It wasn’t anything sudden or explosive. I didn’t catch him in the act. In fact, I’d been ignoring the signs for a couple of weeks, because I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. But then last night, we were cuddled up on my bed, streaming a cheesy holiday movie, when he got another text that made him tense up and swipe the notification away before I could read it.

I’m not one of those girls who demands to see every message her boyfriend gets. But the pattern was unmistakable, and when I asked who the text was from, he got flustered and refused to answer.

He acted guilty.

People will show you who they are, if you pay attention. Ignore them at your own peril.

I can’t be with someone I can’t trust. Someone I can’t believe. Even if—hypothetically—I still love him. I watched my mom go through that, and it almost destroyed her.

Doug clears his throat and barges through the awkward pause, gesturing with my slim jim. Which I find highly amusing.

“You can’t just go around breaking into people’s cars, Beckett. You and your lawyer can argue intent until you’re blue in the face—down at the station.”

He knows I don’t have a lawyer. There are only three of them in town. One’s a divorce attorney, one’s a public defender, whose time is mostly spent on meth-head repeat offenders, and the third specializes in probate, because there are far more people dying in Clifford than committing actual crimes. Not that many of them leave wills.

“Oh, come on, Officer Chalmers … There was no damage or theft. Can’t we just call this strike one?”

I cannot be chauffeured to the police station in the back of a cop car. My mom works too much to notice when I miss curfew or forget to load the dishwasher, but this she’d notice.

Doug considers that for a second. Then he turns to Jake. “I’ll leave that up to you. You wanna press charges?”

“No.” Jake doesn’t even hesitate, and my gratitude is … confusing.

I dumped him and broke into his car. Why is he being nice to me?

“Fine, then.” Doug’s focus narrows on me. “Assuming you’re not inclined to repeat this particular mistake.”

“Cross my heart, Officer.” I lay one hand over my heart and give him a completely unconvincing wide-eyed, innocent look. “Next time it will definitely be an all-new mistake.”

Doug scowls at me as he puts his sunglasses on and rounds the front of his patrol car. “Shouldn’t you two be in class?”

“I have study hall,” Jake says.

“I took a college day.”