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Jamie pursed her lips. “Why? Can’t spare more than an hour for your daughter?”

Tori tensed, and she looked directly at Jamie. Even Miranda looked uncomfortable with that comment. Jamie hadn’t meant for it to come out of her mouth with so much vehemence, but she couldn’t help it. Not with the way that Siena had talked about time so often, about how Jamie was wasting her time, about how valuable her hours were.

“So an hour?” Siena answered, raising an eyebrow as her eyes locked on Jamie’s in a challenge.

Of course she would be the one to keep her cool during this entire debacle. Jamie was going to make an ass of herself, again, and Siena was going to come out the winner. That was how every single conversation had gone between them so far, hadn’t it?

“Yes, about an hour,” Jamie mumbled under her breath.

She finally looked around, really needing to escape this entire situation. She definitely should have told Jessie that she couldn’t help her tonight. Either that or she should have left while she had the chance. Not to mention, she’d lost her safety blanket of a sister already.

She started to walk away, not saying anything else, but Siena caught her wrist and pulled her back. Siena looked at Tori and Miranda and smiled. “Save me a seat, would you?”

“Sure,” Tori answered, smiling as she turned away to find seats for all of them.

Siena pulled at Jamie’s wrist and started to drag her down the hallway and away from where everyone was coming in. “Where are we going?” Jamie asked.

“I don’t know what that was about.” Siena spun around, dropping Jamie’s hand and shoving hers into the pockets of her jacket. “But I don’t appreciate it.”

“Appreciate it?” Jamie scoffed. “So high and mighty, aren’t you?”

Siena narrowed her eyes. “Look, we need to talk. But now isn’t the time or the place.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Please.” Siena’s tone softened then, and it sounded far more like a request than it did a demand. That was something that Jamie could maybe handle. Except she wasn’t sure what she’d do or say or how bad it was going to get if she let herself loose around Siena.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Where were you?” Siena asked, her voice firm and commanding again. “For the interview.”

Jamie clenched her molars tightly and shook her head. “You didn’t want me to do the interview anyway. So what does it matter?”

“It matters.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Jamie hardened her entire body. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to help my sister.”

She didn’t wait around. Immediately, Jamie turned on her toes and walked away from Siena and toward Jessie’s classroom. She was too scared to look as soon as she stepped into the kindergarten classroom to see if Siena was still staring ather down the hallway, but she swore she felt Siena’s eyes still on her.

She was playing a dangerous game with potentially ticking Siena off, but she needed to. For her own self-preservation. She’d already kicked off Jessie’s plan, and this was her unofficial add to it. She needed to make a name for herself, figure out her own career, and she needed to do it all on her own. It wasn’t about favors. It was about skill and passion.

“Everything good?” Jessie said quietly.

“Yeah, everything’s peachy.” Jamie winced. But more kids were dropped off. Immediately she walked over to the small table that Jessie had set up with coloring supplies and went to entertain the kids until it was their turn to go onto the stage and sing. She could do this. She could be the sister she always wanted to be, and eventually, she could be the journalist that she’d always dreamed of.

twenty-three

Siena clapped one last time as all of the students left the stage after their final number. Harley had been so excited when she’d finally spotted them in the crowd, and Siena had waved enthusiastically back at her.

“Did you want to go get her?” Tori asked.

“Yeah.” Siena waited for the majority of the crowd to leave through the door, though. She’d been at plenty of these types of events in her lifetime and in her career. She knew that it was far easier to move around once everyone was gone.

Rebel had fallen asleep on Miranda’s shoulder and was happily breathing in and out heavily as she continued to sleep during the final number. Harley would find that adorable. Siena was glad that Harley could at least have somewhat of a sibling relationship because she sure as hell wasn’t going to get a sibling from Siena. Maybe Tori…maybe. Though Siena had more doubts of that since she’d fallen in love with Miranda.

“What’s going on with you and Jamie?”

“W-what?” Siena stuttered over the word.