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“No, sir,” Jacob said. “It was just with a few friends. And I basically just talked to Scarlett the whole time. On the phone,” he quickly added.

Jacob was a much better liar than I was.

Uncle Matt cleared his throat again and stared at my dad. “We went to plenty of parties when we were their age. Stop procrastinating and apologize to my son.”

My dad sighed. “Fine. I’m sorry, Jacob.”

If I did an apology like that, I’d get in trouble because of how insincere it sounded.

“But you can see why I was upset,” he added. “And I expect you to defend my daughter as fiercely as I do.”

“Yes, sir,” Jacob said.

Uncle Rob laughed on the phone. “Bro. That was the lamest apology ever. You didn’t even sound like you meant it and then you threw in a but.”

Right?

My dad hung up on him. “So the two of you are in love?” It sounded like my dad was in pain when he said it. And I didn’t think it had anything to do with the fight he’d gotten into last night.

Even though my mom had defended us earlier, she didn’t look super happy about the news either.

Uncle Matt on the other hand looked thrilled. He was so much more supportive than my parents.

I smiled. “Yes,” I said.

Jacob nodded. He dropped my hand and then wrapped his arm around me, his hand settling on my hip.

“Too low, Jacob,” my dad said.

Jacob shifted his hand up way higher to accommodate my dad’s request. But now he was practically touching my boob.

“Too high,” my dad said firmly.

“Sorry.” Jacob slid his hand back down to my waist.

“Good, good.”

I stared at my dad. He’d made Jacob touching me into a weird Goldilocks moment. And nothing felt “just right” about any of it now.

“And just because you love each other doesn’t mean anything has changed. Scarlett is still waiting until marriage.”

Seriously...why did he keep saying that?

“Yes, sir,” Jacob said.

I knew that Jacob was agreeing to my dad’s face. But I wasn’t sure how far we would have gone last night if Axel hadn’t interrupted us... Oh God. Axel was watching all of this on the security cameras. He was probably laughing his head off.

“You know,” Uncle Matt said. “I was engaged to Brooklyn in high school.”

My dad glared at him. “No one is getting engaged. None of that. My daughter will not be engaged in high school. What is wrong with you?”

Uncle Matt laughed and held up his hands like what he’d just said was totally innocent.

He wasn’t seriously implying that Jacob and I should just go get hitched, was he? Jacob was my first boyfriend. Well, second if you asked Axel. I wasn’t ready to be engaged or married yet. I agreed with my dad there. It would be literally insane to be engaged in high school.

Jacob leaned down and kissed the side of my forehead.

He agreed that getting engaged would be insane, right? But Uncle Matt and Aunt Brooklyn had been engaged in high school. And Aunt Brooklyn had been with her first husband while she was still in high school too. Maybe that’s what Jacob wanted.