Page 86 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Saturday

“It’s already set in stone.”

“It’s in chalk.” I put my hand out for her to give it to me.

She chucked the piece of chalk into the grass. “Oops, we’re out of chalk.”

I sighed.

“Besides, we don’t have time to argue about pricing. The stadium is about to open and we need to set up these cameras.” She pulled out a little black box like the one RJ had for the V22s.

“Why do we need cameras?”

“We might need to reevaluate the kiss. Or we might be distracted kissing while the mascot is out performing. There will be a lot going on at once and it’s better to be safe.” She popped the lid of the box.

“Wait. Those don’t look like the V22s.”

“They’re not. RJ has all the V22 prototypes in the locker room. Help me up.”

I put out my hand to help her up on the table. She moved a few balloons and placed a little sticky camera on one of the posts holding up the blue and orange striped canopy over the kissing booth.

“So what version are they?” I asked.

“An earlier one.” She put another camera on the other side to get both angles of people walking up to the booth.

“How early?”

“Don’t worry, they work.” She jumped off of the booth and put a camera on the front of the table.

I laughed. “Sophie, we don’t need that angle.”

“Actually, we do. It’ll help determine height.” She smiled.

We both knew that wasn’t why she’d put a camera there. I sighed and sat down as she placed a few more around the booth. I pulled out my phone to check the locker room cameras.

“Any sign of the mascot yet?” she asked when she was done.

“No. Maybe he doesn’t change in the locker room?”

“I guess he could be shy,” she said. “Although everything he texts you and does to you in closets kind of says otherwise.”

Yeah. It didn’t make any sense. I kept staring down at my phone. Most of the guys were already in their uniforms. And I was doing my best not to stare unnecessarily at the ones that were still getting ready.

Someone cleared their throat.

I looked up. I hadn’t even realized that the stadium had opened. And there were a few guys already in line in front of our booth. I think they were underclassmen because I didn’t recognize them.

The guy at the front pulled out $5 and smiled at me.

It felt like my stomach dropped. I didn’t need to kiss a line full of underclassmen!

I turned to Sophie.

“Knock ‘em dead,” she said.

“You do it,” I whispered.

“He doesn’t want to kiss me. He wants to kiss you.”

I looked back at him. And he was staring at me. We really didn’t think this kissing booth through thoroughly enough. I took the guy’s money. But at the last second, I chickened out and let him kiss my cheek. We ended up doing an awkward double cheek kiss thing.

He looked a little disappointed, but he didn’t protest.

I let the next guy kiss my cheek too. And some people walking by saw and kept walking. I think I was scaring customers away. Score!

I sat down when our line dwindled. “Sophie,” I said. “Can’t we just close the booth until the football team comes out?”

“Why? Your kiss thief could literally be anyone here.”

“Stop saying that. It’s one of the guys on the baker’s dozen list.”

“Possibly.” She paused for a second to stand up and kiss a guy on the lips. He definitely slipped some tongue in. She sat back down so casually. “But how are you going to know if you’re only letting them kiss your cheek?”

“I’ll let one of our 13 suspects mouth kiss me.” My phone buzzed. I had a text from my kiss thief.

“I hope I see you at my game today.”

I smiled and showed it to Sophie. “See. He’s not some random guy in the stadium. He’s on the team. Why else would he text me that?”

“I have no idea why stalkers do what they do. But can I text him back? I have a really good response.”

“Don’t promise him more sexy photos.”

“I won’t, I swear.”

I handed her my phone.

She smiled the whole time she was texting. And then she handed me back my phone. She’d written: “I’ll be cheering you on from my kissing booth.”

I laughed. “Nice one.”

My phone buzzed with his response: “Your what?”

“Ignore that one,” she said. “He’ll see soon enough.”

I couldn’t stop smiling. Maybe the kiss thief seeing me kiss other guys would make him come out of hiding.

There was a buzz of excitement in the air as the stadium filled with people decked out in Empire High blue and orange. But I didn’t see the mascot anywhere. Didn’t he usually come out early?

I looked back down at my phone as Sophie manned the kissing booth.

Sophie sat down next to me. “Um...you might want to duck.”

“What?” I looked up. We had a line again.

“Too late,” Sophie said.

What was she talking about? Oh. Oh no. My dad had just appeared at the end of the line. And he didn’t look nearly as excited as the other guys in our line did.

“Everyone move,” my dad said. “Now.”

The line dispersed.

“James, I’m sure it’s for a good cause,” my mom said as they made their way up to us.

It was not. We’d made it up.

My mom turned to me. “What are you fundraising for?”

“The football team,” I said and tapped the sign to the side.

“The football team gets plenty of donations,” my dad said. “Shut it down.”

“Uncle James, please,” Sophie said. “We’re just trying to do our part to help the team.”

“How much money were you hoping to raise?” he asked.

Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know. Like $500?”

“Great.” My dad pulled some money out of his wallet and slammed it down on the table. “Now you can close down the booth.”

“James,” my mom said. “They’re just having a bit of fun.”

It actually wasn’t fun at all. But it was definitely necessary. I needed to figure out who the heck my kiss thief was.

“Scarlett is just letting guys kiss her cheek,” Sophie added. “It’s hardly scandalous.”

My dad turned to me. “Is that true?”

I nodded. So far it was. But I was pretty determined to kiss 13 guys later. Even if the thought of actually going through with it was making me feel all sweaty.

He sighed. “Fine. Cheeks only though.”

“That’s just a rule for Scarlett, right?” asked Sophie.

My dad lowered his eyebrows. “Where is your father?”

Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know. He’ll probably be here any minute. Wait. I think I see him now!” Sophie waved her hand. “Dad! Over here!”

Uncle Rob and Aunt Daphne walked over.

“A kissing booth?” Uncle Rob asked. “Good idea. That’ll raise a ton of money for the team.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Sophie looked very proud of herself.

My dad turned to Uncle Rob. “You’re seriously okay with this?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Our daughters are handing out kisses for money.”

He made it sound like we were whoring ourselves out. But he was wrong. We weren’t handing out the kisses. It was more of a receiving kiss kind of thing, but...

Uncle Rob laughed. “They’re entrepreneurial. Like us.” He slapped my dad on the back. “And this is hardly the worst thing they’ve been up to recently.”

My eyes grew round. Oh no. Uncle Rob, please don’t repeat anything Sophie said the other day!

“What do you mean?” my dad asked. “What have they been up to recently?”

Uncle Rob shrugged. “Nothing you should be allowed to be upset about.”

“What does that mean?”

Uncle Rob shrugged again. “Girl things.”

“What girl things?”

“We better go find a seat.” Uncle Rob turned to us. “Don’t worry, I’ve got your backs.” He winked.

“No, you’re supposed to have my back,” my dad said as they walked away.

“Phew, close one,” Sophie said. “Ah the football team is coming out!”

I looked over to see them running into the stadium.

And none of them were paying us any attention.

I knew I’d narrowed it down to 13 guys. But I also knew that technically it could still be anyone on the team.

And there were so many of them. My stomach churned.

But it wasn’t just the number of guys that was overwhelming.

“Sophie, we didn’t think this through. They don’t have time to come over here and kiss us. ”

“Of course they do. The game hasn’t started yet. August!” she yelled.

“No, don’t call August over,” I hissed.

“But he’s on your list. And I think going alphabetically makes the most sense. August!” she screamed louder.

August turned his head. He smiled at Sophie and then jogged over. “What are the two of you doing?”

My heart started racing. Could August actually be my kiss thief?

He was definitely tall enough. And that was basically all I was going off of.

His head was shaved and he had a dimple in one of his cheeks when he smiled.

And after lightly stalking the baker’s dozen list the past week, I also knew he was single.

Sophie tapped the sign that showed what we were raising money for. “Helping out the football team of course. So what do you say? Want to kiss Scarlett?”

He smiled at Sophie. “Are you not part of it?”

Sophie put her hand on her hip. “I guess that will work.” She turned to me. “We can compare notes.”

That sounded reasonable. And it felt like my heart was about to explode, so that was probably a good plan.

“What?” August asked.

“Nothing. That’ll be 5 bucks.” She put out her hand.

“I don’t have my wallet on me.”

“Shoot,” she said. She turned to me and added: “We should have made the kisses free.”

Uncle Matt blew his whistle. “August! Get in the huddle!”

“Sorry, gotta go,” he said.

“Wait,” I said. “Just plop one on me real quick for free.” I couldn’t even believe what I’d just said out loud.

He raised his eyebrow. “Seriously?”

I nodded.

He laughed. “Okay then.” He leaned forward.

This time I didn’t dodge the kiss. Or make it randomly European. I took it right on the mouth. And his lips felt nothing like my kiss thief’s.

“Thank you so much!” I said. I was officially down to a normal dozen suspects.

He smiled at me. “Anytime, Scarlett.”

“Can you please tell Billy O’Reilly to come over here?” Sophie asked.

“We’re about to play.”

“Just tell him.”

“Sure thing.” He put his helmet on as he jogged off.

I watched as he talked to Billy in the huddle.

Billy looked over at us. But then Uncle Matt said something and Billy turned back to the huddle.