My hair was now my favorite feature of myself. Earlier in the week, Chelsea took me to get it cut. The hairdresser shortened the curls from past my butt to my mid back. The length was still elegant and long, but thecoils sprung with so much more excitement at the loss of the extra dead weight.
I no longer looked plagued by remnants of exhaustion or appeared stale with the lack of life.
I was pretty.
Jumping at the sound of the front door opening and closing, I overheard Trey and his mom greeting one another in the kitchen.
It was time.
I left the bathroom. The house was filled with the amazing aroma of a new pasta recipe Chelsea was trying out and I already knew by the taste of the air that it was going to be life-altering delicious.
When I entered the kitchen, I found Trey straining the boiled pasta noodles with his mom. The universe must hate me because he somehow got prettier in the last week.
His muscled arms bulged against the fabric of a plain white tee. His wavy hair fell a tad longer, and messier across his brows. The shadow along his jaw line was thicker with scruff.
Focus Maybelle, focus.
Chelsea and Trey were speaking low, recapping his week of training and preparing for classes to start next week.
My hands were trembling. I was going to explode my secret all over the place. I sucked in a deep breath and held it in as I made my way to set the table.
I was so enthralled with my big news and how I would present it, I briefly forgot how tensely uncomfortable things might still be between me and Trey until I reached for the utensils in a drawer to his left.
Simultaneously, he reached for a serving spoon, causing our hands to make contact. I instantly halted, but Trey was smooth as he let that light touch continue to slip up my wrist, gliding it across my forearm and off my elbow. Sending a ruckus of shivers through my boneswhile he took a step back, giving me a good view of his smirk.
“Hello, friend.”
The greeting should’ve been upbeat. Something I imagined Penny would’ve called out to me in that high-pitched chipper voice of hers, but Trey’s husky baritone made it sound so unbearably, frustratingly sensual.
Like something I’d want him to whisper into my ear as he pinned me against a wall, creating a physical storm between us that would drown—no—annihilate the term “friend”. Leaving no chance for a platonic survival—Pause, delete, delete, delete.
Not the type of thoughts to be having for a guy who kissed another girl in front of me or whom I just recently banished into the friend zone. Nope, I needed to pull my mind out of the pleasurable, very dirty gutter and focus.
No matter how fun and enticing that gutter may seem.
Trey Turner was off limits. End of story.
I relaxed and slanted him my own mocking smirk as I gave him a light, friendly pat on the beefy shoulder.
“Hey, buddy,” I chirped back, and his face fell into a grimace.
Smiling, I grabbed the dinner utensils I previously attempted to retrieve, setting forks and spoons on the three place mats at the small dining table.
I didn’t listen to Trey and his mom as they continued to catch up. Instead, I pulled out myvibrating phone to see a couple new messages pop up across the top of the screen.
I bit my lip to hide the glee that threatened to give me away too soon.
Penny’s super friendly peppy-ness had startled at the football scrimmage. But I grew fond of it through the night and more attached as we continued to talk in the following days.
“Who are you texting, Maybelle? Is it Penny?” Chelsea asked as she approached with the pot of pasta straight off the stove.
I told Chelsea about Penny when she asked how my weekend out of town had been. She was thrilled. She even joined me on a facetime call with Penny the other night to introduce herself.
Dropping my phone into my back pocket, I nodded. “Yeah, she wanted to call me later.”
I ignored Trey’s curious gaze. I wondered if it surprised him to hear I wasn’t entirely friendless without him.
Chelsea’s demeanor was sunshine as she took a seat at the table. “I’m so glad you made a friend. Especially with Penny Howell. I met her mom once. Bit of a stern lady. A little difficult to talk to, but Penny has always been so sweet.”
