person.

  Having a brother who was one of the athletes doing the signing came with its perks. His brother Leo, aka Beast was a former heavyweight champ, but his signature was still high in demand. So, Byron never had to stand in any lines and oftentimes got to hang out with said athletes in private when they lounged around after or warmed up before the events in one of the training rooms.

  Byron was currently monitoring the line near his brother’s table. The first time he’d heard the sweet laughter was when the group of girls standing in line made it inside the gym from the line that went all around it. He’d been around enough of his brother’s fights and these types of events to know the difference between groupies and actual female fans. These girls were way too young and innocent looking to be groupies. In fact, they were way too young for Byron to even be looking their way. But it couldn’t be helped. Never had something like this been so damn distracting. For the most part, girls giggling and laughing in and around the gym where Byron had spent a lot of time for years wasn’t anything new. It wasn’t unheard of for people to come to the gym and try to hook up.

  Usually, it was pretty obvious if that’s what chicks were up to. It’s exactly why normally Byron wouldn’t give something like this a second thought. But in this case, there was something so genuinely pleasant about the laughter that he was pretty sure there was no underlying motive for it. Sure, there were plenty of guys around and Byron was certain he wasn’t the only one distracted by the laughter, but it just didn’t feel like it was being done for the sake of attention.

  Byron couldn’t even pinpoint what it was, but it sounded so sincere. Particularly one of the girl’s contagious laughter. It’s the one he heard most often and each time she laughed so whole heartedly, it had Byron smiling despite not having an iota of idea what that hell was so funny. It’s why it was so distracting. For over a year Byron hadn’t had much to smile about especially not this often.

  But as long as he’d been hearing it now, it didn’t appear there was one certain thing that had her laughing. From the likes of it, Byron gathered she was just the type of giddy person who was very easily amused—something he hadn’t been, in way too long. So, you’d think it would annoy him. Instead, he found himself continuing to uncharacteristically smile to himself each time he heard it, even subtly glancing in their direction.

  They were close enough now that when he glanced their way this time, he was able to make out whose laugh was the one distracting him most. She was the shortest most petite of the three young girls. As far as he could tell she was Hispanic. Albeit a very light skinned Hispanic girl. Her hair was dark at the top but blended into a golden blonde starting from the middle down to the ends of her long locks. While petite next to the two other girls she stood with, she had curves that contradicted his earlier estimation about her being too young.

  At that moment she was holding her phone out, showing the other girls something on the screen. He watched as the big smile flattened for a second then just like that, her entire face brightened instantly, and she even crinkled her nose bringing her fist to her mouth and laughed again. “No, no, keep watching,” she chirped through her laughs.

  The other girls watched and laughed as well. Whatever the hell they were laughing at must’ve been hilarious because she even did a little dance in place as she covered her mouth and continued to laugh. As much as he hated to admit it, what his surly ass would normally consider annoying, the entire scene was fucking adorable. Byron had been so sucked into the whole show, it wasn’t even until she looked up and their eyes happened to meet that he realized he was smiling just as big as she was.

  The dancing in place ceased immediately and her smile slowly went flat. As animated as she’d been that whole time her entire demeanor did a one-eighty. An air of bashfulness seemed to wash over her as she pulled a strand of hair behind her ear and glanced back down at her phone.

  The abrupt realization came to Byron in a form of a knot in his stomach. His interpreting her change of behavior as bashfulness was a convenient one. Truth was he’d very likely freaked her the fuck out and he knew it. Now he felt like the biggest creeper on the planet. His cheesy ass smile flattened as well as he felt something he’d never felt before—a spreading heat rise from his spine clear up to his neck and face and even his ears.

  He wanted so badly to look her way again to see if she was filling her friends in on the creepy man who’d been gawking and smiling in their direction like a maniac, but he didn’t dare. He envisioned all three young girls digging through their purses for their pepper spray or mace bottles to keep handy in case Byron decided to do more than stare them down.

  What the fuck was he thinking? For all he knew she could be jailbait. Despite the curves she could still be a very young teen. She sure as shit had the stature of a high school or even middle school girl.

  “Fucking hell,” he muttered under his breath.

  Glancing around for someone he could wave down to come relieve him, so he could get his ass out of there, Byron was still feeling the heat in his face. Each moment that passed and he didn’t hear the familiar laughter, his face got hotter.

  Finally, he heard it again. Albeit a little softer now and he had to wonder if he wasn’t the reason for her hushing it down. Was she afraid to get his attention again? Ironically even as softer as the laughing had gone, she had Byron’s undivided attention still. It was almost as if the buzz of the crowded gym was nothing but a humming drone in the background now and all he heard was that sweet giggling.

  Thankfully, he spotted Nine headed in his direction making his way through the crowd with Hector, one of the owners of the gym. Multitasking, Byron motioned for the line he oversaw to move along as he flagged Nine down.

  Byron knew Beast was due for a break soon and he needed to talk to him before he made his quick exit out of there. Finding someone to cover for Byron, shouldn’t be too hard or an issue, given how many other guys at the gym would be willing to mingle with the girls in the crowd.

  “You doing work?” Nine tapped his fist to Byron’s in the air then clapped him on the shoulder.

  “Yeah, but I gotta go soon.” Byron tapped Hectors fist next then turned back to Nine. “I just need to talk to Beast before I go.”

  “Go ahead,” Hector said glancing back at Beast. “I can handle it here until I can get someone to take over.”

  As much as Byron had been trying to avoid looking in the direction of the girls he’d gawked at, they were now at Beast’s table where Hector, and Nine’s attention were also on now. The girls were all smiles and at that moment Beast just so happened to be signing something for her. Beast looked up at her and smiled making what Byron assumed was typical small talk.

  “Looks like they’re passing out wristbands to the rest of the people in his line, so they can be first when he comes back.” Hector motioned to the gal passing out the wrist bands. “Means he’s probably gonna take his break now. Go on. I’m good here.”

  “I need to talk to him too,” Nine said as Byron started to walk away but turned back to Hector. “I’ll come back if you want and take over when I’m done.”

  Hector nodded and Byron and Nine started toward Beast’s table. Though Byron made sure to take the longer way around the crowds to avoid getting there before the girls moved on to one of the other lines.

  Beast was just wrapping it up wi
th the last person allowed to stay in his line before he took his break. Byron stood a couple of feet away, feeling strangely nervous when the same girl’s laughter caught Nine’s attention. Nine smirked looking their way then back at Byron. The last thing Byron wanted was for her to notice if Nine made any loud comments. The guy was anything but discreet.

  Thankfully, Beast finished up with the last in his line and Byron began approaching him before Nine could say anything. “Dude, you’re gonna be here all night. That line outside is insane.”

  Beast shook his head then shrugged as he took a swig from his bottled water. “It’s for a good cause. I’ll save my complaining for when I have to do this all-day shit out of town, and I don’t even get to see my girls that night.”

  The girl’s laughter in one of the other lines now, had Nine turning in that direction though Byron kept his eyes on his brother. Nine chuckled under his breath but loud enough to have Beast turning to see what he was looking at. “Never any shortage of groupies at these things, uh?”

  Beast turned to Nine, his expression as soured up as Byron was fighting doing the same. “Those are all someone’s baby girls, you idiot.” Beast’s comment didn’t exactly make Byron feel better, but he was at least glad he’d confirmed what he’d first thought. “First year college students at ESU this fall. Had me signing things for their daddies’ and boyfriends.” Beast play jabbed Nine in the gut. “If my girls ever stood in a line this long to buy me something I’d be pissed if anyone mistook them for groupies.”

  Nine took the jab to his gut with a laugh. “What’s wrong with groupies? They’re some of my favorite people.”

  Finally easing up a bit, Byron smirked shaking his head. “Oh, Dee’s gonna hear about this.”

  “I’m just saying they’re people too,” Nine said to Beast with a grin, but turned to Byron looking more serious suddenly. “You better not say anything to her, ass.” He patted his fist to his chest. “This is man talk.”

  “Get outta here.” Beast nudged him as they all began to walk. “Your wife hears you sticking up for groupies and your ass will be down on your manly knees begging for forgiveness.”