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That had Hannah wrapping her arms around her middle as she laughed out loud. Recovering, Hannah wiped at her eyes and adjusted her glasses again, “Of course, anytime.” And she held out the keys for Maybelle.
Maybelle accepted them gratefully, “Seriously, thank you again.”
Hannah nodded and turned to walk away but stopped when Maybelle opened the door to the car, “Oh, and Maybelle.” She called out and Maybelle looked up.
Hannah had a bright smile on her lips as she said, “You were right, Bryce got a lot better at the end of the book.”
Maybelle’s eyes widened with comprehension, “You mean in Flipped? Oh my, I loved him!”
Hannah’s features went soft as she said, “I know. Merry Christmas, Maybelle.”
38 Did He Touch You?
The lord was on Trey’s side today because traffic was not half as bad as it should have been for a holiday. He made it home around six in the evening, hungry for food and antsy to see his girl. He hated that he hadn’t been able to come home with Maybelle, but he had football training, and their season was coming to an end. The team wanted to end this season off strong even if they most likely wouldn’t be making it to the playoffs this year. So, each of the guys sacrificed their holiday time to practice and go over old film.
Trey grabbed his bag from the back seat of his Jeep before jumping out and walking up the driveway. He opened the door to find his beautiful mom adjusting a wayward ornament on the Christmas tree located in the corner of the living room and his extremely sexy girlfriend sneaking a taste of mom’s famous chocolate cream pie in the kitchen.
He was home.
Trey dropped his bag in the front room making Maybelle jump, she shyly turned to him, and he winked at her. She smiled back but the smile wasn’t as bright as hehad anticipated it to be after a few days apart. Chelsea even beat Maybelle to him, pulling him into a hug and wishing him a Merry Christmas. Trey mouthed, “Are you okay?” Over his mom’s head to his girl, Maybelle gave him a lame thumbs up.Shit, she wasn’t ok.
Chelsea was quick to get them all seated for dinner, with Christmas carols playing in the background. They all caught up together and though the stress of what was wrong with Maybelle plagued him, dinner was good.
Maybelle held his hand throughout the meal, but she was quiet. Chelsea shared stories of her and her mystery man whom she still refused to reveal to them. Said she wanted to date just a little while longer, she had wanted him to join them for the holidays but he too had kids to spend the holidays with so they decided to spend the holiday with their families this year but next year would be different.
Trey was happy to see his mom planning a future, beaming with the possibilities with whoever the mystery man was. It was such an extreme contrast from what she had been not five years ago. Recovering from heartbreak, learning to heal while Trey picked up the pieces.
Once dinner was done Chelsea had demanded they all sit and watch the OG cartoon How The Grinch Stole Christmas movie together. Maybelle and Trey didn’t complain, they all sat to watch the movie together, but Chelsea was out like a light as soon as her head hit the couch cushions. Trey covered his mom with a blanket then lured Maybelle outback to their hammock taking advantage of the moment of privacy to address what was on her mind. The night was a little chilly, so he snatched another blanket he used to cover Maybelle when she fell into the net of the hammock.
“Thank you.” Maybelle said, her smile small.
Trey took the seat next to her then wrapped herup against him, tucking the blanket in around her, “Alright, Mayhem. Spill it.” Maybelle didn’t look startled or confused. They knew each other too well to feign surprise when they both could read the emotions of one another so easily.
Maybelle heaved a deep breath, “I ran into an old friend of ours today.”
“Oh?” Trey was caught off guard by that. How would she know if she had run into an old friend?
“Who?” He asked and Maybelle seemed to hold him tighter.
“Clayton Thomas, I think he said his name was.” Trey’s heart skittered and his body went rigid.Dirtbag Thomas?
Trey tried to pull away so he could inspect Maybelle, look her over with this new insight but she held too tight, not allowing him to part from her even by an inch.
“What happened?” He demanded, he really tried to control the fear and anger leaking into his voice but was not doing well at it. Not well at all.
That made Maybelle tilt back, just a bit, so she could hit him with acool it, macho manlook. She paused a couple seconds, face falling.
When Maybelle finally spoke her voice was light, “I smacked him.” She said simply.
Huh?
Trey was reeling not knowing whether to bellow with astonished laughter, ask her all the questions flooding his thoughts, pray that Liam was there to hear what she just said, find Clayton and do his own smacking around or all of the above.
All of the above.
Trey cleared his throat against a bubble of laughter in the back of his throat, “Ok May, I am going to need you to quickly explain to me what exactly happened.”
Maybelle was smirking slightly as she sat up from him,but it was tainted with sadness which quickly killed any and all of his mirth.
