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RJ laughed.

Liam shook his head. “Sounds about right.”

I had a feeling that Adonis had personalized all of these.

“For you, man,” he said and held it out to Axel.

“What?” Axel frowned. “No thanks.”

Adonis slapped it against his chest. “Don’t make it weird.”

“I wasn’t making it weird,” Axel said. He shook his head and looked down at his card. And he actually laughed. “This is very gay.”

“Well that’s offensive,” Adonis said.

Axel just shook his head. “I’m saying it in a literal way. I have no other words to describe this, Adonis.”

“What does it say?” Liam asked. He looked over his shoulder and laughed. He grabbed it from Axel. “There’s a monster on the front that looks like a bumble bee. And it says, ‘Just buzzing by to say, bee my Valentine.’ ”

Jacob laughed.

“What?” Adonis asked and grabbed the card back. He laughed. “Oops. Wrong one.” He reached back into his pocket. “Wait. Here it is.” He handed a new card to Axel.

“This is the same card,” Axel said.

“Flip it over.”

Axel flipped it over and shook his head.

“Now it says bee my friend,” Liam said with a laugh.

“This is very weird,” Axel said.

“Can we just call a truce to whatever this is?” Adonis asked. “You’re acting like I’m trying to steal pumpkin and you know full well that I’m all about Aphrodite.”

Axel sighed.

“What do you say?” Adonis put his hand out for him to shake. “Friends?”

“I’m really regretting missing my chance to kick your ass when Jacob and RJ did.”

“Is that a yes?” Adonis asked with a smile. “I feel like that’s a yes.”

“Yeah, whatever, man. But you’re really making this weird.” Axel shook his hand.

“Now that’s a great birthday gift,” Scarlett said.

I turned to Scarlett as the guys started talking. “What did Axel give you?”

She pointed to the rose gold bracelet on her wrist that matched her engagement ring. There were two red pandas on it, facing each other. And when she moved her arm it made the red pandas swing, making it look like they were kissing each other. “Isn’t it so cute?”

I nodded. It really was. And I was so happy that she was so happy.

“I’m just happy that I didn’t have to wait until today for Axel to tell me how he really felt.”

“Oh my God.” I hit her arm and turned to Axel. “Axel, did we ever tell you the full story about when we were trying to figure out why you were counting down to Scarlett’s 18th birthday?” I asked.

He laughed. “No.”