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I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I can’t believe you loved me back this whole time.”

“I never stopped loving you, Scarlett. Not for one second of one day. I’m just glad I wasn’t too late in telling you the truth.”

He almost had been. It had been easy to see my future with Jacob. But Jacob was right. It would have been a mistake. Because I never would have been sure if he was first, despite how much I wanted him to be at the time. He’d find his person. Someone who knew without a single doubt that he was the one. Someone that would give him everything he deserved. Because he deserved the world.

“You and Jacob will be okay, right?” I asked.

Axel nodded. “Yeah. Honestly, it was a hell of a lot harder to be okay with him when his hands were all over you. Why do you think I kept passing the ball in all those games instead of handing it off to him? I couldn’t even look at him.”

“I really should have been able to put all this together,” I said with a laugh. “It seems so obvious now. First there was that stupid pact about not dating anyone on your team. And then that vow of singledom.”

“By the way, you are terrible at keeping pacts.”

“You forced it on me!”

He laughed. “What was I supposed to do? You were slowly killing me, baby.”

I stared into his blue eyes. Staring and not being worried about being caught. I could definitely get used to this. “Can I ask you one more thing about everything that happened?”

“Ask me whatever you want.”

“That first day of school. When I came in wearing heels and a short skirt and contacts. I’d been missing you all summer. I was trying to reinvent myself to get you to finally notice me. And you said...”

“That I liked your glasses better.” He sighed.

“Is that true? Did you like me better before...”

“Scarlett, I love you with glasses. I love you without them. I love you in flannel pajamas and those skimpy bikinis you’ve been torturing me with for years on family beach trips. But seeing you walk down the hall toward me that first day of school scared the shit out of me.”

“Why?”

“Because I saw every guy turn his head and stare at you. And I saw the way Jacob reacted to your new look. I’d been doing my best to keep everyone away from you for years. But it became very obvious that I’d run out of time on the first day of school. Because everyone noticed you. And I needed you all to myself because I had to wait until your 18th birthday to propose to you. Which sounds so ridiculous saying out loud. I should have asked you out right then right there before anyone else got any stupid ideas in their head that you were available.”

“So you didn’t hate the new look.” I smiled. I really thought he’d hated it.

“No, I hated that everyone else liked it.”

But he thought that people hadn’t noticed me with my glasses. Which is why he wanted me to wear them again. Hence him doing that thing to my phone I couldn’t figure out how to undo. “So if you actually do like me in contacts too, can you please change my phone so it can unlock without my glasses?”

He laughed. “Give it to me.”

I slid on my glasses to unlock my phone and then handed it to him. “Thank you. Wearing my glasses and contacts at the same time makes me dizzy.” I put them back into my purse.

“Sorry about that. As a last-ditch effort I thought if you wore your glasses again maybe it would undo the damage you did on the first day of school.”

“The damage?” I said with a laugh.

“My whole freaking team suddenly wanting to hook up with you. There.” He handed me back my phone.

It had literally taken him less than a minute to undo what he’d done. “Actually, can we take another picture? I still want to have some kind of security on my phone because my dad is out of control.”

“I’ll take a picture when we get to our destination.”

“Yeah, I guess there’s better lighting in my room.”

He shook his head. “We’re not going back to your place.”

“Then where are we going?”