“Can I have ice cream for dinner?” Alora asked.

“No,” Uncle Matt and Aunt Brooklyn said at the same time.

I laughed. I was excited to try the new cupcake recipe. But this pot pie was pretty amazing too.

Jacob started tracing slow circles on my thigh with his thumb. It made my skin tingle. And it was a little hard to focus on anything else. My skin tingled when the kiss thief touched me too. That had to be a sign. I knew I still had six other guys on my list. But I doubted any of those guys could make me feel like this. And surely a drifter couldn’t. And surely Mr. Halifax couldn’t. I tried to shake away the thought.

“Scarlett,” Jacob said. “Did you hear the question?”

“What?” I said around a mouthful of pot pie.

He laughed. “Coach asked you how the yearbook committee was going. I didn’t realize you’d joined the yearbook committee.”

Crap. I’d completely forgotten about the lie we’d told Uncle Matt in order to get the football roster. I took forever to swallow my bite as I tried to think of what to say. “Yeah, Sophie wanted to. But it was short lived. We went to like two meetings and then quit. It definitely wasn’t for us.”

Jacob laughed.

I smiled up at him.

“What’s going on here exactly?” Uncle Matt asked as he looked back and forth between us.

“Coach.”

“I’m just asking.”

Aunt Brooklyn laughed. “Don’t interrogate them.” She turned to me. “You know you don’t have to do everything Sophie does. You might miss out on finding something that speaks to you. And how will you discover your passion if you don’t try new things?”

I had a lot on my plate right now. But I couldn’t really say that out loud. Searching for a kiss thief didn’t exactly count as an after school activity, even though it preoccupied a whole lot of my time. “What extracurriculars did you do in high school?” I asked.

“Well, I didn’t really have time for many after school activities because I worked after school back in Delaware. And then when I moved here, my uncle didn’t want me to work during the week. But I still worked on weekends. At first, at least. It wasn’t until I was homeschooled that I started baking. And I don’t know where I’d be today if I hadn’t found that. It’s my happy place.”

I smiled. “So technically what you’re saying is that you didn’t do any extracurriculars either.”

She laughed. “Okay, yeah. I guess not. Matt kept me plenty busy.” She turned to him. “Isn’t that right?”

He put his arm around her shoulders. “You’re acting like I monopolized your whole high school experience.”

“You did.”