Page 1 of Scarlett and the Fake Boyfriend (Scarlett #2)

Monday

I’d messed up my first kiss by kissing someone who I couldn’t even see. Ever since, I’d been dreaming of unmasking my kiss thief and kissing him again. A first kiss do-over of sorts.

I thought my dreams were coming true when Jacob’s lips pressed against mine.

But it only took a few seconds for me to realize that Jacob wasn’t my kiss thief. And the surprise of it made me do something weird with my tongue. I was pretty sure I’d just touched the roof of his mouth.

Screw me.

I’d just flubbed this first kiss too.

I’d been so wrapped up in the possibility that Jacob was my kiss thief. I hadn’t even let myself think about what I would do if he wasn’t.

And he definitely wasn’t. Because the kiss was...awkward.

Jacob laughed against my lips and pulled back.

I wanted to laugh. But I was pretty sure I wanted to cry more. It was painfully clear that he thought the kiss was awkward too. And I didn’t know what to say. “Why are you laughing? ”

“Scarlett.” He laughed again as he stared down at me.

“I...I need to go.” I tried to step by him, but he put his hand down on the kitchen island to cage me in.

“What was that weird thing you just did with your tongue?”

Ah! I couldn’t even look at him. “I need to go,” I said again.

I ducked under his arm and hurried toward the door.

“Thanks for dinner!” I called to Uncle Matt and Aunt Brooklyn.

“And the new cupcake flavor was amazing!” I slipped on my shoes and hurried out the door without glancing back.

I ran down the front stairs. My ride wasn’t here yet.

I didn’t even know what time it was. All I knew was that I needed to get far, far away from here.

“Scarlett!” Jacob called after me.

I quickened my pace.

“Scar!” He grabbed my wrist to stop me from fleeing.

“Don’t look at me,” I said.

He laughed.

“Stop laughing!”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But that was a terrible kiss.”

I finally looked up at him. “I don’t think you’re supposed to say mean things like that to your new girlfriend!”

“Do you want me to lie about it? If I said that was the best kiss ever you’d think I was a lunatic. You tried to lick the roof of my mouth.”

“I did not.”

He raised his eyebrow at me.

“I’m sorry, I think I panicked or something.”

“You think? ”

I laughed.

He smiled down at me.

“You’re right. It was terrible.” I groaned and put my face in my hand that he hadn’t captured.

He reached out and lowered my hand from my face. “Which is why I think we should try again.”

“You want to try again?”

He nodded.

“Seriously? Because that was...terrible. Your words. And mine.”

“Come with me.” His hand slid down my wrist and he intertwined his fingers with mine. He pulled me back the way we’d come.

“I can’t go back inside,” I said. The kiss was bad enough. But the thought that Aunt Brooklyn and Uncle Matt could have turned around and witnessed the awkwardness just made everything worse.

“We’re not going back inside.” He pulled me over to his truck.

Oh thank God.

He unlocked the door and opened it for me.

I climbed in and he closed the door behind me. I watched him run his fingers through his hair as he walked around the front of the truck. He was probably trying to analyze why that had been so weird too.

I’d freaked out because he didn’t kiss like my kiss thief.

Crap, my kiss thief. I pulled out my phone to see what my kiss thief had said back to me.

But I was momentarily distracted by my reflection in the screen.

There was icing on my face. I groaned and quickly wiped the icing off as I clicked on my unread text.

I’d texted my kiss thief saying that I had a boyfriend now. And asked him to stop texting me.

He’d responded: “A boyfriend, huh? Does he know you dream about me when you fall asleep every night? I have a feeling he won’t be your boyfriend for long.”

That...that...asshole! My freaking kiss thief ruined everything!

Jacob opened the door.

I slid my phone back into my pocket and tried to ignore the way the kiss thief had left my heart racing.

I was just angry. It had nothing to do with the fact that I liked my kiss thief.

Had I thought I was falling in love with him earlier today?

Sure. But that’s because I thought he was Jacob.

Right now I wanted nothing to do with my kiss thief. He could find someone else to torment.

I stared at Jacob as he slid into the driver’s seat.

Yes, I’d freaked out during our kiss because he wasn’t my kiss thief. But what if it was more than that? What if Jacob and I just didn’t fit? I tried to shake the thought away.

I wanted to be his girlfriend. I wanted to wear his varsity jacket to school tomorrow. I wanted him to keep holding my hand between classes. And staring at me in that way he did when we were at lunch. Like he couldn’t keep his eyes off me.

An uncomfortable silence settled around us. I waited for Jacob to put his key in the ignition, but instead he slid his keys into his pocket.

“First off.” He leaned over and opened the glove compartment. He pulled out a tissue and handed it to me. “You have icing on your nose.”

I’d tried to get it all a moment ago, but I must have missed some on my nose. I forced a laugh. “Your fault.” I grabbed the tissue and wiped off the remaining icing .

“Now come here.” Jacob gestured to his side of the car.

Did he seriously want me to climb onto his lap?

I glanced toward his house. But no one was staring out the windows or anything.

Besides, it was getting darker by the minute.

I started to move toward him, but my knee immediately hit the center console.

“Ow.” I unceremoniously landed on his lap way harder than I meant to.

He made a noise like all the air left his lungs.

I looked down and realized that I’d probably hit him in just the wrong spot. “Sorry,” I said.

He winced.

“I’m so so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he said. He exhaled slowly. “I’m good.”

“Good.”

His hands settled on my waist.

I was straddling Jacob in his car. Right outside his house. I turned to look out the window again, but he put one of his hands on the side of my face to stop me.

“Don’t think about anyone else. Just think about us.”

I nodded and stared into his brown eyes. Jacob was my boyfriend. My first ever boyfriend. And I was going to make this kiss way better than our last one.

“Now let’s try this again.” His hand shifted backward and his fingers tangled in my hair.

I swallowed hard as I breathed in his exhales. I was focused on him. In this moment.

I leaned forward as he tilted my face up toward his.

And our teeth somehow slammed together instead of our lips. I tried to fix it by plopping my lips on his and I somehow managed to honk the horn behind me.

He laughed against my lips.

“Jacob, stop laughing at me!”

“Why do you keep kissing me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you don’t know how. I know that you know how. I’ve seen you kiss countless people during the last week.”

I knew my face was red. God, the kissing booth and the bonfire party. I was never going to live those down. “They were mostly pecks.”

He laughed.

“I know how to kiss, Jacob!” I grabbed both sides of his face and planted my lips on his.

But he was still laughing. And for some reason, me kissing him just made him laugh harder.

I pulled back and stared at him. I wanted to be angry. But seeing the huge grin on his face made me laugh too. The stress of it being all wrong disappeared when we were both laughing.

His fingers found my cheek again. “You are so beautiful. And I really thought I wanted this. But kissing you is so weird.”

I groaned and dropped my head on his shoulder. “Stop it.”

His hands dropped back down to my waist. “I think maybe we’re just too good of friends.”

I groaned again. This was even more mortifying than Sophie offering to pay guys to kiss me at the kissing booth.

“Scarlett, look at me.”

I reluctantly lifted my head from his shoulder. “I don’t understand. Everything is fine when we’re just hanging out. But I feel this tension between us right now. We just need to keep practicing.”

“I’m not sure that’s how it’s supposed to work.”

I sighed. Yeah. He was probably right about that. “But you said you’ve had a crush on me for forever.”

“I do. I...did.”

I hated how he’d used the past tense there.

“But you’re not the same as when we first met,” he said.

“What do you mean by that?”

He shrugged.

“No, tell me.”

“Promise you won’t get upset with me?” he asked.

I nodded. Even though I had a feeling whatever he was about to say was going to hurt like hell.

“When we first met I felt out of place in the city. And you seemed so sure of yourself. Always. You were the most confident person I knew. But...”

I already knew what he was going to say.

“Somewhere over the years, that version of you disappeared. And I think maybe I just had a crush on who you used to be.”

It felt like he’d slapped me. But I couldn’t be upset. Because I knew it was true. As soon as I started wearing glasses, it seemed like I’d kind of lost a piece of me. The oversized clothes my dad always encouraged me to wear hadn’t helped either. I felt invisible.

And it felt like I was supposed to feel that way.

Like I was meant to just fade away into oblivion.

Having an unrequited crush on Axel that whole time hadn’t helped the situation.

I’d never felt good enough. How could someone remain confident and carefree when everyone around them made them feel inadequate?

Maybe if I’d known Jacob liked me sooner, I could have avoided all those years of hurt. He’d loved me the way I was. And I’d never known.

“Please don’t cry.” Jacob lifted his hands and wiped beneath my eyes.

I hadn’t even realized I was. Jacob loved me before I wore glasses.

Axel apparently liked me with glasses. And this new version of me that was trying her hardest to get her confidence back?

Only a drifter in a dark closet preferred this mess.

The thought just made the tears fall faster.

I’d really wanted my kiss thief to be Jacob.

I felt like the unluckiest person alive.

Jacob wiped more of my tears away. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have...”

“No, it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“I know,” I said. Jacob was the only one that ever seemed to care about my feelings at all.

“Come here.” He opened his arms wide.

I leaned forward and let him hug me. The way he always did. Like a friend.

Which just made me cry harder.

He ran his hand up and down my back.

“I’m going to die alone,” I said.

He chuckled. “I’m positive you won’t.” He kept rubbing my back.

“Yes I am.”

His hand paused. Like he was considering my fears as truth. But then he said: “What about Operation Too Hot to Handle?”

I lifted my head from his shoulder. “What about it? It’s over.”

“Is it? ”

I wiped the tears off my cheeks. “Yes. The only person that noticed my new look was you. And you laugh whenever you kiss me.”

Jacob smiled. “You laughed too.”

“Ugh.” I put my head back on his shoulder.

“You told me when we went for ice cream all about your operation. To make Axel jealous. And you also confessed that you had a crush on him. But I already knew that.”

“Yeah, everyone knew it but him.” But Axel knew it now. I’d told him I saved my first kiss for him. And he’d had no response. His stupid nonchalant shrug at my confession was seared into my brain. He didn’t like me back. Of that I was sure.

“Do you still like him?”

“No.”

There was a long pause. “Are you sure?”

I sighed and lifted my head. “It doesn’t matter if I do or not. Axel thinks of me like a sister. You said it yourself.”

“People’s feelings change.”

“Like yours.”

Jacob smiled. “Yeah. But maybe we can make his change too.”

“We?”

“Like I said before, I knew why he threatened guys in the locker room to stay away from you. But I figured he’d be cool with us dating because he knew I’d treat you right. But...he’s clearly not okay with it. He’s playing like shit. And he stopped handing me the ball again.”

My heart started pounding. Sophie had said something similar to me. That she thought Axel was out of his mind with jealousy. “You think Axel is jealous?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter if he is or isn’t. The operation hasn’t worked.”

“Then let’s keep making him jealous until it does work. Let’s bring back Operation Too Hot to Handle. Together.”

“So just like...keep flirting in front of him?”

“As my girlfriend, yeah. If that doesn’t do it, I’m not sure what will.”

I smiled. “You still want to date me?”

“ Fake girlfriend, Scarlett,” he said with a laugh.

“Psh. Right. Of course. I knew that.” I hadn’t.

I’d thought maybe... I pressed my lips together.

I don’t know what I’d thought. Jacob didn’t like me.

He’d already told me as much. Which sucked because despite the awkward kisses, I still liked him.

But we were over before we ever really began.

I hoped I could stop liking him as quickly as he’d stopped liking me.

Or this fake dating thing was really going to mess with my head.

I reached into my pocket. “I should probably give this back to you.” I tried to hand him the little star he’d given me from his room.

“Keep it.”

“But...”

“Your fake boyfriend wants you to have a piece of him in your room. It’ll look suspicious if Axel comes over and doesn’t see some of my things there.”

“True.” I smiled and put it back into my pocket. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yeah. This is going to be fun.”

“You might have to kiss me again.”

“Just try not to knock out any of my teeth.”

I lightly shoved his shoulder .

He laughed.

I kept a smile on my face. But it felt like a piece of my heart had just broken. Jacob and I could have been perfect together. And I couldn’t help but think that the kiss thief had kind of ruined it. Or maybe Axel had ruined it. Or maybe my dad had.

Jacob lightly slapped my ass. “Now let me take you home.”

“Briggs is coming to get me.”

“Text him and let him know you don’t need a ride. Boyfriends drive their girlfriends home. They shouldn’t need security guards. And if we’re going to do this, we’re doing it right. Because if we don’t, your dad will probably kill me.”

Oh crap. I hadn’t even thought about telling my dad I had a boyfriend. He was going to freak out.