Page 6 of Sweet Redemption

Serena

Umm . . . I just quit my job. Please tell me I didn’t just fuck up my life. Again.

Olivia

You did not just fuck up your life. More like you un-fucked it. You hated it there.

Serena

Love you, Liv. I need to get the hell out of Kroydon Hills. Are you still going to Vegas tomorrow?

Olivia

Nope. I leave tonight.

Serena

Is there room on the jet?

Olivia

Hell yes, there is. Get your little ass home and packed.

My heart races inside my chest as I drop my head back against my office door.

The silence quickly closes in on me.

Serena

Livvy . . . I don’t think I’m okay.

Olivia

You will be, Barbie. Come home.

And maybe pick us up some dinner. I’m in the mood for grease. Jet leaves at eight.

Serena

Sounds good. See you soon.

Olivia and I have owned our house together since she finished law school a few years ago. Neither of us lived in Kroydon Hills full-time at first. She split her time between here and her agency’s offices around the country. And I would come back each winter when the season ended. But somehow, it became home. The place and the people.

My cousin and I have been each other’s ride or die since we were little girls. Something going to college in different states then starting careers on different coasts couldn’t change. Moving in together made perfect sense to us. I mean, maybe we should have thought ahead and gotten a roommate who could cook, but nobody’s perfect.

Neither of us can cook.

Not even a little.

We’ve tried, and it didn’t end well, which for two high achievers should have been a hit to the ego. It wasn’t. We just tried again. Yeah . . . it was worse the second time. Only that time, we both ended up violently ill.

We blamed the undercooked chicken.

Apparently, you’re supposed to thaw it before you cook it.

Oopsie.

Thankfully, Kroydon Hills has fantastic takeout.