Page 146 of How to Score Off Field

“I’ve always wanted to bust in on him and catch him foolin’ around,” Drake jokes, leaning against the doorframe.

“Reallly?” Drew asks sarcastically. “This is what you’ve always wanted?”

“Forever in my whole entire life.” His eyes close as he holds a hand over his heart like a Scout.

Drew snorts. “Bro, you need to raise your standards.”

“Oh my standards are the right high, thank you very much.” He crosses his arms. “What are y’all gonna do later? Wanna do something?”

“We have plans,” Drew tells his twin. “We’re doin’ a date.”

“Doin’ a date?”

“Shut up, dickhead, you know what I mean.”

This is the Drew and Drake I remember from our youth—the teasing, the snark, the sarcastic back and forth that’s a borderline pissing contest.

My gaze volleys back and forth as they argue until finally, Drew shoves his brother back into the hallway and shuts the door in his face.

Locks it too.

“Alone at last,” I joke, walking to the desk and poking one of my balloons with the tip of my fingernail.

“Don’t get used to it. He’s a huge pain in the ass, and he’s not happy unless he’s all up in my business.”

Yeah, Grady is the same way for the most part. I don’t want to bring his name up though because I don’t know how Drew is feeling about it, and my attention turns to the bruise next to his lip, a reminder about everything that went down last time they were in the same room together.

It's healing, though.

I glance out the bedroom window and out into the back, his view overlooking the backyard for the house next door.

Four girls lounge around sunning themselves, despite the temperature outside not being all that conducive to sunbathing.

I let the curtain fall back into place.

“Who are they?”

“The irritating girls next door.”

“Irritating?”

“Trouble.” He walks to his desk and sniffs the roses. “You don’t even wanna know.”

“Oh yes, I do. I totally do. Spill.”

Now I’m lying across the bed, taking up most of the space, bracing my chin in my hand, watching him intently as he fusses around the room.

“So basically, in a nutshell, two of the girls tried trapping my brothers into relationships. It was pure evil.”

“How!” I feel my eyes get wide.

“Erm. Shannon—there’s a girl named Shannon—sent a picture to the media that made it look like she and Drake were making out on our front porch, and it caused a huge fight between he and Daisy. Total mess.”

“The media?”

“Yeah. Sent it to the tabloids andSportsCenterpicked it up. She was basically framing him for something he didn’t do so his girlfriend would break up with him and she could swoop in.”

“That’s…that’s…” A knot of guilt has my stomach clenching.

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