I wanted to kiss Jacob Miller. And if I was being perfectly honest with myself, I’d been thinking about it since he’d told me I looked beautiful on Wednesday.

I think this was the conversation I’d needed to move on. Axel Stevens and I were never going to happen. And I needed to start living my life instead of lurking in the corner pouting because Axel would rather kiss anyone but me.

The pitiful truth was…I’d saved my first kiss for him. But he’d never asked me to. He’d never wanted it. All the dreams I had about us being together were just that…dreams. Fairytales I’d been telling myself since I was two. But you couldn’t force someone to be your Prince Charming.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” O’Reilly shouted through his megaphone.

I glanced behind me once more before heading back to the party, but Axel wasn’t there. I wasn’t sure where he’d gone. But honestly? It didn’t matter. I walked back out into the circus to see O’Reilly standing on the middle ring again.

“It’s time to take your seats! The show is about to begin!”

I had no idea what he was talking about. But I spotted Sophie climbing into the stands. I quickly hurried over to her and plopped down on the bleachers beside her.

“Have you seen Jacob?” I asked.

“No, he got a call a couple minutes ago and disappeared.”

Huh. Axel had gotten a random call too. I shook the thought away. Stop thinking about Axel. “I need to tell Jacob all about Operation Too Hot to Handle and Phase Incest. Just come clean so he doesn’t accidentally find out about it later and think the worst.”

“To get him on board?”

“No, Operation Too Hot to Handle is officially terminated. I’m done pining over Axel.”

Sophie handed me the bag of popcorn she was holding. She always knew when I needed comfort food.

“Thanks.” I ate a bit of the buttery goodness. I’d finally told Axel the truth and he’d just stared at me. Like he always just stared at me. I was pretty sure he thought I was nuts. Which was fine. Hell, maybe I was crazy.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Sophie asked.

“Axel? No.” I was done talking about Axel. “But Jacob?” I nodded. “I’m going to kiss him tonight. And I don’t ever want him to think I did it because of some stupid operation.”

Sophie squealed. “Yeah?”

I nodded.

“Technically it is still Operation First Kiss though.”

“Yeah, but that sounds loads better. I’m going to do it. I’m going to have my first kiss.”

Sophie sighed.

“What’s wrong?”