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“Does this mean I get to sleep in your bed again?”

“In your dreams.”

“Is that a yes? Because I’ve been dreaming of sleeping in your bed again ever since you kicked me out.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever makes you happy.”

He smiled. “I know you missed me.”

I hadn’t when I was with Jacob. But God, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t missed Axel this past week. Maybe I’d somehow be able to sleep again if he was beside me. “I did miss sleeping with you,” I said. “But not in that sexual way you always say it. As friends.”

“Right. As friends.” Axel pulled his mask back on and slowly stood up. “Ready to go have some more old men check you out?”

I laughed. “They are not.”

“They absolutely are.” He grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet. He reached out and straightened my crown.

For a second we both just stared at each other. And again it felt like one of those moments I’d usually ruin in my head. So instead of ruining it, I dropped his hand. “Race you to the next house!” I ran off. And I was somehow winning. I reached the steps and made it up about two before Axel caught me around the waist.

He spun my around and placed me back on the sidewalk. He kept his arms wrapped around me and his lips fell to my ear. “I really am so sorry, Scarlett. And I know your heart is hurting right now. But I promise I’m going to heal it.” He kissed the spot right beneath my ear and his hands slid ever slightly lower around my waist.

I was completely frozen. How was I not supposed to read into that?

But then he released me from his grip and ran up the rest of the steps to knock first.

I laughed and ran after him. Maybe he just meant he’d keep making me laugh until I stopped wanting to cry.

Chapter 18 – Mr. Nigel’s Grandson

Sunday

“Axel is clearly in love with you,” Sophie said as she picked pepperonis off her pizza. “Why did my parents order this nonsense? They know I don’t like pepperoni. I’ve been eating exclusively sausage recently.”

“Would you keep your voice down?” Sophie and I were hiding out in the kitchen, but my whole extended family was in the other room watching football. I’d forced myself to come to the Giants viewing party because I’d desperately needed to talk to Soph about Friday night. “And he isn’t in love with me. If he was...why would he want a vow of singledom? Why wouldn’t he just ask me out?”

“I don’t know. Such high school boy games. Which is why I prefer older men.” She’d finished taking off the pepperoni and took a bite. “Delicious.”

I felt like it was delicious partially because of the pepperoni grease that had soaked into the cheese. But I didn’t care about Soph’s weird ordering of the week. “Sophie, what do I do?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she said through a mouthful of pizza.

“No. It isn’t.” Nothing was obvious at all. Jacob was in the other room ignoring me. And I was having a hard enough time trying to exist in his orbit. I could barely operate. I’d been doing my best to avoid Aunt Brooklyn and Uncle Matt. But Uncle Matt kept giving me this sympathetic look. And that was somehow worse than the wrath I expected from him.

“Yes, it is. At the beginning of the school year, we had a whole plan...”

“Operation Too Hot to Handle failed epically.”

“Did it though?” She set her pizza down. “You got a boyfriend out of it. I think we need to reinstall it.”

“Soph.”

“Scar. It’s practically a do over from the first day of school. Axel is single again. You’ve got another shot. Let’s just retry the operation.”

“The operation involved me getting contacts and wearing a short skirt and heels. Axel said he liked my glasses. And my dad will kill me if I show up in a short skirt and heels again to school.”

“Yeah, I mean, obviously we have to alter the original plan a bit. But I think Operation Too Hot to Handle Two is a go.”

“That’s a mouthful.”