Page 50 of Dear Future Husband (The Dearly Written #1)

Instead, I slid a quick glance to Sam. I expected him to look sad, maybe, but the sweet boy hadn’t noticed the conversation shift. He was safely off in another world called YouTube, watching an informative video on the camels of Egypt.

Unwilling to waste one more second, I stood, rounding the table to accept Trey’s hand. “Let’s go.”

“Trey!” Juliette whined at our retreating backs, but he paid her zero attention.

He led me out to the floor, our steps quick as he spun me back to him and placed his hands on my hips. My hands laced around his neck in response, and we swayed to the beat along with the rest of the couples.

He leaned into me, his lips brushing past my ear. “You look incredible tonight, May.”

My anxieties were instantly forgotten. I blushed. No, I burned red hot as Trey pulled back from me and smiled a smile that threatened to melt me completely.

I stood up on my tiptoes then, letting my lips brush his ear. My belly celebrated when he shuddered at the touch. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

He laughed then; his eyes gleaming.

“What so funny?” I asked.

He shook his head, his shoulders still moving with the choppiness of his mirth. “I don’t know why I ever told you that you weren’t the Maybelle I knew when you first woke up. You’ve always been the same. I just didn’t see it before.”

I quirked a curious brow at him. “Is that a good thing?” I asked, mimicking the exchange we’d had in that hospital room only moments after we met.

So much had changed since then .

I changed so much since then.

Trey was gentle as he pressed me into his chest. “Yes.”

His gaze trailed back to the table. I didn’t follow his attention. I knew where he looked as he sighed. “I’m sorry for what she said to you.”

I didn’t respond right away. I let my focus fall on some random balloon floating on the opposite side of the building. Yeah, that sucked, but Juliette’s remarks regarding me weren’t the thought that pin-pricked my mind. I focused back on Trey before I let a question out that I’d been contemplating.

“Why aren’t you dancing with her? What about your coach?”

His arms tied around my waist. “What about him?”

“Won’t he get upset with you if she tattles?”

His green eyes remained on me and only me. “I don’t care anymore.”

I should’ve kept my mouth shut, been happy with the current alteration in situations. I should’ve enjoyed the night with him, holding me so tight to his body, but that wasn’t who I was.

My brows furrowed.

“Huh,” I grunted. “Punctual as always, Turner.”

Williams interrupted Trey’s response by bumping shoulders with him. He and his date swayed obnoxiously back and forth, nudging into couples with each of their movements.

Trey’s smile for Williams melted into confusion when he returned to me. “What does that mean?”

“I just mean that your timing on choosing when to care or not is seriously impeccable.”

We went silent then. His eyes were intense as they searched mine, but both our hands fell. We didn’t dance. We stood in the center of the jumbling bodies, only holding one another’s gazes.

“May, I’m sorry,” he said first. “I didn’t mean for this all to happen. I was trying to make the best situation work with what I’d been dealt.”

“With what you’d been dealt? What does that mean?” I asked, unable to control the hiccup in my tone.

Was I that much of a burden, a sack of unbearable weight placed on his shoulders he felt he had to struggle with? A problem he had to work on solving.

His eyes widened, understanding where he’d taken me with that comment. “Maybelle, no—” he started, but I was already shaking my head.

“Pretend,” I scoffed out bitterly and the word had him going completely stiff. “That’s all it ever was, right? All it was ever going to be?”

His entire body was visibly taut under the fabric of his suit and tie as he stared holes through me. “That’s all you seem to be willing to give me,” he finally uttered out at a volume only I could hear above the music.

I took a step back from him, like the blow of his words was something I could evade.

Trey closed the distance again with a step forward. “Pretend is all I can get from you. As long as I keep coming in second.”

He jerked his chin to a place behind me. I followed his gesture to the table where Juliette was sulking, and Sam was wholly zoned in on the lit-up screen of his phone.

“Boyfriend—really?” His tone wasn’t angry, it was hurt, and his eyes portrayed the same emotions when I twisted back to him.

“How did you…?”

I didn’t know how he heard about that when I, myself, had only heard about it yesterday.

But it ate at me to know he thought I solidified things between me and Sam.

I didn’t know what to say. The whole Sam situation was my own troubled predicament.

I didn’t want to sit and try to make a bunch of lame excuses.

He deserved more than that .

My lips remained sealed, even as Trey took my face in his hands and pressed his forehead to mine.

“The shitty part is,” he whispered against my skin.

“I will happily accept pretend. I will take my place as second pick if it means you will have me. That is how stupid and pathetic you make me. I am nothing without you, May, and I will accept any crumbs of your affection you are willing to give me. Even if it is only pretend.”

I was speechless, utterly dumbfounded by the boy who held my gaze, my face, heart and soul in the palms of his hands. I was so out of my league with him, and I couldn’t seem to care.

Trey Turner deserved perfection, pure love, a beautiful clean life, but I was messy.

I was a walking tragedy and I wanted him a part of my mess.

I wanted him printed on my skin; I wanted his structured soul mixed in with the mismatched pieces that made up my own.

I wanted him, every part of him, to know and understand me.

Trey wasn’t second pick. He was far from second pick. He was the only choice, and that scared me because I was liable to mess it all up. To lose the most beautiful choice I could ever make, and it terrified me.

This was the moment in the night that I needed to speak. To expose my raw, unfiltered thoughts, but I was a coward when it came to this.

To being vulnerable.

I closed my eyes, and I twisted out of his hold. Then I ran.

I managed to hold myself together long enough until I knew I was out of sight of the tables and dancing couples.

I tried to speed walk, but my heels were going to snap my ankles.

Without a second thought, I kicked off the shoes, cheeks hot, head pounding.

Stooping, I picked up the shoes and briskly escaped down the hall.

I didn’t know how I found it, only that I was now sitting on the beginning steps of a staircase at the end of a dimly lit hall of the event center.

Luckily, I was far enough from the banquet that no stragglers came anywhere near my secluded corner.

I didn’t know how long I sat there, with my fingers buried in the roots of my curls, gripping, and slightly pulling for some feeling.

A feeling to keep me grounded in myself as I thought back to Trey, what he said, and the shame that expanded to near bursting in my chest.

I needed to go home, to sleep, to walk and to think.

I reached around myself to grab my phone from my purse but was thoroughly disappointed when I realized my purse was still at the table.

“Kill me now,” I groaned aloud, dropping my face into my hands.

“Always so dramatic, little Mason.”

I lifted my head to find Williams, a smile tugging at his lips. He was swinging my abandoned, sparkly purse higher up his large shoulder.

“I’m not dramatic.”

He snorted, taking the spot next to me on the steps. He dropped my purse beside me and rested one large hand on my knee as he let out a long sigh. “You, okay?”

I sidled up next to him and laid my head on his shoulder. “Yeah, just needed a breather.”

“Same,” he grunted while his thumb swept across the top of my knee. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled. “Trey left to take Juliette home. Is everything alright between the two of you?”

I didn’t feel much better with that new information, but at least I wouldn’t have to face Juliette the rest of the night.

“We’re fine,” I said, then remembered Williams wasn’t supposed to be alone or here with me. “Where’s your date?”

“I’m right here.”

I turned with Williams. Cautiously approaching from around the corner, his date pushed her round glasses up the bridge of her nose.

“Hi, Maybelle.”

I slanted a curious look at Williams, who was watching me with a sad smile. “Maybelle, this is Hannah Lacy. She went to high school with us.”

“Oh,” I exhaled, unsure of how to respond. “I—uh-sorry, I don’t remember you.”

Hannah smiled. “Don’t be. And I’m sorry to interrupt. Noah left his phone at the tables.” She held out the device and Williams accepted it, but not before taking her offered hand in his.

“Are you leaving?” he asked. Hannah nodded. “Can I take you out again tomorrow?”

Her smile brightened as she pushed her glasses farther up her nose. “Of course,” she said before looking back at me, still smiling. “It was good to see you again.”

“You too,” I courteously said back.

And with one last wave to us both, she left.

“She didn’t have to leave,” I said, and Williams’s smile grew, his focus still lingering on where Hannah last stood.

“Yeah, well, she knew you needed your best friend. She just wanted to make sure you were okay before she left.”

I smiled, looping my arm with his. “I think Penny would try to fight you if she ever heard you call yourself that in front of her.”

He vibrated with laughter. “Yeah, that may be true, but you and I both know I hold the spot of best friend.”

I scrunched my nose. “I plead the fifth,” I stated, snuggling closer into the big man. “But I’m happy for you. You and Hannah look good together.”

“I think so too,” he said.

A moment or two of silence passed before Williams asked, “Are you going to ask about your boyfriend?”

It took a few beats for me to register who he was referring to until it finally clicked. “Oh, no. He didn’t. Did he?”

He let out a deep chuckle, understanding my vague horror. “Oh yes. Sam announced the relationship status proudly in our living room just before you showed up this afternoon. Poor boy almost pissed himself with the way Trey was looking at him, though.”

I grumbled as I squeezed my eyes shut. Now I knew how that information came about, and it twisted my stomach to think of Trey being blindsided with the news like that.

“So, when did that happen?” Williams prodded, and I wanted to throw myself off a cliff.

“It didn’t happen. I didn’t even know about the misunderstanding or whatever it was until yesterday when he called me his girlfriend in front of Chelsea. It was mortifying.”

I really needed to talk to Sam and clear the air between us.

“I don’t want to be with Sam,” I whispered, not sure why I felt the need to bear myself to Williams at this exact moment. Maybe it was because of the already heightened emotions of the night.

Or that telling him was just one step closer to telling the person I really needed to bear my soul to.

“What do you want?” he asked, and the question had my throat burning.

No more pretending.

No more excuses and letting fear get in the way.

“I want Trey,” I admitted on a deep breath, and Williams pecked the top of my head with a kiss.

“Good. Took your sweet time coming to that conclusion, but I’m glad you got there.” He rose from his seat to his full towering height. “Your boy toy is waiting in the main foyer for you. If you want, you can talk to him before I take you home?”

I wanted to do no such thing. I wanted out of this dress and to be done with tonight, but Sam deserved an explanation before I bailed. So, I slipped my heels back on and rose from the steps.

“Let’s go breakup with my boyfriend,” I pronounced.

Williams offered his arm to me. “ That’s the spirit.”