Page 34 of Dear Future Husband (The Dearly Written #1)

As we entered the party of blue and gold, a few football players stampeded over to us. They tore Trey from me and Williams from his sulking into a herd of men, leaving me to admire the spectacle from the outside.

The conglomerate of men that unified in tackling, hugging, and fist bumping one another with massive smiles and roaring greetings was a sight to behold.

“Maybelle?” a lilting voice called me from behind.

I pivoted to see fiery, long, red hair, a bright smile, and lots of freckles. Before I could reply or confirm that I was Maybelle, the red hair and freckles had me pulled into a tight, spine-crippling embrace.

I couldn’t return the hug before she pulled away, still beaming with a familiar smile. “You probably don’t remember me! I was friends with your brother. My name is Penny Howell!” And again, I was pulled in for another squeeze that cleared the air from my chest.

A little flustered, I stumbled for a response as I broke myself free from her cinching arms. “H-hi. Uh, it’s good to meet you.” I had to shout in order to be heard over the football men, music, and if Penny couldn’t hear me, she didn’t show it. Her smile was unwavering.

“Hey, Penn!”

Williams left the football fold to sweep the girl off her feet, spinning her around and placing her back to the ground with a smacking kiss on her cheek.

That wide smile of hers twitched.

“Hi, Noah. I’m excited to watch you boys kick some booty this season!” Penny punctuated the statement with a very playful, very friend-worthy pat on the shoulder .

Williams, to his credit, caught on.

He stepped back and resorted to hugging me to his side.

Geez, these people are touchy.

“Did you re-introduce yourself to Maybelle here?” he asked.

Penny nodded. “Yes. I didn’t think she’d remember me from—uh… graduation night.” Suddenly the atmosphere between the three of us was thick, and I felt suffocated by it.

“Yeah, don’t take me not remembering you personally. I don’t remember much from that night—or any night before that,” I chopped out through a forced grin.

Penny’s attention whipped to me. “No way.”

I lifted and dropped my chin. “Yup.” I brought my finger to my temple, giving it a quick tap. “The doctor said it’s amnesia.”

Sadness passed over her still somewhat stable smile. “So, you don’t remember Liam?”

“Nope,” I replied, and probably too quickly with how Williams flinched, and Penny’s smile disintegrated.

I cleared my throat, searching for a way out of the conversation I just brutally murdered with the dull butter knife that was my wit. “Where’s Trey, Noah?”

Williams took a second to react before pointing past me to where I had spotted Bear grilling. “He’s over by the grills. Want me to walk you over there?”

I screamed “ No ” in my head but thankfully had the self-control to give him a respectable headshake. I walked myself over to the big, burly, bear of a man who flipped burgers like it was his calling in life.

“Hey Bear.”

“Hey, you. Enjoying the party?” he asked as he flipped a patty.

“It’s alright. Do you know where Trey is?”

He twisted. “He’s being held hostage over there.” He pointed with the spatula to a truck that Trey leaned against and next to him, tracing her fingers along his bicep, was a pretty, brunette cheerleader.

It was a strange feeling that burrowed and made a home for itself in the pit of my stomach. A feeling I couldn’t name, but a feeling I refused to let grow.

Strutting with all the confidence I didn’t feel, I approached Trey and the cheerleader. When he noticed me, he didn’t look guilty or shy away. He smiled at me like he was seeing me after a long time apart.

That feeling in my stomach became a little less weighty.

I parked myself on his side, facing the other girl. “Hey, handsome. Who’s this?”

His smile faltered as he shot a fast glimpse to the girl who stepped up closer to him. His mouth opened and closed for words, but the brunette beat him to it. “Oh my god, you’re actually real.”

I pinched my lips together, unsure of how I was supposed to respond to that. She didn’t give me a chance to before she said, “I’m Juliette. Trey’s friend.”

I slanted Trey a look. He was already grinning at me. Reaching down, he laced his fingers with mine. He brought my hand to his mouth and placed a kiss to my wrist. All while keeping his eyes locked with mine.

Juliette’s attention followed the touch before returning to Trey with a forced smile. “I’ll see you after the game.” She got up on her tiptoes, her chest pressing into his shoulder as she whispered, “Score a touchdown for me.” She winked at him and strutted off.

I needed a shower after that encounter—actually—after all the encounters tonight.

“Who’s she?” I asked again, eyes still on her retreating form.

Trey’s face quirked sideways at me. “Are you jealous, Mayhem?”

Oh, honey. Wrong time, wrong Mayhem .

“No.” I pulled my hand from his and folded my arms across my front. “Not jealous. Just confused.”

His brows furrowed. “Confused about what?”

He turned so only his shoulder leaned against the truck, facing me fully. It was difficult to stay focused with him all pretty in his jersey like this, which just seemed to bother me more.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Turner. I’m not in the mood.”

I pasted my back against the truck, my focus forward, with Trey in my peripheral.

“May, Juliette means nothing to me. I promise.”

When I didn’t respond, he lifted from the side of the truck to stand in front of me. I turned my gaze toward my feet, but he caught my chin between his forefinger and thumb, forcing me to meet his eyes.

“I promise,” he said again.

I didn’t trust myself to open my mouth and say the right things, so I only managed a sorry half nod.

“Come here,” he said, bringing me against him. I obeyed, allowing myself to be engulfed in his warm embrace.

“Maybelle!”

Trey didn’t let go of me as he peered back over his shoulder to see Penny trotting up to where we stood.

“Hey, sorry to interrupt you two, but you boys need to get going and us girls need to get some good seats,” she said as she tossed a red lock of hair over her shoulder.

Trey pulled back from me to give Penny a hug.

“Good to see you Penn. Take care of my Maybelle for me, please.” He winked at me, then joined the parade of blue and gold football players on their way to the locker rooms while Penny led me into the stadium to what she called “the best seats in the house”.

Right down the middle of the bleachers and directly behind the boys standing on the sidelines.

Penny talked through the whole first half of the game, telling me all about her good friend Daniel, whom I would have the privilege of meeting near the third quarter.

She spoke about how she did cheer but quit recently.

How she didn’t know what to do with her education and touched on her rocky relationship with her mom.

I listened, bobbing my head now and then to show I was listening. Then I had the worst thought cross my mind as I heard everything Penny had to say.

In one conversation, I knew more about Penelope Elizabeth Howell than I knew about Trey Turner—or myself, for that matter.

After halftime, she leaned over to me. “Are you thinking about coming to school here?”

I tied my fluff of curls into a knot on the top of my head. “I don’t know if I can. I got accepted before the accident, but I don’t know where I would live or how I would make it work.”

I winced as I watched Bear lay waste to a small lineman that was poorly paired against him on the line.

“Girl, live with me.”

I got whiplash from how fast my head spun to look and make sure I wasn’t being punked, but there, Penny sat, that big smile plastered to her lips.

She must’ve seen the disbelief etched into my face, because she said, “I’m serious.

We have two other girls in the apartment that keep to themselves, but we have an opening in my room.

You could totally live with me. I could even get you a job with me at the coffee shop I manage. Come on, it would be perfect!”

Again, the plot thickens .

“I appreciate that. Maybe I could get your number? Keep in touch about it?” I asked, suddenly overwhelmed with the possibilities.

Penny was gleaming as she pulled her phone out.

We exchanged numbers, and the night suddenly seemed so much better .

“Monedita,” a deep voice called out over the rampage of the crowd. It was Penny’s turn for a bit of whiplash as she twisted to the very tall, very dark, very, very handsome boy strapped in a leather jacket and black denim.

Penny leapt from her spot, right into his arms.

She broke the hug and gestured to me. “Daniel, this is Maybelle.”

Daniel’s black eyes pierced me with a look I couldn’t identify. There was sadness, there was happiness, and there was a lot of familiarity. This boy knew me. I stood, holding a hand to him, but he ignored it as he pulled me into his tight hold.

“It’s good to see you, Maybelle,” he said into my ear, and I easily held him back.

The scrimmage ended with the buzzer ringing through the field. Done with the stiff bleachers, I jumped to my feet. My new friends weren’t as eager to move. Daniel was holding Penny’s thigh while she clasped firmly to his arm, her head resting on his shoulder.

“I’m going to go find Trey and congratulate him. I’ll text you, Penny. It was good to meet you, Daniel!”

They waved me off, and I ran onto the field with the rest of the students, weaving through the crowd. I first found Larson, who had two girls under his arms. I skimmed by Bear, who was speaking to what looked like might be his grandparents.

After a long bout of searching, I finally found Williams, but no Trey.

“Hey, little Mason,” he called. “Follow me. I’ll help you find Turner.”

I followed him down the field, holding to the hem of his sweaty jersey so we wouldn’t get split up. When we broke through the crowd to the outskirts of the field, Williams and I both halted.

The sight before me had that unknown feeling coiling up in my gut again, festering into a dreadful heaviness as I watched my Trey kiss Juliette for all to see.