Page 21 of Scarlett and the Kiss Thief

“As friends. And we’re still just friends.”

“Really? When I was in school, wearing a guy’s varsity jacket meant you were dating.”

“Well, that was a bajillion years ago, mom.”

My father laughed as he walked into the kitchen. “If your mom is a bajillion years old, I don’t want to know how old that makes me.”

My mom smiled up at him and I looked away as the two of them kissed.

“For the record,” my father said, “I came to the same conclusion as your mother about the jacket. But Axel was just being a gentleman because Scarlett was dressed inappropriately at school yesterday.” He stared at me. “And today. Hopefully he’ll let her keep it.”

“I’m not dressed inappropriately,” I said. Not even a little bit. He’d made sure of that when he confiscated my Odegaards last night. I was back to wearing flats like a peasant.

“Speaking of which…we should probably let you know how long you’re grounded for. Right, Penny?”

My mom nodded her head.

I was really hoping when they said they needed to talk about it last night, that it meant that my mom would make my grounding suddenly disappear. Like she usually did. Besides, I’d already handed over my contraband high heels.

“I know I originally said a month…” my dad’s voice trailed off. “But I think a week will suffice.”

A week?But that meant I’d miss the start-of-school party on Friday night. “Dad, you saw the way the other girls at Empire High dress. I wasn’t wearing anything different than they were. I shouldn’t be grounded at all.”

“I don’t care about what the other girls wear. I care that you lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie…”

“You promised not to roll your skirt that’s already too short.”

“I…” my voice trailed off. Gah, I hadn’t meant to lie. I’d just been trying to get Axel’s attention because he was being an ass. “I’m sorry. I really am. But please don’t make me miss the first party of the year tomorrow night. I promise I won’t roll my skirt today.”

“You only promise that because you know I’ll be there. And I don’t love the wordtoday. That implies that you’ll do it again tomorrow.”

“Mom,” I said and turned to her. “He’s being unreasonable.”

My mom held back a smile. “When has your father even been unreasonable?”

“Literally all the time.”

“Hmm…” she said.

“Prime example – he signed up to be my teacher this year without telling me.”

“Sweetie, he did that to spend time with you before you go off to college. One day you’ll look back at this and be grateful. And you’re only grounded for one week. There will be other parties.”

“Not like this one.” I couldn’t not show up to the first party of my senior year. It was social suicide.

“You know, I never went to a single high school party and my life turned out better than I could have possibly imagined.”

“Mom, the whole good girl act doesn’t really work when you slept with your professor in college.”

“Enough, Scarlett,” my dad said.

But my mom just laughed. “Touché. It doesn’t make it less true though. I didn’t even have my first kiss until college and everything worked out just fine.” She smiled up at my dad.

Vom.

“Are you gonna eat that?” Liam asked as he lifted up my waffle without waiting for a reply.

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