Page 17 of Scarlett and the Kiss Thief

“I could ask you the same thing. Why is your skirt rolled up? Why are you wearing heels? And who the hell’s jacket is that?”

“It’s Axel’s.” I hadn’t been able to take it off. Even though I was confused…I wasn’t confused about how good Axel’s jacket smelled. Or about the fact that I felt amazing wearing it. And this jacket was my way out. I pulled it around me, trying to hide my rolled-up skirt. But my dad still looked like he wanted to kill me.

“Axel Stevens?”

“Of course Axel Stevens. What other Axel’s do we know?”

Axel and Jacob walked in right at that moment. Axel took one look at the board and then back at my dad. He laughed. “Hey, Uncle James. So you’re the new teacher everyone’s talking about?” He looked over at Sophie who was still gagging at her desk.

I really wished he’d stop calling my dad Uncle James. We weren’t related. He was the son of one of my mom’s best friends. He needed to quit with that. It just made Sophie’s incest phase more accurate. And I wasn’t into incest. I was just into Axel.

“I am,” my dad said. “And is this your jacket?” He pointed to me.

God, Dad.Was he trying to mortify me?

“Yeah. I didn’t like what she was wearing so I was trying to help her cover it up.”

“Oh.” My dad looked back at me and then nodded. “Thank you, Axel. I really appreciate you looking out for her.”

I didn’t like this conversation. At all. My dad and Axel were suddenly friends? My dad had made it pretty clear my whole freaking life that he hated Axel. He hated that I hung out with him one-on-one. He hated that I was so close to a guy. And now they were bonding over what I should and shouldn’t wear? What the hell? Where the hell did either of them get off?

“Can I sit down now?” I asked.

“Yes, but we’ll talk about this later.” He gave me that look that definitely meant I was going to be grounded.

Great.

“He’s so hot,” I heard some girl whisper to her friend as I went to sit down.

Kill me now.I plopped down next to Sophie, no longer caring about where Axel or Jacob sat.

“Am I going to hell?” Sophie groaned.

“No,” I whispered.

“But I said I wanted to bang my uncle.”

“You didn’t know it was going to be my dad.”

“Still. Ew.” She sighed. “How awkward is it that pretty much every girl in our school was swooning over him all day?”

“Very awkward.”

Axel plopped down in the seat behind me.

“It’s going to be fine,” Jacob whispered. He patted my shoulder as he sat down behind Sophie.

I heard the creak of a chair behind me.

“You owe me one,” Axel whispered into my ear.

His hot breath tickled the back of my neck. I turned to him. “For what?”

“For giving you my jacket to help cover up your outfit.”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t even know what to say to him. My outfit was great. Jacob got it. I turned back to the front of the classroom and tried not to sigh.

“You can keep it,” Axel whispered. “It looks better on you than it does on me.”

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