This is Love by (Checkmate Duet 2)

“Let them leave,” Larry says with a big smile. He reminds me of a big lumberjack, especially when he wears those plaid button-up shirts—his everyday wardrobe. Even he knows that if we don’t rush out the door right at this moment, she’ll keep us until after lunch. That’s how she is; we have to escape while we can.

“Fine,” she says, patting him on his stomach as he wraps his arm around her.

“I love you two. Be careful. Tell Travis I said hello,” Mom says to Drew. I don’t dare look at her, at the mention of his name.

“I’ll tell him.” Drew swings his bag over his shoulder, and we walk out to the truck.

“Mom’s being weird, too,” he says. “What’s with you girls these days?”

She knows. Fuck. She knows too much.

“I didn’t think she was being weird.” I throw my bag in the backseat of his truck. It’s so tall that I struggle to climb inside. This is why I wanted to take my car.

“All this talk about love. It kind of makes me sick. Oh, and the way she kisses Larry. Oh, my God! At least when I visit Dad, I don’t have to watch him be with someone else.”

Drew is rambling, and I’m okay with it. I feel kind of guilty that we didn’t visit Dad while we were home, but Drew has to go into work today, and we need to get back.

Halfway through the middle of Drew’s ridiculous playlist, a text rings out, and it’s Courtney.

C: WHERE ARE YOU? SERIOUSLY!

I lean against the door and snap a picture of Drew driving. He’s wearing a baseball cap and a shirt that’s too small, which I teased him about this morning. His tattooed biceps are busting out from under the sleeve. She’s going to like this too much.

OH

MY

FUCKING

GOD

OVARIES

EXPLODING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t stop laughing. I interrupt him as he continues talking about work.

“Hey. Can you say hi to Courtney real quick?”

I hurry and press record on my phone to capture the whole thing. At first, Drew acts all shy and gives a sly little smile, but I know better. He’s working the camera right now.

“Hey, Courtney.” He winks at the end.

I turn the camera on myself and give her the evil eye before I stop recording and send it over. “She might actually die.”

“Why?” He glances over at me completely confused. He really has no idea the affect he has on women, especially her.

“No reason. She mentioned something about you and handcuffs, and well it’s gross and kind of makes me sick.”

He bursts out laughing. “The cop fantasy? Really?”

“Oh, you’re aware of it then?” I say, waiting for my phone to detonate with texts from her.

“Don’t all women dream about that?”

“No. Definitely not. Gross. I think you ruined that one for me.”

C: Can you have him take his shirt off too?

I scoff. Drew looks over at me as I type a message back to her quick.

V: OMG! Give you an inch and then you want my brother naked.

C: I wish I had an inch of him. And hey, you started it!! Give him my address. I’ll get him out of your hair.

V: YOU’RE RIDICULOUS!

“So, what did she say?” Drew asks, and I think he genuinely wants to know.

“Trust me when I say you’re better off not knowing.” I leave it at that. Because ew.

“Come on; I want to know.”

I shake my head, and he reaches over to grab my phone. I go into a panic as he reads Courtney’s text message that is thankfully still on the screen and I rip it out of his hand. Note to self: Always lock cell phone.

“Holy shit! Your friend’s a freak!”

“Who will seriously murder me if she ever finds out you read that.”

On cue, I get another text message, and it’s from Travis. I open it up and see a picture of a dick. His dick. Hard. Longing. Waiting. The words on the bottom say ‘For Mary-Kate and Ashley.’

I instantly blush and fumble to password protect my phone, not even able to reply back to him. Courtney’s text messages go off like crazy, and I sit there frozen, trying to ignore them both. Travis is a dead man the next time I see him. But it’s Drew’s words that pull me back to reality.

“Have you seen a woman at the house by any chance?”

My face scrunches and I try to process this odd question. “What?”

“I just have this suspicion that Travis is seeing someone. Wondering if you’ve seen her around between classes.”

My heart is hammering, and my throat goes dry. “Nope.”

“Hmm,” he says, not paying attention to my anxiety. Thankfully.

“I’m going to find out who it is.” Drew takes the exit toward the campus. He has that detective look on his face while he looks out toward the road. It’s scaring the shit out of me.