Williams almost spit out the drink he was chugging. “Come again?” he asked through choked breaths.
My eyes jumped to Trey’s. His intentional smirk told me he remembered that night, too.
Hadn’t that only been a week ago?
Gracie was laughing uncontrollably at Williams’sreaction while Bear smiled. His shaking shoulders were the only testament of his mirth.
Bear and Gracie. They were together. A week wasn’t long enough to know every bit and piece of a person, and yet here they were—together.
And by the way, Bear’s large arm was slung over the back of Gracie’s chair, the way she smiled longingly up at him, or the way his hand found hers under the table... They weren’t playing friends or being cautious of what they didn’t know yet.
They were just together.
At the thought, I realized I hadn’t looked away from Trey and he was still staring at me.
The eye contact had drawn on far longer than what could be considered a platonic glance between two friends. Now it was nearing a point of seeing inside. Peering through the very depths of who we were, and I was under no inclination to turn away.
I wanted to see everything those green eyes offered. I wanted to know every good and charred part of this man’s soul. I would—I had to. And I wanted him to see me.
All of me.
I didn’t look away, and neither did Trey.
“So, Marybelle,” Juliette’s voice broke in, shattering the trance. But my eyes remained on Trey’s. I refused to let her pilfer this moment fully. Or allow my gaze to follow the pattern her finger drew along his bicep. “How did you meet everyone here?”
I tore my eyes from Trey, mourning the lost connection as I looked at Juliette through lowered lashes.
“It’s Maybelle,” I corrected, filling my tight-lipped smile with all the sour sweetness I could bear. “Trey, Noah, and I went to high school together. Then I lived with Trey and his mom for a few weeks before I got settled here.”
She didn’t deserve the whole sob story. So that waswhere I stopped, but by the sneer in her eyes, that wasn’t where she planned to stop.
“Really?” she exclaimed. “You lucky girl. I’d give anything to sleep in the same house as Trey,” she drawled as her finger trailed up his shoulder.
I felt a twinge of satisfaction at the way he bristled with the exploring touch.
“I bet you would,” I quipped, coolly grabbing my cup of water and taking a sip.
Williams cut in then. Trying to steer the conversation away from me, which I appreciated. Something about football or what not. I didn’t listen.
I retained eye contact with the girl across the table as I lifted a fork full of salad to my lips. Juliette followed my movements. A feline smile grew on her red painted lips.
“Is it true that you started a year late because you were in a coma, practically brain dead?” Her voice was slicing. Loud enough to obliterate any further conversation.
The whole table shut down, but all eyes rested on me. My brows furrowed as I looked at Trey. He watched me intensely, jaw ticking. I returned my focus to Juliette, whose face was too smug.
I put my fork down with the salad still clinging to the prongs and folded my hands in front of me. “Coma, yes. Brain dead, obviously not. Just a bit of memory loss,” I said, letting a slight smile play at my lips.
In my peripheral, I couldn’t help but notice Williams’s date put a hand to her mouth. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.
“Wow, what a conversation starter,” Juliette mused, her tone drenched in sarcasm. “And didn’t your family die? Pretty sure I heard in the news it was a car accident, drunk driver, I believe.”
Wow, real classy, this one.
“Juliette—” Trey started, but I cut him off.
“God, you really should come with a warning label,” I sighed as I took the napkin I had splayed out on my lapand thrusted it onto the table. “Thank you, Juliette. We can always count on you to molest the fun out of everything. Especially our poor football boys, from whatIhear.”
Thankfully, my voice was steady, bemused even. But a hurricane of emotions roiled under my skin and only got worse when Juliette’s smile widened. She got the rise she wanted out of me. My stomach clenched as I caught sight of judgmental glances from members of neighboring tables.
