Page 8 of Is It Casual Now?

eight

The phone call from Jessie had given her no clue as to the shit show she would be stepping into. But the tone of the call was enough to have Jamie rushing out of the office and heading down to the school.

The drive had all different scenarios playing out in her head, but not one of them came anything close to what she stepped into.

Her eyes met Siena’s, and her blood froze in her veins, while heat rushed to her cheeks.

And between her thighs.

What the hell was Siena doing here?

Was it revenge and payback for the blog? Wasn’t trying to get her fired enough? Trying? Hell, she had gone beyond trying. But this was next-level crazy person.

She had known the phone call was going to be rough, but she honestly believed that she’d made a truce with Siena. A tentative one, but still. They’d both waved the white flag in a sense.

Hope of interviewing Siena and the more wistful future hope of then one day finally getting a real interview with Bunny and Piper flew out the window—the window that was covered in art pieces she herself had helped her sister stick up only last week.

The memory of the panic that had filled Jessie’s voice came back to Jamie, and she pushed away her own ambitions for the sister-protection mode she’d had to engage very rarely so far in her life.

She would if she needed to.

But first she had to find out what the hell was going on. And the only way to do that would be to force her feet to finally move forward.

Taking a deep breath and giving herself a single solid nod, her feet obeyed, and she walked toward Siena and Jessie.

“Jessie.” She stared at her sister first, wide eyes that promised a beat down on whoever needed it. Jamie just wasn’t sure who that would be. “You didn’t tell me exactly why I had to rush down here in the middle of my workday. So, what’s happening?”

“Jamie, this is Siena Frazee. I believe you two have met. Maybe not, though. Did you know she had a daughter who just started school this year? In my class?” The wince for Jessie was enough to tell Jamie far more about what was going on than any other words she could manage to get out.

“What?” Jamie’s fears of keeping her job just kept plummeting even farther as she registered the rage that vibrated beneath Siena’s very skin.

“Wait. You have a kid? And she attends here?” Jamie’s luck really couldn’t get any worse, could it?

“She won’t be a student here for much longer.” Siena’s face was a hard-edged mask of barely contained fury.

“What?” Jamie couldn’t have heard that correctly. “Why won’t she be here much longer? Has something happened?”

Siena scoffed and rolled her eyes, pointing to Jessie with one long finger—and Jamie knew exactly what she could do with it.

Jamie turned to Jessie for an explanation, but her sister gave her a familiar I’m as flabbergasted as you look.

“I don’t understand.” Jamie didn’t like admitting that. Ever. But her brain hadn’t quite caught up, all the pieces refusing to fit together to make any sense.

“Did you know who I really was before you hit on me?” Siena leaned in, hissing the words quietly into the space between her and Jamie.

“What? No. Of course not. This is insane. You can’t have a kid.”

“Just like you can’t possibly have a twin sister teaching my daughter.” Siena’s voice was low, a warning or a threat?

But was Siena threatening Jessie’s job as well? Jamie would never be able to forgive herself for that, or to live it down with any of her family. The rest of her life would be punctuated by conversations around “that time Jamie got Jessie fired because she couldn’t keep it in her pants or stay out of other people’s business.” God, she could hear the conversations over Sunday night dinners already.

“Mommy!” A small girl’s excited squeal made Jamie step back and blink, happy enough to be pulled out of her thoughts. “There’s two Ms. K’s. Are you sisters? I have a sister named Rebel, but she’s not really my sister. She’s my cousin, or my niece. Maybe? I’m not sure on that.”

“Cousin,” Siena mumbled.

“That’s right! Sister-cousin!” The girl giggled loudly.

“Harley, this is Ms. K’s sister, Jamie.” Her eyes still held the fury Jamie had seen in her face, though her features softened, and the woman, Van, Jamie had slept with peeked out as she spoke to her daughter.

Harley’s eyes widened, and Jamie felt her lips twitch up into an involuntary smile. The twin reveal always gave her a little thrill. Her entire life, being a twin had always brought out the strange and curious, but seeing the excitement in a child’s eyes was a nice change.

“We’re twin sisters,” Jamie added, a smile spreading over her face. She wasn’t all that keen on kids. Well, truth be told she hadn’t much thought about them individually, but she couldn’t deny that this kid was a bit of a cutie.

“Twins?” Harley’s excitement seemed only to grow, her smile taking up half her face and dancing in her eyes. Her small body twitching with energy as though she was moments away from bursting.

“Yep.” Jamie nodded for emphasis.

“But I’m older,” Jessie said, a grin on her face. Most of my students don’t get to meet Jamie, so that makes you special.”

“What, you’re older?” Harley turned to Jessie, and Jamie rolled her eyes as Jessie squatted down as she talked to Harley.

It gave Jamie the chance to focus again on Siena.

How the hell did the world keep fucking her over like this?

“I swear, I had no idea. About any of it,” Jamie rushed out in a lowered voice, hoping to do some kind of damage control with this absolutely insane situation.

“Yeah, right.” Siena scoffed in return.

“I wasn’t the one who ran off halfway through because I found your license,” Jamie hissed. So much for damage control.

“And I wasn’t the one who decided to throw her career under the bus publicly by implying I’m corrupt and abuse my clients. And not at all subtly, if that was what you were going for, and I suspect subtly was never even on your mind. I don’t even think it’s a word in your vocabulary.”

“No, you’re just the one trying to get me fired. Did you really have to rally all your manager friends to harass my boss and threaten my livelihood? So your name might get a bit of a hit, but bad press is better than nothing.”

“What?” For a moment, Siena’s confusion flooded her face .

“Yeah, I know. You’re all about keeping your precious celebrities squeaky clean, but guess what, that’s a total load of bullshit. If they want the fame, then maybe they should let people know they aren’t perfect. All it does is give their fans shame and guilt when they don’t measure up.”

“No.” Siena shook her head, features squeezing together in frustration. “What do you mean about my manager friends?”

“Now who’s full of shit? My boss has gotten so many calls he’s stopped answering his phone. All of them threatening him and telling him to fire me.”

“I don’t know anything about that.” Her face seemed so genuine, but Jamie wasn’t buying it. She didn’t trust this woman. How could she? She had left her alone in a hotel room after fucking her senseless.

Nothing about Siena Frazee made sense. And nothing she said or even did could be trusted.

“Well, so much for never seeing each other again,” Jamie muttered.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. Opening them, she stared at the ceiling, counting the imperfect blemishes she hoped Jessie didn’t notice. Because no doubt Jamie would be pushed up on a ladder to scrub them off, especially after this debacle.

“How the hell are you two even related?” Siena asked.

It snapped Jamie out of her current thoughts as she dropped her head back down and turned to see what had inspired the outburst from Siena.

Following where she looked, Jamie found Jessie and Harley laughing together. The pain of never being enough, never being the good child rang dull and familiar in Jamie’s chest.

“Yep. She’s all sunshine and rainbows. It’s why you should be grateful she’s teaching your kid.”

“Right, as if you didn’t already know about this.” It was an accusation, but Jamie was sure she sensed a small hint of doubt at the words’ sharp edges.

“All right,” Jessie spoke as Siena opened her mouth as if to reply. “Jamie, I really need some more sticky tack.”

“Sticky tack?” Jamie gave her sister the best petulant look she could muster.

“Yes,” Jessie hissed in reply, even though her smile remained on her lips. “In my storeroom, now please.”

“Of course, summarily dismissed.” Jamie rolled her eyes as she turned toward Jessie’s closet, but not before she caught the look on Siena’s face. She had no idea how to interpret it, but it twisted uncomfortably in the pit of her stomach.

She stomped off, refusing to focus on that look any longer, even if her mind seemed to have other ideas. The sticky tack was in plain sight, but she hesitated before leaving the small claustrophobic area again. She wanted to give Jessie a chance to get through to Siena. If anyone could do it, it would be Jessie.

Did Siena truly think Jamie was some kind of criminal mastermind, setting up these pieces just to fuck with her? To what end?

With a heavy sigh, she knew exactly what she might get out of interviewing Siena and hopefully Bunny and Piper.

But she didn’t premeditate any of it. She had just always been good with taking advantage of the situations that arose in front of her. Siena would never believe it though.

This entire situation had become nothing more than a royal cluster fuck.

Jamie made a slow return back to where Jessie and Siena stood talking. Looking around the room, Jamie was relieved to see only a handful of children remained. Currently there were no other parents besides Siena.

Siena’s shoulders had lost some of their tightness, and they rolled inward as her hand rubbed small circles on Harley’s back. The kid didn’t look much like Siena. Jamie focused on what she had learned over the years about Siena—not much about her personal life to be honest. Jamie had always been more interested in getting to Bunny and Piper—but Siena had been given a little more credit in Jamie’s eyes when she confirmed her sexuality publicly as though there were nothing salacious or newsworthy about it.

Oh Fuck!

She was married—married with a kid whose birth mother was Siena’s wife. That had been the thing she had read about Siena. One of the only pieces of personal information. Everything else she knew about the woman had to do with the business.

Or at least until she discovered firsthand that the woman was wicked with her tongue and could make her scream louder than thunder.

Harley leaned into her mother’s leg, head resting on Siena’s hip. What mattered was the way she clung to Siena. The idea that this woman, so eager to call her posse down on Jamie for calling out shit behavior, had engaged with Jamie in a goddamn affair.

Jamie’s stomach roiled with queasiness at the thought. She wanted to call Siena out on her hypocrisy, but she didn’t want it to be true. And she certainly didn’t want to be the asshole to do it in front of Harley. The girl looked sweet enough. As far as kids went, Jamie felt for her. She seemed little, but maybe not. Jamie had no idea.

It didn’t matter. What did matter was the drama that was unfolding in Jamie’s life. She loved other people’s drama. But this was definitely not the shit she had signed up for.

“Pulling Harley out will do little but cause another big change far too soon after she’s just settled in. If you’re really concerned, I’ll be happy to discuss having her go into another teacher’s class. But I promise Jamie can be a bit of an idiot at times, but she never has a long-term plan. To my parents’ chagrin.”

“Gee thanks.” Jamie had stood, silently listening until her mouth as usual got her in trouble. She turned to Siena. “And this way you don’t need to have to explain to your wife why you suddenly want to pull your daughter out of the school.”

“Excuse me?” Siena’s cold words might have hurt Jamie if she wasn’t filled with fury.

“Come on, Harley.” Jessie wide-eyed Jamie as she veered the child away from the two women about to go toe-to-toe. “Let’s double check you have everything before you head home.”

“I remember reading about your wife giving birth.”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Siena said, though Jamie heard her swallow audibly. “But my ex-wife and I share custody of our daughter. And explaining to her about my desire to change schools is none of your business.”

“You’re still pulling her out of the school?” Jamie’s mouth dropped open.

“No.” Siena’s shoulders slumped forward, and for the first time, Jamie saw an exhaustion hidden behind the dark eyes and beauty of this woman. “I don’t know. I’m not doing anything now. But this sure is one hell of a coincidence.”

“Tell me about it,” Jamie muttered.

To her surprise, Siena offered her a small smile, and after a moment assuring herself she really had seen it, Jamie returned it with her own.

Siena stepped closer, and Jamie caught a whiff of Siena’s scent. It was so familiar at this point because Jamie couldn’t get it out of her head. “Write anything about my family, and you’re going to wish that getting fired was the only thing I could do to you.”

Jamie put her hands up in the air, shock running through her. “I don’t do that. ”

With one last hardened look, Siena turned away and strode over to where Jessie helped Harley with getting her backpack on. “Time to get going, Harley.”

Jamie tuned out as the adrenaline drained from her. What the hell was the world playing at? Finally alone with Jessie, she could let her guard down a bit.

“Well, this better not appear on your blog.” Jessie stepped up beside Jamie and crossed her arms over her chest. “Especially after the disaster of your last post.”

“Seriously?” All the fury Jamie had built inside that hadn’t been given a release burst from her mouth before she could stop it. “Couldn’t you ever be on my side? Just this once?”

“Wow.” Jessie lifted her hands up, palms facing Jamie as she took a step back. “That’s not fair.”

For a moment, Jamie stared silently into her sister’s eyes. Just because they were twins didn’t mean they got along all the time. Sometimes Jamie wondered if it wasn’t worse than being normal siblings.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “It sucks always being the evil twin.”

“You aren’t evil, Jamie.” Jessie put her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “You just approach things differently, and I’m just lucky my way has parental approval.”

Jamie scoffed but kept her thoughts out of her mouth.

“Come on.” Jessie jerked her head toward the door. “Let’s get a coffee, and you can tell me all about what happened. Did you say you’re being fired?”

“Most likely.” Jamie nodded and let Jessie walk her out of the classroom. “Especially after today.”

“Well, I think that coffee just upgraded to getting drunk.”

Jamie laughed and leaned into Jessie.

Maybe being twins wasn’t always a bad thing.