Drake
“I have eight months left on my lease. This is fucking bullshit,” I bellow into my phone. We’re somewhere off the freeway at one of those roadside attraction rest stops, and while I’d like to be enjoying whatever The Thing is, the dismal phone call from my landlord is more important.
“I’m aware but the clause in your lease clearly states that the building owner reserves the right to terminate the contract in the case of massive renovations.” The man on the line has a nasally voice and an uptight attitude and I’d like to sock him in the jaw right about now.
“So, where the fuck am I supposed to go?”
“That’s not our concern, Mr. Nielson. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience. You have until the end of the month to vacate the premises.”
With that, the line goes dead, and I resist the urge to toss my phone into the desert.
“Ugh!” I growl as I pace the grease-stained concrete outside, waiting for Isabel and Hunter to come out.
When I glance up and see Isabel emerging with a bright green alien stuffed animal under one arm and a cup of coffee larger than her tiny head in her hand, my dark mood begins to crumble.
“What is that?” I laugh.
“You looked like you could use some cheering up.” She hands me the alien, and I am physically unable to keep the scowl on my face, letting my expression morph into a smile just for her.
“Thank you,” I reply. “So, what was The Thing?”
She shrugs. “I don’t actually know. Might have been a dinosaur bone? Or an alien? They weren’t exactly clear in their description.”
I laugh, looking down at the green alien plush. “Sorry I missed it.”
“Everything okay?”
“No. I’m being evicted,” I mutter angrily.
“What? Why? Are you struggling—’
“No,” I snap, cutting her off. “I make every payment on time, but these assholes decided they want to turn my apartment building into a parking garage.”
“Oh my God!”
“Yeah. So, I have until the end of the month to get out.”
“Can they do that?” she asks, her hand over her chest. Oh, sweet, naive little Isabel. So pure she can’t even wrap her head around how dickheads work. I love that about her.
“Apparently.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Probably going to have to catch a flight home from Austin. I need to find a new place to live.”
Now, I could be imagining things, or just seeing what I want to see, but I swear there’s devastation in her expression.
“No! You can’t do that.”
And here I thought I was the annoying third wheel. Surely, she’d enjoy a nice road trip with her husband alone.
“I have to. I need to find an apartment and move out of my old one in the next three weeks.”
When her hand lands on my arm, squeezing my bicep in a comforting grasp, I have to will my heart not to beat its way out of my chest. Every touch with Isabel after last night feels different. I can still remember what it felt like to hold her in my arms, her legs squeezed around my waist and her ass in my hands. I dreamt I was tying her up again; this time, she was naked and I was naked and I kept winding and winding and winding rope around her until her body became our bodies and I was tying them together.
In my dream, I was inside her, no longer pretending with layers of clothes between us, but I was buried deep in the same way we were simulating last night. When I woke up this morning, I couldn’t move for over thirty minutes because the raging hard-on in my boxers taunted me with my own shame. I would never, ever, lay a hand on my best friend’s girl like that, and tugging on my cock with the memory of her still fresh in my mind doesn’t feel any better.
Now, there’s a new tension between us, and I can’t stand it.
Isabel has always been as much my friend as Hunter is. I love her…like a sister—nope. I can’t even say that in my head without it feeling weird. Because even though I would never touch her like that, it doesn’t change the fact that my body clearly wants to. So saying she’s like a sister to me is the hardest nope of nopes.
“Drake, just stay with us,” she says in a sweet, pleading tone.
“Like I said, I wish I could—’
“No. I mean…stay with us. At the house. I mean…you built the damn thing. I’m not going to let you rush into finding a new apartment. Put your stuff in storage and just take the extra room at our place until you get something more permanent. And for God’s sake, buy this time.”
I let out a huff, my shoulders sagging as I smile at her. “I can’t do that, Isabel. I’m up Hunter’s ass enough as it is.”
The bell on the front door chimes as it opens, and we both look up to see the dark curls and tan skin of the devil himself as he emerges from the shop. “What’s up?” He immediately notices our serious expressions.
“Tell Drake to stay with us.”
Hunter freezes. “Okay…Drake, stay with us,” he says, obeying his wife without question.
“His landlord is evicting him this month to turn his apartment into a parking garage,” she adds.
“Seriously?”
I nod, letting out a heavy sigh. “They want me out by the end of the month. I need to cut my trip short. I’ll fly out of Austin.”
If I wanted Isabel to look disappointed at the news of me leaving, it was nothing compared to how good it feels to see Hunter’s immediately gutted response at the news. Then, in true Hunter fashion, he takes control of the situation.
“No. You can’t leave early. I need your help. You’re looking at club infrastructures, remember? I don’t know shit about that. So you have to stay on the trip.”
“Dude, I have three weeks to move out and find a new place to live.”
“Isabel’s right. Just stay with us. You’ll have a week to move your stuff into storage after we get home. You practically live at our place as it is. So, enjoy the rest of the road trip with us and worry about your apartment when we get back.”
My jaw clenches as I realize I’ve been cornered. There is no arguing with Hunter. He’s always been like this. The leader, decision-maker, commander-in-chief of our friendship, and I’d be lying if I said it bothered me. The truth is, it’s always given me a strange sense of comfort, knowing that everything is in his hands. Even, sometimes, my life.
“Besides, all you own is a bed and a couch. You don’t even have a TV in that apartment. It’ll take us less than an hour to move it all out. So just relax.”
He bumps my shoulder as he passes by, throwing an arm around Isabel and leading her to the car.
I’m not sure why this is bothering me so much. If I love handing over control, then why is this one time troubling me so much? Maybe because Hunter has no idea just how much it scares me to live with them. It has nothing to do with sharing a space with them. I mean, obviously. We’re on this two-week road trip together, sharing rental houses and the car, and like he said, I stay over at their place all the time. And I’ve lived with them before.
But something about living with them now, even if it’s temporary, is making me anxious. What if I don’t find a place right away? What if I get used to being there? Drinking coffee with Isabel every morning. Staying up late with Hunter every night. Sharing meals and doing laundry together. It’s so fucking domestic, and something about that makes my skin crawl.
I love Hunter and Isabel, but their happy little married life is not for me. Sleeping with the same person every night and waking up with the same person every morning. The monotony of it sounds so draining.
And what about bringing home women? I can’t possibly bring a hookup into their house. I’ve never done it before and it’s clearly different from a vacation rental. That’s their home.
I guess it’s a good thing I have the club.
Fuck, between work and Salacious, I doubt I’d ever be at their house anyway.
And I do hate the idea of cutting this trip short, even after the awkward stage moment last night.
“Fine,” I mutter from the back seat of Hunter’s Durango as we pull out of the gas station.
Isabel turns toward me with excitement. “You’ll do it? You’ll stay?”
A smirk tugs on the corner of my mouth. “Yeah. I’ll stay. But only for a week or two. Until I find a better place.”
“Of course,” she says, a beaming smile spreading across her cheeks.
Our eyes meet, and the excitement in her expression morphs into something else, something more loaded than just eagerness. I’d give my right arm to know what she’s thinking right now, to know how excited she really is, and why.
“You can stay as long as you want,” Hunter says, glancing at me through the rearview mirror, and I quickly avert my eyes from both of their gazes.
“Thanks. You guys are too good to me.”
When I feel Isabel’s hand against my leg, I flinch, something I’ve never done before. And she notices, but she doesn’t move her hand away. “You don’t need to thank us, Drake. You’re family. We would do anything for you.”
I know what she’s saying is true. They would do anything, but that’s the problem. Hunter and Isabel hold me on a short leash…and they don’t even know they do it. It’s like an emotional boundary I can’t cross, never letting me get too far away from them. And that’s my fault—because I’ve indulged them repeatedly over the past ten years.
I’ve been a third wheel in their lives for so long, I don’t know how to be without them, and I know they’ll grow sick of me before long. This little triad has to come to an end eventually. A thought that doesn’t feel good when I think about it, because it’s not about my feelings for Isabel or for Hunter…it’s about them with a capital T.
I care about the two of them more than anyone else in the world.
