“We barely know each other. For crying out loud, I don’t even know your middle name.” She turned her head, squeezing her eyes shut before saying, “I just think we need to start over. Get to know each other, and just be friends.”
I was losing her; she was running away to hide behind her walls, and I couldn’t keep up. Maybelle had spent years dreaming of running away. I knew those dreams. I knew what she desperately tried to escape from—and right now—she was escaping me.
She fidgeted with her hands on her lap and whispered, “I just—we don’t know each other, Trey. We’re more strangers than we are friends.”
I could feel the knife she stabbed through my heart, making the wound bigger, spilling with all the hope I hadgripped to the last year watching her sleep.
“That’s not true.” I reached for her hands, but she pulled them away.
“Yes, it is, Trey. We’ve barely gotten to know one another since I woke up with you living here. And you said, word for word, that our friendship before the accident had only been blossoming.”
“No, you don’t understand,” I shoved out. “We—I’ve been waiting for this, for us.” My voice was hiccuping like a prepubescent teen, but I couldn’t help it.
I’d been so patient, so hopeful, so ready to have my chance with the girl from the journal… The girl I’d fallen for through words—and it was all shattering right in front of me.
“No, I don’t think you understand. It’s not the same for me because I don’t remember waiting. You’re beautiful, god, you’re amazing from what I’ve seen in the last few weeks. But that’s all it’s been for me. A few weeks.”
“Maybelle, please—please just—” I began, but she stood from the bed, pivoting on her heel to face me.
“I don’t think you’re getting how tonight went for me, Trey, so allow me to put it plainly. I met your friends alone while you were off chatting with some cheerleader. I then sat with your friend and learned more about her in an hour than I’ve learned about you since living in your home.
“And do you know how stupid I felt wearing your football jersey like a smitten girl, while I watched you and said cheerleader kiss for the entire stadium to see? I was humiliated but realized that I have no right to be jealous or confused because we aren’t dating. And as of right now, you and your mom are all I have in the world. I can’t lose you both if things ever went really wrong between us.”
She sucked in a deep breath and took a step toward me. “We can’t do this—I can’t do this anymore. I-I justdon’t know you.”
And that there was the kicker. I finally had her. The wait was supposed to be over. The woman I was beyond in love with was awake and alive right in front of me and she didn’t know who I was. While I was cursed and blessed to know every intimate detail of her.
I was the joke, and this was the punchline...
Maybelle heaved a long sigh before she walked towards the door. “I’ll let you have your room. I’m going to sleep out on the couch.”
Closing my eyes, I took a second to gather myself before standing. “No, you’re not.” I nabbed a pillow and the extra blanket, tucking them under my arm. “I’ll take the couch; you sleep in here. Be ready to head back home in the morning.”
Ignoring the ache in my body to pull her close, I left before she could get her mouth to open to argue.
When I slugged back into the living room, the guys were still in their spots and waiting. Bear gave me a forlorn smile. Williams stared aghast at the bedding under my arm while Larson turned away to hide his laughter in the crook of his elbow.
I dropped my stuff on the puny couch, already feeling the crick in my neck and back.
“I’m using your shower, Larson and I’m borrowing a change of clothes,” I said as I made my way to the first bedroom on the right. Larson was shouting, but I didn’t hear nor cared to hear as I shut and locked the door behind me.
***
I woke before the sun tinted the sky a grayish blue. My body felt as if it had been trampled and beaten in the night.
That little couch would’ve been uncomfortable for Maybelle’s tiny body to sleep on. So, my massive, oversix-foot, football body didn’t stand a chance and, to make matters worse, I had a migraine that threatened to cripple me.
I sat up from the couch, stretching out my achy body as I thought back to last night.
Maybelle’s “friend” agreement was crap, and she knew it. I could move slowly if that was what she needed. I could be patient. I waited by her bed for an entire year. I could be her friend, let her learn what I already knew.
That she and I were endgame.
I brushed my hands over my face groaning with exhaustion. We had to be okay. We would be okay.
But what she said about losing me and Mom came rocketing back. Maybelle was scared. She was scared to ruin things so badly she would lose the only family she had.
Could I really push that line of her anxieties?
