“Sorry, I gotta take this.” Byron nodded bracing himself as he continued to drive. “Gordo, what’s up?”
Gripping the steering wheel a little tighter, Byron pretended not to eavesdrop. Which was stupid because unless she started whispering really low, there was no way he wouldn’t hear every word she was saying.
“This week? What day?”
Byron could hear the guy’s voice on the other end just couldn’t make out what he was saying. Already the mental lecture was starting up again. He refused to blow this, no matter how tempted he knew he’d be to hear about the plans she was clearly making with this dude whose call she had to take while she was out with Byron.
“Okay, well let me know. I’m sure I can tweak my schedule. I do have school, but I’ll figure it out. Anything for you.”
She had two brothers. Byron rationalized in his head. She’d just told him so. This could be as innocent as that. No need to get all worked up about hearing her talk so syrupy sweet to another dude while on a fucking date with Byron—and he wouldn’t. Even if she didn’t bother to explain.
“Okay, I’ll talk to you then. Miss you. Love you, too.” Byron had just turned to her nonverbally—because it’d be the only way he’d do it—demanding an explanation. “My brother.”
Everything she said after those first two words were a bit of a blur. Byron was too busy chastising himself about how easily he could lose his cool over this girl he still knew so little about. Her brother was going to be in town in the next week, but Byron couldn’t even say for what or how long. It’s how mentally distracted he’d been by the alarm of how inept he was at keeping his shit together when it came to this.
“Speaking of brothers,” she paused from her comments about hers. “How’s it feel to have such a famous one?”
“Pretty cool.” He turned to her feeling the tension that’d built way too fast drain slowly. “I actually didn’t even know I had a brother until I was sixteen.” He almost didn’t add the next part, but it couldn’t be helped. “Did you know that?”
As expected, seeing her face flush was enough to have him smiling and helped defuse his earlier concerns. Curse his inherited short fuse. He could do this, damn it.
“No, I didn’t,” she said biting her lower lip.
Keeping to himself about his other brother, so they could keep the conversation on the positive, he stuck with telling her about Beast instead.
“It’s a long story—”
“We have time.” She sat up straighter turning her body to him. “And this sounds interesting. If . . .” She paused suddenly. “If it’s not too personal that is.”
Well, maybe he would have to tell her more than he’d initially intended. But she looked so sweet and bright eyed, how could he refuse?
“No, not too personal. Just long and convoluted. I’ll give you the short version. Basically, our mom married into trouble. She said she had no idea he was even involved in the Mexican cartel until after they married, and my brother was born. She knew his family members were involved in some shady shit when she first fell in love with him, because he’d let her in on that much. But she had no idea it was as bad as the cartel. By the time she knew the whole truth, leaving him or divorce was out of the question. Only way she’d be allowed to leave was without my brother and that wasn’t happening. She eventually did finally manage to leave with my brother and disappeared for many years until her husband hunted her down and punished her.”
Byron frowned looking out the window as he remembered the vague stories his mother told him to protect him from the harshness, but he knew the reality. It wasn’t hard to decipher what little his mother had been willing to share about what she’d gone through but needed him to know for his own protection.
Deciding he didn’t want to kill the mood, Byron gave Vannah a watered-down version of the rest. She listened intently even if the watered-down version was pretty fucking gruesome. But he left out that as the years passed, Byron was convinced the only thing he’d gotten from his piece-of-shit excuse of a dad was his short fuse.
“Ultimately we were reunited with my brother. It’s when Beast confirmed that not only was our father gone for good, Beast had killed him himself. We were finally free to live out and about in the open, without the fear of being hunted down.”
Deciding this was as much as she needed to know about this, for now anyway, he changed the subject. He offered to go through a drive thru and grab something to eat but she reminded him she’d brought snacks. “I made quesadillas and salsa. More than I initially anticipated so I think we should be fine. But we can get drinks because I didn’t bring anything.”
They grabbed a couple of sodas through a drive thru and headed to the beach. Pulling into the parking lot of the beach. Once he pulled out the blanket from his trunk, Byron instantly took her hand the moment he was close enough. Like it was something they’d been doing forever, he smiled leaning in and pecked her again.
Grunion weren’t running yet but they started through the sand toward the shore. Vannah winced as they got closer to the shore. “I’m good with watching them from here.” Byron turned to her in time to see her wince. “I’ve never liked getting close enough to where they might actually touch me.”
Chuckling, he dropped the blanket right where they were. “Just like my niece Elsa. She makes those faces too. Lucy on the other hand,” he said as they spread the blanket out. “And she’s the younger one, is the braver one. She actually wants to catch them.”
“Oh, no. They’re so slithery. I’m good at this distance.”
“Then here, it is.”
They sat down on the blanket and leaned in to kiss her just couldn’t be helped. It was long and deep and before he knew it, they were lying down on the blanket as the marathon kissing continued. Feeling his heart speed up, Byron’s head raced with panicked thoughts. He hardly knew her and somehow, he already knew, he might be in trouble. He’d had his share of girls he just made out with and even slept with but nothing more. This just didn’t feel like that. There was something too sweet about her. Something that felt too innocent. There was no way she could be one of those girls that would be okay with that kind of relationship.
Afraid of giving into the temptation of bringing up the subject of her friends again, he steered clear of it. Once they came up for air he went with another topic. He talked about their evening and how he’d brought out his nieces a few times for this. “Those two have me wrapped around their little fingers.”
She smiled sitting up and crossed her legs as she licked her lips. “My uncles and aunt have always spoiled me and my siblings as well. My mom says we were probably more spoiled than my cousins since my dad was the first of his siblings to start a family.”
Hoping she’d eventually lie down again, Byron stayed in that position, but sat up just slightly leaning against his elbow. “That’s probably the same thing with me,” he said playing with her fingers. “Though, technically Nine was the first to bring a kid around us with his stepdaughter. A little different but I spoil her too.”
“Nine?”
“One of the other owners of the shop,” he explained. “One of the other guys I refer to as my brothers. His kids call me uncle too.”