Page 18 of Scarlett and the Kiss Thief

What did he mean by that? The only other girls that wore varsity jackets were dating football players. And Axel and I weren’t dating. He didn’t even like me without my glasses. He’d made that perfectly clear. He liked nothing about the new me. My mind was spinning. Why was he being so confusing?

The bell rang, signaling the start of class.

“As you probably know by now,” my dad said, “I’m Scarlett’s father.”

“I wouldn’t mind calling him Daddy,” some girl whispered behind me.

Now I was the one fake-retching.

My dad either didn’t hear the comment or just chose to ignore it. He started talking about the curriculum instead.

“Do you think any of our classmates know about how your dad met your mom?” Sophie asked. “You know…the whole professor-student relationship thing?”

Yeah, I knew what she meant. “God I hope not. That means they’ll think they have a chance. Which they don’t.” My parents were overly affectionate in my opinion.

“Still. As soon as that rumor gets out, the girls in this class are going to lose their minds. I obviously don’t want to bang my uncle, but I’m not blind. He’s clearly good looking. All the girls in the school are going crazy over him.”

Why the hell did my dad think it was appropriate to start teaching at my school?

***

I waited until the rest of the students filtered out of the classroom before going up to my dad. “Can you please just undo whatever you did?”

He looked up at me from his desk. “What do you mean?”

“Please, Dad. You can’t teach here. There are like a million schools in the city you can teach at if you suddenly want to teach high schoolers instead of college students. Or better yet…just retire because you don’t need the money.”

He smiled. “I only took this job for a year. You’re going to be going off to college next fall. I just wanted to spend more time with you.”

Honestly that was kind of sweet.

“And it’s a good thing I’m here too. Better to keep an eye on Axel and Jacob this way.”

So much for sweet. He was just here to scare guys off from dating me.Wait.“Why do you need to keep an eye on Axel and Jacob?”

“They were both staring at you during my lecture.”

“It’s not called a lecture. We’re not in college. It’s just class.”

He shrugged. “Same difference. You ready to head home? You’re grounded starting right now, so you better get comfy in your room.”

“Dad!”

“I told you not to roll up your skirt. And what happened to your other perfectly good shoes?”

“You saw what the other girls wore to your classes all day.”

“But you’re not like the other girls, pumpkin. You’re better than them.”

I folded my arms across my chest. I knew he was being nice. But I wanted to fit in with the other girls. “You’re trying to ruin my life.”

My dad sighed. “No. I’m just being your dad.” He put his arm around my shoulders and led me out of the classroom.

This was mortifying in so many ways. But at the same time, it was actually kind of comforting that he was here. The rumor was probably already spreading that he was my dad. Maybe that would make Gigi leave me alone for once. But I didn’t think his arm was around my shoulders to protect me from Gigi. He was doing it to keep Axel and Jacob away from me. AxelandJacob.

It wasn’t like he was buddying up to Liam in the hallways. Not that Liam would care. Apparently he was adjusting to high school just fine. He probably wouldn’t think this was embarrassing at all.

We stopped by my locker so I could grab the books I needed. “You should have heard all the rumors going around the school today,” I said.

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