“Rewind that,” he said, and she turned to him with a wince.
“You really wanna hear that part again?”
Byron turned to her, his smile flattening. “Not the part about you being with him a week ago, Savannah. I never wanna hear you say something like that to me again.”
She stared at him, her eyes threatening to go all bright again, but when he didn’t smile, she didn’t either. Instead, she bit her bottom lip and nodded. He stared at her hard taking a deep breath because all kidding aside, the heated blood in his veins hadn’t completely settled. He needed this to be perfectly clear. Especially after today. This may’ve been a prank, and he’d let her slide despite what she’d put him through, but only because the prank had inadvertently served a purpose.
Before this stunt, he thought he’d been being petty about his constant niggling concerns. Given the way she acted in that set up video, clearly, she already knew what she was in for when it came to this kind of shit with him, and she seemed okay with it. But he needed to be sure.
“I wanna hear the part where you call me your boyfriend in the set up again.” He stared into her surprised eyes with a purpose. “Because I wasn’t sure before and your sister was right. That whole hanging out shit, did piss me off. So, I wanna be clear about this. Was that just for the camera, or is that what you consider me now? Because you introduced me to everyone in your family as your friend.”
Her troubled expression, followed by her pressing her lips together surprised him and just like that, his heartbeat sped up again. But she spoke up before he could question it. For all the giggling and smiling she’d been doing earlier, she looked almost anxious now. “That feels like a trick question, Byron.”
“Trick question?”
“Yeah.” She took a deep breath but glanced away as if she couldn’t look at him anymore. “I was so nervous when I was setting that video up. Taz kept messing up, and each time we had to do a retake I’d remind myself not to say boyfriend, but then it’d just come out that way. So, when we finally had a good one, I decided to just leave it in. I figured I could maybe edit it out later before you saw it, but then you asked to see it immediately.” She stopped and stared at him with that still troubled expression.
“Why?” he asked as the disappointment of what her explanation did to him seeped in. “Why would you edit it out?”
“Because. Oh my God, you’re so . . . “
Byron held his breath bracing himself for her to finish her comment. So over-the-top? So ridiculously demanding? So incapable of keeping his cool when it came to her and shit like this?
“So much more mature and put together than my eighteen-year-old freshman ass. You’ve said it yourself in more ways than one, that I’m so young and innocent which translates to young and dumb. Here you’ve already graduated from college, have your own apartment and are part owner of this place and I still can’t even decide on a major.” She shook her head looking away. “I could hardly believe you’d be interested in even hanging out with me. But after what happened with Taz, I was hopeful. Then we had the conversation where you confirmed you were fine with me focusing on school and that you didn’t have time for much anyway. So, I decided to leave well enough alone and despite things feeling like they were getting more serious, you started talking about the reality show happening, and how much busier you were going to get. I didn’t dare ask—”
“Didn’t dare ask?”
“Yes, because what if this was your way of warning me, you’d have even less time for anything serious?” She shook her head again frowning—something so unlike her. “After what happened at the gym way back, my mom asked me why I hadn’t told her I had a boyfriend. I said because you weren’t. It’d only been a week but after that day I was pretty sure things had progressed. She agreed but warned me that some men are just territorial, and to not confuse the two. Mostly, she urged me not to be afraid to talk openly.”
Byron pulled her to him again unwilling to keep from holding her anymore. She glanced up after what felt like her avoiding eye contact with him for too long. So, he made it a point to obviously search her eyes as she went on.
“My parents.” She looked right at him as her brows pinched. “They were sweethearts really early on. My mom was still in high school even. I’ve heard the stories many times. Basically, they could’ve just saved themselves a lot of heartache and time apart had they just been open about their feelings instead of just assuming things. My dad kept a lot from my mom because of his Jurassic sized pride and she assumed the worst.” She shook her head. “Anyway, every time we hear the stories Nena and I have always been quick to say we can’t believe they almost didn’t end up together because they were afraid to just talk—afraid to admit their real feelings. Now I totally get it. When you’re on the outside looking in, it’s so easy to believe asking a guy you’ve fallen so hard for to clarify what he’s really feeling for you is so simple, but when it happened to me it was terrifying.”
Byron peered into those beautiful but troubled eyes. “What were you afraid of?”
“What I just said. That I was being delusional. That a man like you couldn’t possibly be taking a silly college freshman like me seriously, and maybe you were just being territorial when you reacted to thinking you saw me with someone else. So, I figured I’d just enjoy this while it lasted, and hoped I wouldn’t be too devastated when you finally moved on.”
“Silly college freshman? Move on?” This time Byron shook his head and did the frowning. “Savannah, what are you talking about? I was pretty damn sure I’d been so fucking transparent from day one.” Determined to just be completely honest now despite the risk, he went on before she could respond. “Look, you know I haven’t had a girlfriend since I was fifteen. But—”
“Tell me about her,” she said searching his eyes. “You’ve mentioned Lizette before, but the subject always felt so off limits. Can you share now?”
Without thought or understanding of why, his breath hitched as he stared at her, heart pounding madly.
Twenty-Six
Exhale the Past Inhale the future.
Vannah
Strangely, her heartbeat even more erratically now than when she’d been pulling the prank on him. At least then she knew what to expect. She knew he’d be livid, and she knew exactly why. But she didn’t know what to make of his deadpan expression now. Was he upset? Was this too personal of a subject for her to be asking about, even after over two months of them seeing each other?
Staring into his eyes she squeezed his forearm. “I’m sorry you don’t have to—”
“I’d known her most my life,” he said before she could finish. “We went to the same grade school. At fourteen she was my first kiss ever and at fifteen she became my first everything else. We were probably way too young. But I’d gone over to her house like I’d often done when she was babysitting her younger sisters and like we’d been doing for weeks, once her sisters fell asleep, we started making out and it just happened.”
Swallowing hard, Vannah listened, squelching back the unreasonable jealousy. This was over ten years ago and the girl he spoke of was dead now. Even so, judging by the still pained expression, unarguably this girl had meant a lot to him.