Page 10 of Dear Future Husband (The Dearly Written #1)

Maybelle

It took a while, but once Liam finished taking pictures with his never-ending line of fans, we left the building. Mom, Liam and I piled into the car and headed to our favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant to celebrate.

This specific family-owned restaurant was a preferred spot for us. It was the first place we stopped for food as a family of three during our long move to San Francisco.

It was owned by an older couple, Mr. and Mrs. Fernandez, but their son, Xavier, managed it. The older couple doted on us twins. They spoiled Liam and me like we were their own grandchildren with homemade gifts and treats.

But their son, Xavier, only had eyes for our mom. He was constantly giving her free sides of her favorite sopapillas. He’d wink at her from across the dining room, and gift her dinner special coupons, saying things like, “Maybe I could see you again this week? You’d get free food and company.”

I always thought it was his way of asking our mom out discreetly.

Coming across as politeness or flirting, depending on how mom saw it.

Mom usually determined his efforts as platonic gestures.

Even after years of them playing this will they or won’t they game, Xavier still made moves while mom blushed, but always played it off as a friendship.

I expected tonight would be no different as Xavier strolled up to our table. He wasn’t dressed in his usual work uniform but in a fitted black tee, and dark jeans. His hair was combed back, showing off the peppered white through his jet-black straight hair.

“How’s it going, my favorite family?” he greeted, and I watched my mother beam.

“Xavier! We’re good. Just celebrating. May and I graduated high school tonight,” Liam boasted, leaning back in his ornately carved wooden chair.

Xavier brought his hands to his hair as he said, “Shut up. Feels like yesterday you kids were in here scared to death about starting your first day at a new school.”

Liam snickered while Mom hummed in agreement. “They’re growing up so darn fast, I can’t keep up.”

Xavier shuffled himself so he stood just behind Mom’s chair as he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“It’s crazy how fast they grow up. My Sofia just entered her bachelor’s program for engineering.

I still don’t understand how she went from playing with dolls to being such an incredible woman in the blink of an eye,” he said, as his thumb mindlessly swiped back and forth at Mom’s bare shoulder.

I had to swallow the giggle that bubbled at the sight of my mom’s deep blush.

Xavier was a proud, single dad of his daughter, Sofia.

His wife, Sofia’s mom, had passed over ten years ago.

I eavesdropped on Xavier confiding in my mom about it during a slow dinner hour.

The two bonded over being two single parents who lost the first loves of their lives to devastating circumstances.

I could only imagine how it must’ve felt for my mom, Xavier, and even Sofia to lose the people they loved so deeply and remember it all so vividly .

“Are you working tonight, Xavier, or are you headed out?” Liam asked, oblivious to the situation unfolding between Mom and Xavier.

Mom peered back up at Xavier, a small smile on her lips while he looked down at her, grinning. “My parents need help putting up a couple of new paintings they bought at an auction. I’m clocking out early tonight to go over and help them.”

“Oh, but who’s going to make me my Arnold Palmer? You always mix it so perfectly.” Mom said, her smile taking over her entire face and crinkling at her sea foam-colored eyes.

Xavier snickered, then leaned in close to Mom’s ear. “Don’t worry, love, I already made it. Anna, the new hire, should bring it out with your food any minute now.”

Again, her blush was undeniably red. Even Liam slid me a conspiratorial glance, now noticing the tension-heavy moment.

“I was thinking,” Xavier said. Still snuggled up close to

Mom while Liam and I watched with glee-filled expressions. “Maybe tomorrow if you’re not too busy with these crazy kids, you might want to go out with me? Possibly let me buy you a drink or two?”

This was the most forward he’d ever been with her. He was always so cautious—respectful. No matter how many times she turned him down to grab coffee or a quick lunch while us kids were at school.

I knew why Mom declined his offers. Before—with Richard—she had rushed into the relationship too fast, too easily and reaped the consequences.

We all had.

So, she played this thing between her and Xavier with so much wariness there was no room for anything to happen. Years passed since the nightmare had ended. Since we escaped safely and years of learning that Xavier was a good man .

I could see the denial cooking up on my mother’s lips, so I answered before she could, “She’d love to! Liam and I will both be out, so it’ll be perfect.”

All eyes landed on me.

Liam slanted me a crooked stare because I never had plans out, especially with him. Xavier was most likely just shocked to hear me speak at all, let alone quip in the middle of their conversation.

Mom’s attention on me was soft, grateful, because we both knew what my intervention meant. That I was okay, that I found a way over the past (at least in this aspect) and was giving her the permission to do the same.

She turned to Liam then, who nodded, giving his support as well.

Mom kept a thankful smile geared towards me and Liam as she said, “Well then, I guess I’m free. What time do you want to pick me up?”

Xavier’s wide brown eyes glimmered as he said, “Does seven work for you?”

Mom finally turned her smile back up at him. “Perfect, it’s a date.”

Xavier kissed mom’s cheek, winked at me and bid our family farewell before sauntering out of the restaurant.

We laughed through the rest of dinner, reminisced on the happy moments. Mom gushed over Liam, and his performance at graduation. Liam raved about his upcoming season as a college athlete. I watched my mom, the smile on her lips as she sipped on her perfectly mixed iced tea and lemonade.

***

Liam claimed shotgun in the car while I dutifully took the back seat.

“So, I will pick you both up in the morning?” Mom clarified as we set off in the car toward our final destination of the eventful day. Liam shook his head while he sipped on a to-go cup of soda from dinner.

Between slurps he said, “No, sleep in. You need to get all the beauty sleep to be ready for your big date tomorrow,” he teased. “And Trey said he’d give us a ride home.”

Mom side-eyed him. “And your friend won’t be drinking tonight?”

He chuffed. “He promised his mom he wouldn’t drink. That’s why he offered to be the DD.”

Mom nodded. “You wouldn’t happen to make me the same promise, would ya?”

Liam didn’t hesitate. “I love you, but no.”

Stephanie Mason was what most would consider as the “cool mom”. She wasn’t na?ve to the fact that there would be graduates, including her own, drinking at this party. Regardless of certain laws and her own advisement.

But the stance she liked to take was, “You’re an adult, you can make your own choices. I’m not here to control you. But don’t come crying to me when the consequences of your actions bite you in the butt.”

“Okay, okay,” Mom sighed. “Please don’t hesitate to call me if plans change, though. I don’t think my little mom heart will let me sleep in, let alone sleep at all while my babies are out all night.”

During their conversation, I squirmed uncomfortably in the back seat. I couldn’t deny the sinking feeling I got that something bad could happen tonight.

What if I ran into Clayton alone? What if I embarrassed myself in front of Trey again.

Or what if I was walking down the beach all alone when a sink hole suddenly appeared, swallowing me whole?

Nobody would witness the earth eating me.

I would only be reported missing. And when they couldn’t find me after a few hours of searching, everyone would forget I ever existed by the end of the week—if that.

“I think I’m going to stay home with you tonight, Mom,” I confessed.

She glanced at me in the rear-view mirror. “Excuse me? No, you have to go. It’s graduation night.”

Liam twisted in his seat to face me. “Why don’t you want to come?”

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could, feigning indifference. “I don’t know. I don’t have anyone to hang out with there. I’d have a lot more fun watching a movie at home with Mom or reading a book.”

Liam shook his head, dishevelling his curly blonde hair. “You aren’t skipping out tonight, and you won’t be alone. I’ll be with you.” Missing my apparent scepticism of that vow, Liam continued, “You didn’t go to prom. You can’t bail on this too. You’ll regret it.”

I stared back at him; I couldn’t argue because he had a point.

I didn’t go to prom, and I regretted it.

Granted, nobody asked me to be their date for it, but I could’ve gone alone.

Girls did that all the time. I could’ve too.

I needed to stop letting my anxieties control my life.

And how better to do that than attend a party I’d most likely end up looking stupid and lonely at?

“Fine. Fuck it,” I said blandly.

Mom looked back at me, flabbergasted, while Liam roared with laughter.

Few minutes later, we pulled up to the dark beach lit only by the full moon and a bonfire surrounded by kids.

Liam jumped from the car, still dressed in his white button up, and black slacks. He left his tie behind on the passenger seat.

“Thanks, Mom! See you tomorrow!” He shut his door and, without a second thought, followed two girls to the party around the fire, abandoning his role as my companion a lot faster than I anticipated he would. I groaned as I dropped my head against my seat.

Mom twisted to face me, giving me a sympathetic smirk. “Come on, Lovebug. Be brave, be confident and have fun. Go find Trey. I bet he’d stay with you,” she said in a motherly voice but followed it with a teasing wink.

I half-heartedly rolled my eyes but lost all the amusement as I fidgeted with my hands. “Please don’t make me go out there, Mom.”

Her smile was gentle as she unbuckled her belt to face where I sat in the back seat of the car. “What’s going on?”

I shrugged, but that didn’t deter her. “No, don’t shut me out. Talk to me.”

Heaving a deep sigh, I made myself look my mother in her pale green eyes. “I don’t know. I just can’t shake the feeling that something bad might happen tonight.”

Nodding, she got a faraway look in her eyes. It was a look I’d seen many times from her. It was the look she had when she donned her therapist cap.

When she was here to comfort me, be my friend and greatest ally, it was obvious. The shift from consoling mother to therapist was transparent. She knew the difference and held the boundaries between the two roles until moments like this.

I didn’t mind it.

I welcomed it. If I wanted, I could tell her I needed my mom to hold me and not the facts of a therapist to teach me. But I cherished the insight her mind was constantly racing with.

“You’ve experienced years of instability, years of chaos, and years of fear.

Feeling anxious treading outside the lines of the safe zone you created for yourself is natural and it is terrifying.

” She reached into the back of the car to take my hand as she continued, “If anyone understands that more, it’s me.

I mean, you, my daughter, had to accept a date for me tonight because I was too scared to do it. ”

I eyed my mother then, seeing her in a whole new light. “You were scared? I thought… I thought you kept denying Xavier because of Liam and me. I—I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to—”

She squeezed my hand. “Do not be sorry. Of course I’m scared.

Richard—he hurt me enough that I’ve been terrified to trust anyone ever again, and it did have to do with you and Liam, too.

I’m scared to fail you both again. I’m constantly wrestling with the fear that my choices will hurt my babies.

And I’ll have to just sit and watch, hating myself all over again. ”

She paused with that, letting her thumb caress the knuckles of my hand.

“We’re all scared. That’s what trauma does.

It shackles us. Constantly reminds us of what horrid things can happen if we put ourselves out there.

It scares us away from opening our hearts up or making ourselves vulnerable in any way. ”

A single tear slipped down her cheek as she gave me a watery smile. “It’s hard and may even seem impossible, but we have to live again, despite the fear, and it all starts with a leap.”

She looked out the window at the crowd of graduates making their way to the center of the party. I followed her gaze, feeling that pit in my stomach hollow out as I pictured myself amidst the group.

When Mom’s focus returned to me, it took on a light, teasing air.

“And since you shoved me right out of my comfort zone earlier tonight, it’s only fair I do the same for you.

Get out there, make some memories. Give it a couple of hours.

If it isn’t going well, I will happily race right back here to get you. ”

My expression must’ve betrayed the unease I was tackling in my heart because she nearly fell into the back seat. She pulled me to her in a spine-crippling hug.

“You are Maybelle Mason, and you can do hard things,” she whispered in my ear, and I hugged her back.

Kissing my mother’s cheek, I pulled away. “I love you. I’ll see you later.”

Then I was leaping , exiting the car and making the terribly lonely walk down to the beach.