Page 37 of Dear Future Husband

He adjusted in the seat, making me notice a black notebook he held tightly between his firm hands.

“Am I hot? Or should I continue to avoid the mirrors?”

This obviously caught him off guard. Trey’s eyes widened, and then his head dropped between his shoulders as he shook with laughter. “Wow, you’re not the Maybelle I knew.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I pushed.

He leaned in close, showing off a straight, white, teasing grin. “I haven’t decided yet.”

I shrugged coolly. “Well, am I hot or not? I’m on the edge of my seat here.”

I wiggled in the bed, causing some of my blonde curls to fall forward. Trey’s eyes darted to the stray locks that now draped over my chest, forcing me to freeze. He leaned in closer, slightly pressed into my bed as he took one of my curls and wound it around his finger.

I watched his hand lift and tangle with the tuft of hair, all while holding my breath and surveying the dark,heated, green depths of his eyes.

I didn’t need him to answer me with words. I knew by the intensity in his eyes and the slight tremble of the curl in his hand.

I beamed at him before I whispered, “I’m drop-dead gorgeous, huh?”

16 Mayhem 2.0

Trey

She’s awake, she’s awake, she’s awake.

Those words were on a loop in my mind from when I got that call from my mom to when I sat and talked to Doctor Brown.

She doesn’t remember. She doesn’t remember. She doesn’t remember, had then droned on in my head until I stood in front of her.

I missed her, and that feeling almost had me falling to my knees in front of her when I entered that room. I wanted nothing more than for Maybelle to wake up so I could officially meet the girl from my journal.

In earlier years, I’d been interested—lured in by the beauty and sweetness of the girl that always remained out of reach. However, after that preview of her true nature in the last week before the accident and reading the precious journal that hadn’t left my side once in the last year…

I was fucking infatuated.

I walked into that room with only one fear. That my Maybelle would be gone. I was scared the girl I’d gotten to know so intimately would be so far hidden behind her walls that there would be nothing I could do to get herback.

I clung to the hope that when she woke up, I would be able to persuade her out of hiding like I had before. Finally convince her to stay, but with no memories—I dreaded that part of her was lost.

I was thankfully mistaken.

She was just as beautiful as I remembered, and those damned blue-green eyes ripped the oxygen clean from my lungs, making it almost impossible to communicate. The girl in that hospital bed was the words in my journal personified.

I thought I couldn’t get enough of her before, but now… I was in trouble.

Soon after Maybelle and I were done getting reacquainted, Mom came back into the room. She and I invited Maybelle to come home with us, stay with us for the night or however long she would like.

She agreed with a shrug.

While Dr. Brown wrapped up his final inspections, Mom ran to grab Maybelle some clothes from the house. As soon as she was back, she helped dress Maybelle in a pair of black sweats and one of her old blue tee shirts.

Per requirement of the hospital and the lack of muscle to keep her upright without assistance, we rolled Maybelle in a wheelchair out into the now sunbathed hospital parking lot.

For the next couple of weeks, Maybelle would require our help in moving around as she rebuilt the muscle and mobility in her limbs. A physical therapist would be visiting my mother’s home four times a week for the following few weeks to exercise and strengthen Maybelle to get her back on her feet.

Once we wheeled her out to Mom’s little Corolla, I bent down, wrapped an arm around Maybelle’s waist, lifted and worked to lower her into the passenger seat. I noticed the pink blush of her cheeks, my skin mirroring hers and heating up the back of my neck.

Before she could fully be seated in the car, Maybelle tripped over her useless feet, but it only took me a handful of the waistband of her sweats at the hip to pull her flush against me and have her stabilized again.