Page 65 of Rival Hearts

“Yeah,” Riley said.

“Definitely,” Jett said. Riley looked at her soon-to-be wife and the two shared a smile.

* * *

When Riley heard, “You may kiss the bride,” she practically leaped into Jett’s arms and placed a lingering kiss on her lips, causing many of the observers to applaud and let out sounds of awe. At the very least, Riley would never forget that kiss, she could feel its ghost on her lips as she pulled away from Jett and Jett pulled her back, giving her another long kiss and causing many of their onlookers to laugh.

* * *

It was around ten o’clock before everyone decided to call it a night. Hannah walked over to Riley and Jett with a sleeping Emma on her shoulder.

“I need to take this little one home,” she said. “But everyone else is going to take care of the cleanup. You two head home. You have a flight to catch early in the morning.”

“Thank you for everything,” Riley said, and she gently petted Emma’s head before giving Hannah a gentle hug, careful not to jostle Emma.

“Of course,” Hannah said. “And it’s so good for you to officially be a part of the family.”

“You can say that again,” Becky said loudly and Riley startled. She hadn’t seen or heard Becky walk over. Becky gave Riley a hug. “It’s so good to have another niece, but you don’t have to call me Aunt Becky,” Becky roared with laughter at her own joke.

Riley smiled and blushed slightly. She felt like she might cry from overwhelming happiness. “Thank you guys,” she said, “and thank you for really treating me like family, even at the beginning when we barely knew each other.”

“You’ll always be family,” Jett’s mom joined in, “but you two should get going real soon. You do have a honeymoon to get to before the sun even comes up.”

Riley actually had no clue what they were doing for their honeymoon. All she knew was that Jett planned it with the help of her family and all of them had kept it an airtight secret. They packed Riley’s bag for her and everything. The only thing that Riley knew was that she was going to have to wake up at five in the morning to get to the airport in time for their flight, but where they were going or what they were doing was a complete secret.

When Riley and Jett got outside to Jett’s car, Riley and Jett both started laughing. Their family and friends had decorated the car with window paint, writing “Just married!” across the back windshield. And, someone—Riley thought it looked suspiciously like Lucinda’s handwriting—wrote “Lesbians coming through!” across the passenger side windows.

“Oh my God,” Jett said.

“I didn’t know people actually did that,” Riley said. “I just thought it was a movie thing.”

“Oh yeah,” Jett said. “You should have seen Brody and Hannah’s car after they got married. Actually…” Jett paused for a moment and started walking to the driver’s side of the car, “I want to see something.”

Jett walked to the driver’s side, and Riley was curious, so she joined her, and when she got there, she saw Jett shaking her head and laughing. Riley saw that someone had written “ew, lesbians!” on the window. Riley was very confused.

Jett kept laughing, but after a while she calmed down and was able to speak. “So when Brody and Hannah got married, I wrote ‘ew, straight people’ on their car and Brody and Hannah always promised that they’d get me back.”

Riley laughed. “Well they sure did,” she said. “Your family definitely takes jokes really far.”

Jett shrugged and smiled, but then she looked at Riley. “You know,” she started, “they’re you’re family now, too, so you have to get used to it.”

“I think I have a little bit,” Riley said, and she smiled at the thought of Jett’s family being her family. It took Riley decades and a marriage, but she finally had a family and one that she loved and that loved her back. Riley didn’t care that sometimes they took jokes too far or that she would sometimes get asked embarrassing questions at the dinner table; she loved the Thompsons so much and she was ecstatic to be one of them.

Not in name, of course. She had considered changing her last name, but Jett wouldn’t have it, saying that she had put too much into a career under the name Parker that to change it would be a disservice. It was okay, though; Riley’d had that name her entire life so she was a little happy to keep it anyway. Besides, she had a ring and Jett to remind her that she was married.

Riley smiled at Jett as she kept her eyes on the road and Riley tried guessing where they were going like she had been the last several weeks.

“It’s not out of the country is it?” Riley asked.

“I’m not telling you,” Jett said, which was her frustrating response to every question Riley asked.

“Oh, come on,” Riley said. “We have less than seven hours until we have to be at the airport. Don’t you think you’ve kept this secret long enough?”

Jett laughed. “Okay,” she said. “Do you really wanna know?”

“Yes,” Riley said.

“We’re going to Disney World,” Jett said and Riley’s jaw dropped open.

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