If Byron’s head had jerked any more violently to face her big doe eyed expression, he might be wearing a neck brace for the next few weeks.
Seventeen
The Twins
Vannah
If a slap could describe a facial expression, Vannah was certain her face would be stinging hot from Byron’s. But it was true. Her father really was a sweetheart. Sure, he and her brothers could be a bit overbearing and over-the-top at times, but they meant well and would never do anything that might upset her or Nena. If he’d said anything that might upset Byron that would certainly warrant Vannah getting upset. So, whatever it is he’d said to him shouldn’t justify this kind of reaction from Byron, right?
Still wincing she sunk her teeth into her bottom lip. “What did he say to you?”
To her surprise, he actually smirked as he exhaled loudly and pulled out of the parking space. “What any dad would say to a guy they just met who’s dating their baby girl.”
“And what would that be?”
“Basically, if I hurt you, he hurts me.” Vannah gasped and Byron turned to look at her before pulling onto the street and shrugged. “It’s a fair warning, babe. I’d do the same. Just took me by surprise, is all. Guess there’s a first time for everything and since I’ve never actually met any other chick’s dad, or entire family for that matter, I didn’t see that coming.”
Feeling her face heat, Vannah laughed nervously. “Well, you gotta know it’s just an expression. He wouldn’t actually hurt—”
“The hell he wouldn’t.” Glad he was still smirking even though his tone was as adamant as her dads could get. “I don’t doubt for a second if I hurt you; he’ll hunt my ass down.” He turned to her the smirk softening into a smile. “Good thing the odds of that happening are zilch.” Turning back to the road he added. “Especially since we’re just having fun, right?”
She cleared her throat sitting up straight, glad now for her choice in words when answering her dad’s inquiry tonight. Not only had this poor guy been cornered into having dinner with her entire family less than a week after their first kiss, but he’d also just admitted it’s something he’d never done. Likely because meeting, having dinner and being threatened by the little freshman’s daddy was the last thing he’d expected he’d be dealing with this soon, if ever.
“Yeah, uh . . .” She pulled a strand of hair behind her ear as she glanced out the window. “My parents tend to jump the gun a bit. I told you they can be very overprotective.”
“Duly noted.” He turned to her as they came to a stop. “You okay with hanging out at my place or you feel like going somewhere else?”
She smiled feeling the butterflies inside begin to swarm. “Your place is fine.”
As soon as they were out of his car, Byron came around it, took her hand, pulled her to him and nearly took her legs out with a knee weaking kiss. How in the world could someone be so good at this?
Practically in a daze when he finally pulled away and took her face in his hands, Vannah inhaled deeply gazing into those probing eyes. “How many friends do you do this with, Savannah?”
Feeling her eyes widen, her mind was suddenly racing. Was this a trick question? Would it freak him out if she told him the truth? That she’d never even been kissed by a man. Boys yes, back in high school but that didn’t even compare.
“I, uh.” She cleared her throat willing the right answer to come to her as his hardening eyes searched hers. “None. L-like I told my parents. I’ve been focusing on school and I’ve been swamped with homework so—”
“Look, I don’t have an issue with you wanting to focus on school.” He pressed his lips together for a moment. “It’s what you should be doing. But there’s no point in me trying to hide it anymore so I wanna get this straight right now. Clearly, I will have issue with seeing you doing this with any of your other friends.” Despite making an effort not to, her eyes widened at his outright admission. “Don’t get me wrong,” he added quickly, the resolute tone softening a bit. “I’m all for us just having fun. I stay really busy anyway. This past week was a perfect example of that. The only downtime I had I spent talking and video chatting with you. It’s just that . . .” For the first time since he’d begun to address this, he glanced away looking a little . . . unsure? Bringing his eyes back to her, he took a deep breath. “It . . . it wasn’t a good feeling, okay? I know it’s only been a week and I’m not even sure how to explain it but—”
“I get it,” Vannah finally jumped in to let him off the hook. “The text you sent yesterday.” She swallowed hard willing away the emotion she felt every time she remembered. “About your overnight date this week stung a little.”—Laughable understatement if one had ever been uttered— “Especially after hearing you say you missed me too.”
He wrapped his arms around her embracing her firmly. “I’m sorry about that. But it was only because of what I thought I’d seen.”
After explaining further that since hearing about her other friends then thinking it was her he’d seen, he just assumed she’d easily found a replacement for lunch. They started into the shop and up to his apartment. But the subject wasn’t dropped. Despite his making it clear that he wasn’t okay with others in the mix and that he’d return the favor, Vannah would be mindful of the fact that he’d once again reiterated that he didn’t have time for more than having fun. But she was too far gone now to have the power to pull back. As long as she didn’t have to hear about or see him with anyone else while they were having fun, she could live with this arrangement.
As soon as they were in the kitchen, Byron pulled her to him again and shook his head, his expression softening to a smirk. “Seriously, isn’t telling someone your sister is your identical twin one of the first things you do when you get to know them?” Vannah winced in remorse hoping he’d understand and not think her petty. “I mean you spoke of your sister enough this past week, isn’t revealing she’s your twin seem like something pertinent you would’ve mentioned.”
Taking a deep breath, Vannah decided it was time to explain. “I always have. It was only when Nena announced that she was skipping out on her first semester of college that I decided maybe it wouldn’t be the first thing I’d reveal about myself to everyone I met here. My whole life I’ve been one half of The Twins. Anytime someone asks about us or refers to us it’s always, how are The Twins? Will The Twins be there? Not Nena or Vannah or even Sienna or Savannah. Nena loves blowing people’s minds by telling them she has a sister who looks exactly like her, but then she’s always been the outgoing more interesting one.”
“Who said that?” he asked with a frown.
“Well, not in all those words. But I know what the quieter, more timid, brainier one translates into.”
“You know what’s crazy?” He peered down at her. “Even before I knew you had a twin and I saw your sister at the gym, I thought my mind was playing games on me because I knew something was off. You have the same laugh but it’s still different somehow.”
“Let me guess,” Vannah said refraining from rolling her eyes. “Hers is sexy while mine is sweet. It wouldn’t be the first time I heard that. Which of those two words is the more alluring?”
“Hands down sweet,” he said immediately. “Your sweet laugh is the first thing I noticed about you at my brothers signing. It’s what first caught my attention before you completely sucked me in that first week when I couldn’t get enough of talking to you—couldn’t stop thinking of what kissing you did to me—and I’ll tell you what else. Don’t tell your sister this but, it’s the only times I was almost turned off even when I thought it was you doing the laughing. Not that there’s anything wrong with her laugh.” He smiled that beautiful smile she’d been struck by from that first day, then leaned in and kissed her softly before adding. “It just didn’t even come close to doing to me what yours did from the moment I first heard it.”
Vannah wondered if she’d ever get used to how easily he could make her heart wallop. But she was begin
ning to not even care about breathing in so whimsically whenever he did. That only made him smile bigger.
“No one’s ever been rude about it or anything whenever the subject of our differences comes up. And trust me Nena would be the first to start swinging if she thought someone might be saying something to hurt my feelings.”
He laughed at that. “I guess it runs in the family.”
“Oh, don’t get me started.” She shook her head as he leaned in and kissed her forehead. “I guess after eighteen years of hearing the comparison’s and her getting all the exciting references it not only got old, I began hiding behind her personality. She is by far the most outspoken, I felt like I was literally in her shadow all the time. It also felt good to be able to mention having a sister without all the usual inquiries I get when I mention we’re twins. It’s like whatever topic I might’ve been talking about goes right out the window because that part of my identity is clearly far more intriguing than anything else about me.”
“That’s bullshit. People are just nosey.” He kissed her sweetly and Vannah smiled loving that it seemed he couldn’t go very long without doing so. “I’m proof, you’re absolutely captivating. This whole week I hung on your every word and had no clue you had a twin.”
Smiling big because it just couldn’t be helped, Vannah shrugged. “Well, it’s just how it’s always felt. So, I thought it’d be an interesting experiment to not have that part of my life be the first thing I told people about myself for once.” She had to laugh now. “Guess it sort of backfired on me, didn’t it?”
His eyes went wide but he smirked holding her a little tighter. “You think?”
“Oopsie?”
“Given the alternate and infuriating impression I was under most the day yesterday and again this morning.” He groaned burying his face in her neck. “You’re so fucking forgiven. But hey.” He glanced up at her. “Being that I know a whole lot about everything else about you now, do I get to ask all the curious questions about being a twin?”
Vannah smiled tilting her head. “I’ll tell you without you having to ask because I pretty much have them memorized. No, we don’t have telepathy. We know each other so well we can easily tell when the other is upset or something. But we can’t read each other’s thoughts. No, we don’t feel when the other one gets hurt physically. Yes, we’ve switched places to trick people when we were younger but only people who didn’t know us very well fell for it because I’d always blow it since I’m nowhere near as outgoing as her.”
He held up a hand his smile flattening now. “You keep saying she’s the more outgoing. What’s your definition of outgoing? Because my first impression of you was hardly that of someone who wasn’t outgoing. Quite the opposite actually. Each time I saw you, you were surrounded by friends laughing and chatting and very obviously enjoying your time with them.”
Vannah stopped to ponder that. “Maybe outgoing is the wrong word. Maybe far more brazen or blunt are more appropriate words. It’s just if either of us were in a situation where say someone is obviously stretching the truth or embellishing for the sake of bragging or even being rude to someone else in front of us, I’d likely bite my tongue and just let it go if it didn’t concern me.” She shook her head and chuckled. “Not Nena. She’ll straight out call you out on it.”
“Hold up,” Byron chuckled shaking his head. “I’m calling bullshit on that too. Frat Row Friday? I seem to recall a certain tiny little thing, in three-inch heels no less, bulldozing her way toward me like she was ready to go to blows. And bite your tongue, my ass. You let me have it.”
Dropping her head back with a laugh, Vannah shook it. “That’s different. That did concern me. I’d been looking everywhere for my dangerously inebriated friend and then someone tells me some horndog who looked like he wanted in her pants bad, had just walked out with her. Then I see you trying to get her in your car. How was I supposed to react?”
Wrapping his arms around her again firmly, Byron groaned letting his head fall back now. “As pissed as I was at first about the accusation, in hindsight even that was hot as fuck. The way you charged to her rescue with a purpose.”
Shrugging, Vannah had to smile at him gazing down at her. “She would’ve done the same for me.”
He pecked her as he continued to peer at her. “I still have more questions. You still have more answers?”
Taking a deep breath, she went on. “We stopped dressing alike in grade school. Yes, we’ve been known to finish each other’s sentences but not all the time. Despite my experiment about not telling everyone I’m a twin first thing, I do like being a twin. I wouldn’t have it any other way. This was just me wanting to try something new for a change. And even though my sister is the more brazen and I the more timid of the two, there is no evil one.” Vannah giggled in spite of what she just said. “She can be when she wants to be, but I suppose anyone can be. Only in a fun way, not a mean way.”
“I didn’t know there was a fun way to be evil.”
“Sure, there is.” She smiled big. “Like when you tease someone over something silly to embarrass them. Or like the times we tried tricking people into thinking we were the other. That was always her idea.”
“Anything else?”
Vannah thought about it for a moment. That was pretty much all the things most people asked them when they first got to know them. Then she remembered. “Oh, well if you’d ask Nena, she’d say I’m the smarter one. But don’t let her fool you. The girl’s brilliant, I’m just the better student. It’s why I was always labeled the brainier one. Yet, we always got the same grades which if you think about it. That probably makes her the smarter one. I was forever reading, studying and meticulously preparing for tests while she usually just winged it and the outcome was always pretty much the same.”
“Just means you’re more organized and like to be prepared, not that she’s smarter.” He sprinkled kisses at the corner of her lips, down her chin until he gently sucked her neck for a second making her entire body tingle, before coming back up. “You probably would’ve done just fine if you’d winged it too.”
They moved things to the sofa in his small front room. He took a seat first pulling her down over him as he lay back until she was lying over his big hard body. “That it?” he asked as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled a strand of her hair out of her face with his other hand. “Because I’m curious about something else still.”
Tilting her head, Vannah thought about it. “That’s about all the usual stuff people want to know.”
“Seriously? Mostly about your differences? I mean I get it. Most people think twins and instantly they think, polar opposites. I’m curious about what you two have in common. Despite your differences I’m sure you have a lot in common.”
Even this made her heart swell. Most people focused on the questions to answers that might help them tell them apart. “Well, we both like to cook. But then that goes with the territory. Our family owns multiple restaurants.”
“Multiple? Did not know that. You made it sound like your family owned a restaurant. We’ll get back that, go on.”
“We’re both well . . .” She paused feeling a little guilty. “Up until I left for school, we were both really into our YouTube channel.”
“Yeah, I was surprised you hadn’t mentioned that before.”
“Because I knew you’d ask for the name or link and then you’d find out I had a twin. I figured once you knew I’d tell you about it.”
“What’s it called?” Wincing, Vannah couldn’t help giggling against his chest. “What?” he asked sounding even more curious now.
Bringing her head up she chewed the corner of her bottom lip. “We started it in high school, and she chose the name so . . .”
“So what?” He peered at her with a smirk.
“Sizzling Sisters.” She laughed outright. “But it’s a play on words,” she added quickly. “We originally planned on it being all about cooking, so the sizzle was about the cooking not us being sizz
ling. And at first it was, until we started getting more into fashion and makeup and then we started doing hair and makeup tutorials. We could’ve changed the name. Still can, but the links are all over the place now with that name, so we never did.”
Those smoldering eyes bore into hers. “Guess you can say the name still works.” He must’ve misunderstood her reaction, because of her inability to take a compliment like a normal person to mean something else, since he was quick to add. “I mean not that I was checking out your sister, in fact I could hardly look her in the eyes after what happened today, but you are identical twins and you’re sizzling as hell.”
“I would never think that.”
“That you’re sizzling?” he asked looking so incredulous she had to laugh in spite of her inability to just accept a compliment with ease.
“No.” She shook her head. “That you’d be checking out my sister.”
“Good, ‘cause I never would.” He smirked. “Get the feeling she’d call me out on it right quick.”
“She would,” Vannah laughed.
He chuckled nodding as if he had no doubt. “So, you do cooking and fashion tutorials?”
“We do a lot of everything now, anything that might pick us up more followers.”
Vannah explained more about how it worked. They were actually making money now from the sponsors that reached out to them to advertise on their channel. How the channel was part of the reason Nena decided to put off college for the first semester. “She’s still undecided about whether she’d rather not go to a trade school instead and learn more about film and editing and possibly take that route instead of a traditional career. We also post commercials about the restaurants and even film there often when we have some kind of promotion going on.”
“I still think you should stick with a career in the culinary world.”
Before she could respond, he kissed her deep, and it went on for a long time. Squirming as her entire body trembled in response, Vannah would never get enough of his kisses. A phone ringing in the other room barely registered and neither moved to acknowledge it. Until it started up again and Vannah had to pull away. “That might be my parents,” she said ruefully as she pushed herself up and away from him. “They’re the only ones who’d call back-to-back like that.”
Not Even Close (A New Generation) Page 17