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God, how had I ever existed without his kisses?

His fingers slid down to my ass and he lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he twirled me around in a circle.

I’d gone to sleep so many nights, dreaming of kissing him in the stands just like this after one of his games. It felt so perfect that it was hard to believe it was real.

I heard cheering and Axel stopped spinning me. We stared down the stands to see Liam, Soph, RJ, Jacob, and Parker running toward us. Axel set me back down on my feet and the five of them threw their arms around us.

“It’s about time,” Sophie said. “Seventeen years in the making.”

“Yeah, yeah,” RJ said. “But I have so many questions. How did you get out of Odegaard without any of us seeing you?”

Axel laughed. “I asked Mr. Nigel for help with that. All I had to do was agree to let him call me grandson.” He shrugged.

“I knew there was more behind that,” I said.

“I love Grandpa Nigel,” Parker said. “I’m glad he adopted us.”

Jacob shook his head. “Mr. Nigel is so sneaky. I’m just used to him helping me.” He laughed.

I stared at him for a moment. He looked genuinely happy for us.

“What did you think of Sophie’s Gog costume at Odegaard?” RJ asked. “Because she gave me a hard time about it.”

“I think I saw right through it,” Axel said.

Sophie slapped RJ’s arm. “I knew it!”

RJ laughed. “You’re the one that called yourself Gog though.” He turned back to Axel. “And...burner phone?”

Axel nodded.

“And did you know about the cameras in the locker room?”

“The what?” Axel asked.

“Um...nothing,” RJ said.

I looked up at Axel. “All those pacts that you kept trying to make with me? About me not dating anyone on the team. And then the vow of singledom thing...”

“I didn’t want you to date anyone but me. And I knew you’d narrow down the kiss thief to people at that first party of the year. Which was mostly my team.” He shook his head. “We made it all the way to our senior year without you wanting to date anyone and suddenly you wanted to kiss everyone and I panicked.”

Sophie folded her arms across her chest. “The only reason she was single for so long was because you told people on your team she was off-limits.”

Axel scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah...um...I did do that. And for a long time that worked. But at that party when you told me you were ready to give away your first kiss to someone other than me, I knew I needed a new plan.”

“And the kiss thief was born,” Liam said. “It’s really gross that you like kissing my sister, man. So disgusting.”

Axel smiled. “I really like kissing your sister.” He grabbed me around the waist and kissed me again.

“Stop being disgusting,” Liam said.

“It’s not disgusting,” RJ said. “Your sister is clearly very hot.”

I laughed and pulled back.

“But why did you dress up as the Empire High mascot, Axel?” Sophie asked. “That was a really shit thing to do when you know how much I love Mr. Halifax.”

“Yeah, I did not realize that you guys would actually think I was the mascot. I was just goofing around. Did you seriously think I was Mr. Halifax?”