Page 33 of Scarlett and the Fake Boyfriend (Scarlett #2)

Sunday

I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Henley was standing there with a bouquet and a big smile on his face. “Hi, Scarlett. These are for you.” He shoved the flowers into my hand.

“Oh. Thank you.” I had no idea why he’d stopped to get flowers during an emergency. Or why he was giving them to me. Didn’t he know I was dating one of his teammates? I clearly could not kiss him.

“Glad you could make it,” RJ said.

“So, should we do this here?” Henley asked. “Or inside?” He licked his lips.

I tried not to visibly cower away from him.

“Come on in,” RJ said. He closed the door behind Henley and guided him into the family room.

I reluctantly followed them. “Um...Henley’s here,” I said.

“What’s up, Axel?” Henley said. “Wait, are you coloring, dude?” He laughed.

Well that was rude.

Axel looked up from the drawing he was working on with Parker. “Yup.” He didn’t seem at all phased by Henley’s attempt at a dig. And I wondered if it happened a lot on the football field too.

Henley laughed again .

“I don’t see what’s funny,” Parker said. “My art sells for a lot. Does yours?”

Henley just laughed again and sat down next to Jacob on the couch.

Jacob looked over at me. He frowned at the flowers in my hand.

I quickly shoved them into Sophie’s chest. “These were for you,” I whispered.

“Why did you bring flowers to a football game?” Sophie asked.

“I didn’t. Henley brought them. For you.”

“Why?”

I leaned in closer so no one could hear us. “Because he only agreed to come once RJ said he could kiss you or me.” Kind of. “He also insisted on a picture to show the team in the locker room.”

“Fantastic. The plan is all coming together.”

“For you to kiss him.”

“No, for you to kiss him.”

I’m not kissing Henley! No offense to him. He was fine. Well, actually no, he wasn’t. He was a little obnoxious. And I had a boyfriend. Sort of.

Henley grabbed a couple snacks like he was actually here to just hang out.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Henley said to no one in particular. “So who is everyone?”

“It’s kind of a family gathering,” Jacob said. He looked back over at me.

RJ laughed beside me. “This is super awkward.”

“Why did you let him go sit down?” I whispered.

“It seemed rude to just jump right into making him work. Besides, it seemed like he wanted to jump on you. And I thought you wanted Soph to kiss him. ”

“Scar’s going to do it,” Sophie said.

Am not. “We need to get him to Axel’s room,” I said.

“Don’t be rude,” RJ said. “At least talk to the guy first.” He lightly pushed me toward the couch.

I sighed and sat down on the other side of Jacob. “What’s up, guys?”

“Nothing,” Henley said through a mouthful of food.

Jacob turned to me and raised his eyebrow.

I laughed. “So what exactly were you up to before the game?” I asked him. “Anything interesting?” I knew I had no right to pry. But I needed so much more information about this project he was working on with Olivia.

“Nope,” Jacob said. “Just a normal Sunday.”

So he hung out with Oliva every Sunday? That seemed obsessive. I leaned forward. “What about you, Henley? What were you up to?”

He shrugged. “Not much. I was happy to come over.” He smiled at me.

I couldn’t really explain it, but I had a gut feeling that Henley was not my kiss thief.

Onyx ran over to me. “I found a rope. Can we play tag now?”

“Buddy, you don’t need rope for tag,” Jacob said.

“But we have to tie the loser to the coffee table to be our prisoner for the rest of the day.”

I laughed. “Definitely not, Onyx.”

“But...”

I tuned him out when Axel stood up and stretched.

“I’m gonna go change,” Axel said.

Ah!

Parker squinted her eyes closed like she was trying to force more tears, but nothing came out.

I turned around to look at Sophie.

Sophie tossed the flowers to the side and ran over to Axel. “You’re it,” she said.

“What?” Axel asked.

“Tag!” Onyx shouted. “You’re it!”

Axel laughed. “Are you sure about that?” He ran after Onyx. It didn’t look like he’d be heading toward his room anytime soon.

Phew.

Sophie walked behind the couch. She leaned over and whispered something in Henley’s ear.

He immediately stood up. I was surprised he didn’t knock over any food like Thorin as he hurried around the couch.

Sophie patted my shoulder. “It’s time.”

I’d already handled my part of Operation Big Brother by distracting Axel last night and this morning. She was supposed to be the one cleaning up the mess. But I got up and followed her and Henley down the hall anyway.

I looked over my shoulder at Jacob, Liam, and RJ following us too.

“This is too many people,” I whispered when we reached Axel’s room.

“Then we better make it quick,” Jacob said.

“But someone at least needs to be on lookout.”

“Liam and I need to focus on learning lockpicking,” RJ said.

Jacob sighed. “Fine. I’ll be at the end of the hall.” He walked back down the hall, folded his arms, and leaned against the wall. But he was still looking in this direction.

“What does this door lead to?” Henley asked.

“Questions weren’t part of the deal,” Sophie said.

He shrugged. “Fine. But I want my kiss first.” He turned to me.

Sophie put her hand on the side of his face to redirect his gaze to the door. “No, unlock it first, Henley. Then you’ll get your kiss.” She patted his cheek.

Don’t promise him that!

“Fine.” Henley pulled something out of his pocket and crouched in front of the door.

“This is so awesome,” RJ said. “Liam, pay attention. We need to know this.”

Liam was already watching.

No good was going to come out of the two of them actually learning how to pick locks. Because I certainly never planned on getting in another pinch like this.

“Touchdown!” Uncle Rob yelled in the distance.

“Shh,” Henley said as he concentrated.

But I couldn’t exactly tell Uncle Rob to stop celebrating from the other room. I kept glancing down the hall while Henley worked.

“How far along was the game?” I whispered. I hadn’t been paying attention. But if halftime was coming up, someone might walk down the hall to go to the bathroom.

“Shh,” Henley said again.

As if my thoughts had willed it to happen, Jacob pushed himself off the wall and hurried off. Someone must have been about to come down the hall.

“You really don’t want to use the bathroom for a bit!” Jacob said loudly. “Someone really let one rip.”

I couldn’t hear what the other person said.

“Yup, it was Scarlett,” Jacob said loudly.

Hey!

“Give it like five minutes to air out.”

I was going to kill him.

“Henley, come on, man,” Sophie said.

“Shh,” he said.

I was starting to think he didn’t even know how to pick a lock. Seriously, what was taking so long?

“Henley, I swear to God,” Sophie said. “If you don’t open the lock in ten seconds, Scarlett isn’t kissing you.”

Well now I wanted him to take longer...

“Got it.” Henley pushed the door open.

“He just needed the proper motivation,” Sophie said and patted my shoulder.

I shook my head and walked into Axel’s room.

Sophie hurried over to Axel’s computer. She lifted the lid and typed in my birthday to unlock it.

Sure enough, the footage of the locker room immediately came into view. Sophie quickly exed out of it before Henley could see. And then she slammed the lid of the laptop closed.

“Operation Big Brother is complete,” she said.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Huh?” Henley asked.

“Nothing,” Soph and I said at the same time.

“Is this Axel’s room?” Henley asked as he walked around.

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

“But is it?”

“Yes. Now can we please go? ”

Henley ignored me and kept walking around. “It seems normal enough.”

“Why wouldn’t it be normal?” I asked.

Henley shrugged. “Just thought it would be more...assholey.”

Yeah, I hated this guy.

He turned to me. “So about my kiss.”

“Soph has been looking forward to it,” I said. “And we really need to get out of here.”

“I’d like the kiss to be in here,” Henley said.

“No. You want a picture. Axel can’t know we were in his room.”

“We can do it right here.” Henley stepped in front of a portion of the wall that was devoid of any decorations.

“We really don’t have time to argue about this,” Sophie said. “Scarlett, kiss him.”

“But...” My voice trailed off as I stared up at Henley. I was so tired of kissing random people to unmask my kiss thief. And it felt wrong to do it in Axel’s room with Jacob just down the hall. I wasn’t interested in Henley. There was no way he was my kiss thief. It just wasn’t possible.

“For Christ’s sake,” Sophie said. “RJ, please take a picture of me kissing Henley.” She tossed her phone at him.

RJ caught it. “Sure.”

Henley suddenly looked so nervous.

But then I couldn’t tell how he looked, because Sophie grabbed both sides of his face and plopped one on him.

RJ snapped a picture.

“Wow,” Henley said. “Best first kiss ever.”

“You think there’s going to be a second?” Soph asked as she wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

“I mean...if you want. But I just meant that was my first kiss ever.”

Oh. Okay. Well Henley was definitely not my kiss thief then.

Sophie sighed. “Everyone out. Now.”

We all left Axel’s room and Sophie closed the door behind us.

She leaned in close as we made our way down the hall.

“Even if it wasn’t his first kiss ever, I would have eliminated him from our suspect list. That kiss was sloppy as hell.

Why’d he use so much tongue? That was probably like how you kissed Jacob the first time. ..”

“I did not use too much tongue.”

Sophie smiled.

I stopped when I reached the end of the hall. Jacob was standing there, staring dead ahead at nothing in particular.

“Lost in thought?” I asked.

“Hm?” He looked down at me.

“Did you seriously have to tell someone I stunk up the bathroom?”

He laughed. “It seemed necessary. Although Aunt Bee did seem concerned about you.”

I cringed. “Great.”

“So...”

I looked up at him. “So?”

“How was the kiss with Henley?”

“I told you I wouldn’t kiss him,” I said.

“Then why does he look so smug?”