Page 21 of The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back

He looked at me like I had grown another head.

"That scene at the end where they're sitting on his table and he has that cake for her because everyone forgot her birthday and he tells her make a wish and she said it already came true and they kiss," I said that entire thing in one breath and was starting to feel a little lightheaded. I took in a very deep, very needed breath. "Most. Romantic. Thing. Ever." I emphasized the last word so that he would know to not further malign the most perfect teen romance movie in the world.

"Whatever you say," he smiled and he looked around the room. "Hey, is that a poker table?"

I turned and saw that my dad had set up his table in the den for game night with his buddies. Sometimes I played, too. "Yeah, it's my dad's." Poker was another one of the rare things that could lure him out of his studio.

"You play?"

"A little."

"Want to?" Jake asked as he started walking backward toward the table. "We could play strip poker," he teased.

Chapter 9

I gave him A Look to let him know just what I thought of his little proposition. He laughed. I didn't know it was possible to be both simultaneously disgusted by his suggestion and a little thrilled by the prospect of a shirtless Jake.

"You any good?" he asked, interrupting my visual.

"I'm all right, I guess."

I was actually a lot better than okay. I had been playing since I could hold the cards myself. But like good old Dad taught me, never tip your hand.

"We could play and talk about the project," Jake offered. He sat down in one of the chairs and picked up the deck. "Tell me about the idea you had. You said you wanted to draw manga?"

"Yeah," I said. "You shuffle and I'll get my sketchbook to show you what I'm talking about."

I ran to my room and grabbed the book off of my bed before I came to a complete stop. This was my sketchbook that had all my recent manga, but the entire first section was dedicated to pictures of Jake. Not manga pictures, but actual sketches of him. This could be mortifying. But I couldn't come back empty handed. I opened a desk drawer and pulled out some Scotch tape. I ran a piece of tape from the cover to the last Jake picture. He might ask questions, but hopefully I could play it off.

When I got back to the den, he was counting out poker chips evenly between us. He stopped what he was doing when I put my book on the table. I opened it for him. I stepped back with my hands balled up into fists, my knuckles turning white. This was easily one of the scariest things that I had ever done. I didn't know why this didn't occur to me before I went skipping off to grab my sketchbook. It was like I wanted to share this part of myself with him, but it scared me to death to think that he might laugh at me.

He flipped through several pages before glancing up at me. "You okay?"

"I've never showed this to anyone before." I hoped he didn't hear how my voice trembled.

An expression I couldn't describe crossed Jake's face. "These are really good. Is this Ms. Rathbone?"

I nodded, and he chuckled. I needed to explain. "That was sort of my idea—to turn the Bennet sisters into these samurai warriors in feudal Japan."

"Like those crazy nuns out for revenge in that one series?"

"You meanY+M?" I asked in total shock.

"Yeah," he nodded. The entire universe shifted on its axis. Jake knew about manga. How did he know about manga? I couldn't process.

"So, you really like my drawings?" It was just this side of ridiculous how invested I was in his answer. I so badly wanted him to like them.

He closed my sketchbook. "I mean, you're no Masashi Kishimoto, but they're still really good."

"You like Kishimoto?"

He smiled at my shock. "Yeah,Narutois one of my favorites."

My mouth dropped open. I lovedNarutotoo. He wasn't just blowing smoke like that time in eighth grade at Julie Hansen's party where I pretended to know about NASCAR so Mike Reed would talk to me. My mind reeled at the reality that Jake Freaking Kingston liked manga.

"Your parents must be really excited to have their daughter following in their footsteps."

Since my world had gone totally off kilter at the idea that Jake knew and liked manga, I wasn't in any position to try and explain my parents to him. "Not quite. My parents would probably be greatly disappointed that I drew manga. So, I haven't exactly shown them any of my pictures. And I don't plan to, ever."

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