Heart-On: Turf Wars #2 Bella Jewel (books for 10th graders .txt) 📖

“Isn’t it?” he asks.

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Because ...”

Before I can go on, I hear his name being called.

My heart slumps down into the very pit of my chest. Lorelei is here. Oh, god. She’s been here this whole time?

I figured she wasn’t considering he just sat in here talking to me for an hour.

“Lorelei is here?”

His eyes scan my face. “Yeah. She was asleep.”

“I ...”

I feel like an idiot.

An actual idiot.

“You should go.”

He stands just as Lorelei rounds the corner. She looks at the two of us and is wearing nothing but his shirt by the looks of it. Oh god, he fucked her before he came in here? He fucked her? Then stupid me went ahead and kissed him? God, no wonder he pulled back, he’s with someone else.

The ache in my chest hurts more than I possibly thought it could.

“I’m comin’,” Adan says, looking at her. “Just fixin’ my bandage.”

“Oh, of course. Hi, Ramona.”

I wave, but I can’t force words to leave my mouth.

I couldn’t even if I wanted to.

She tells Adan she’ll meet him back in bed, and I know, I know what I have to do.

This moment makes it clearer than anything else ever has.

“Adan?” I say, just as he steps outside the door.

He looks back at me.

“I quit.”

Then I stand and closed the door on his shocked face.

I can’t do this anymore.

Remy was right ... I’m in love with Adan.

I spend weeks trying to give him a hard-on, and all that happened was I gave myself a heart-on.

My heart wants him.

Stupid, foolish heart.

15

“Wait,” Eve says, eyes wide. “You quit?”

“Yeah, I quit.”

“Why?” she gasps. “Why did you do that?”

“Because ...” I look away for a second. “Because I’m in love with him.”

“Oh, honey,” she says, pulling me in for a hug. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know until last night, but here I am. I need somewhere to stay until I can find a place to live, if you don’t mind. I’m going to buy one, you know, now that I have all the money in the damned world.”

Eve laughs and shakes her head. “I still can’t get over that whole thing. I’m glad you’re staying with me, because we need to really break it apart and you need to tell me everything from start to finish.”

“I will, but right now I need to go back my shit and wait for the new nurse to arrive for Adan.”

“How did he take all of this?”

“Not well, he keeps asking me what the fuck is going on, but I can’t tell him. He’s made it nothing but clear how he feels about me, and it’s obvious he’s with Lorelei now, so the only thing I can do is accept it and move on.”

Eve frowns, I know she wants to say more but she’s not game to.

The bell above the door rings, and we both turn, but it’s my face that drops. Into Wildflowers walks my mom and Devin. The two of them, side by side, looking smug as fuck. They knew I’d be in here and they’re making it known that they’re not afraid and won’t be going anywhere.

My mother has aged a lot. I get my Indian heritage from her. She’s got the same dark skin, dark hair and brown eyes, only her hair is now greying and she looks like she’s had one too many hits of a crack pipe. She looks terrible. Absolutely terrible. What the hell did she do since the last time I saw her?

“Ballsy,” I say to the two of them when they stop in front of me. “Coming in here.”

“Is that the greeting you give your mother?” my mother asks, shaking her head.

Eve looks to me. “You want me to call Riggs?”

“Yeah.”

Devin laughs. “Now, now, we don’t need a big scene, do we? We’re just here for a coffee.”

“You’re not welcome here,” Eve says, crossing her arms. “My place, my rules.”

Devin glares at her. “One bad review could ruin your place. Is that what you want?”

“Do you think you scare me, you walking popsicle stick? Go back to the trash can you crawled out of.”

Devin’s brows go up and he looks to my mother, who looks mortified.

“Is this the way you treat people now?” Mother scoffs at me.

“I don’t see any people here, do you, Eve?” I say, crossing my arms.

“I’m your mother!” she scowls. “You owe me a lot for what you put me through, Ramona.”

“What was that, mother?”

“You stole my husband.”

“Correction,” I point out. “You left your husband, and your husband came to me. I guess he got sick of what you were offering. He also left everything to me. You can’t live with that, I guess I couldn’t either. Perhaps next time you might try getting a man that’s older than you, one that only has so long to live, although, to be fair, you’d be hard up getting anything considering you look like a washed up old prune.”

Her mouth drops open. “You little bitch,” she yells. “I always knew you were a waste of my time. I should have left you with your father.”

“Speaking of,” I smile. “Daddy is not far from here. I found him and he told me everything you did. I want those letters, the ones he wrote me that you kept from me. I want every single one of them back.”

Her face goes red. “Your father is here?”

“Oh, he’s here. He’s going to be so excited to see you.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” she growls at Devin.

“It’s okay, Elizabeth,” Devin says to her. “He won’t be coming anywhere near you.”

“Won’t he, though?” I grin.

“You’re a horrible child.” She feigns distress when we both know she’s as tough as nails and as evil as they come.

“I’m not your child anymore. You’re going to leave me the hell alone or I’ll be making sure you do,” I say, leaning in close to her.

“Is that a threat?” she hisses.

“Oh, yes.” I smile. “It certainly is.”

“Got a problem here?”

I look over to see Riggs,