Page 39 of Rival Hearts

“Wait,” Natalie said with urgency in her voice, “I’m not done yet.”

“Baby, we need to go,” Jett said.

“No!” Natalie demanded. “You have to wait until I’m finished.”

Riley laughed and Jett shook her head and rolled her eyes in a playful manner. “Okay, fine,” she said.

Natalie started to rush her drawing, so it didn’t take long for her to finish. While she was working on it, Jett and Riley just looked at one another.

“Okay, now I’m done,” Natalie said, standing up from the table and walking with her paper to present it to Riley. “Ta-da!”

Riley looked at the paper with two people standing close to one another with sunshine and a rainbow in the background. One person was taller than the other, and the shorter person had a wide smile on its face.

“It’s you and Auntie Jett,” Natalie said, pointing at the shorter figure first and then the taller one.

Riley smiled. “Oh my goodness, it’s beautiful,” she said, and she laughed a little. Jett wasn’t too much taller than her, but she supposed that in a child’s mind a couple inches was noteworthy.

“You gonna take it home and put it on your fridge?” Natalie asked.

“Of course,” Riley said. “I don’t have any pictures on my fridge, so this is going to have its own special place of honor.”

Natalie smiled and gave Riley a hug. “I like you,” Natalie said and Riley’s heart warmed.

She looked at Jett, who smiled at her and went to ruffle Natalie’s already-wild hair.

“Okay kiddo, we’ve got to get going,” Jett said.

“Okay.” Natalie frowned and wrapped Jett in a hug. “I’ll see you later, right?”

“Of course,” Jett said, “and I love you.”

“I love you too,” Natalie said before turning to Riley, “and you, too.”

Riley smiled, and for the first time in a long time she said words that she never heard growing up. “I love you too.”

The two of them prepared to leave, and Riley followed Jett into the kitchen, confused.

“Aunt Becky was worried about you feeding yourself since you can’t cook and all and told me to grab you leftovers,” Jett said, looking in the cabinets for a large plastic container before she started to fill it up with food.

“Oh, thank you,” Riley said, “but you don’t have to do that. I can take care of myself.”

Jett just gave her a look and kept piling food into the container. “It’s best that you take some anyway. I’m usually left taking home the leftovers and I never know what to do with all of them.”

Riley just nodded.

When they finished and got out to the car after a long goodbye to the rest of the family and well wishes to get home safely, Riley found herself drained. In a way, it was a good drained, but she found herself wondering how Jett seemingly still had energy as she put the leftovers and picture in the backseat and then reminded Riley to buckle up in a chipper voice.

10

JETT

Jett was not having a good week so far. Two days after the Sunday lunch and supper with her family, and she had already responded to two dead on arrivals, multiple car crashes, fires, it all seemed to be happening.

She barely had any time to see Riley, and when she even thought about her a lot, her mind was muddled. Jett didn’t know what to think about Riley or how to feel about her.

Things were moving so quickly; on one hand she was okay with that, but on the other hand, it was overwhelming.

Everything was incredible when they were together. There was an ease to every interaction, Jett felt safe with her. And the sex… well the sex was simply mind-blowing in a way that Jett had never experienced before. Jett couldn’t stop thinking about Rileys muscular tattooed body, her masculine energy, her piercing green eyes. She was so damn attractive it was impossible not to want her.

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