Read The One For Me - January Cove Book 1 for Free Online

morning.
     
    "Kaitlyn, what's wrong?"
     
    "I feel sick," she said through tears before vomiting right beside Jenna's bed.
     
    "Oh, sweetie," Kaitlyn said jumping up and picking her up. She carried her to the bathroom, putting a cold compress on her head. "You're burning up with fever."
     
    Kaitlyn threw up again in the toilet and cried. Jenna rubbed her back and tried to calm her down. There had been a bad stomach virus going around, and it appeared that Kaitlyn had succumbed to it. Great. This was wonderful timing.
     
    Jenna sat with Kaitlyn until four in the morning before she finally fell asleep. Her fever broke around five in the morning when Jenna was able to doze off for a couple of hours.  When she woke up, she was careful not to wake Kaitlyn as she started looking online for apartments. Every call she made was devastating to her. No availabilities. Rent too high. Too far from work. Rejection everywhere she looked.
     
    Around nine, there was a knock at her door and she ran to stop the person from knocking before they woke Kaitlyn.
     
    "Yes?" Jenna said pulling her robe tightly around her and running her fingers through her messed up hair. She knew she must have looked like death warmed over.
     
    "J.A. Watson?"
     
    "Who's asking?"
     
    "Did you receive our notice that was posted yesterday?" Ah, it was the investor.
     
    "Yes, late last night when I arrived home. I need more time. I..."
     
    "I'm sorry, ma'm, but this is our normal protocol. Liability reasons force us to make sure that the previous owner is out of the house within twenty four hours."
     
    "Do you own this house now?" she asked.
     
    "My boss does."
     
    "And what is the name of your company?" she asked, not sure why she wanted to know as it didn't matter.
     
    "Emerald Investments." For a moment, Jenna was transported back in time. She and her high school boyfriend had loved to go to Emerald Cove, a small beach in January Cove. He'd said that he loved her green eyes so much, and Emerald Cove became "their place". And then she'd screwed up her life by making the dumbest decision she'd ever made. She gave up the man who loved her more than life itself and went for "stability". Where did that get her? "Ma'm?"
     
    "Sorry. I was just thinking. Can you please ask if I can have more time?"
     
    "I really can't."
     
    Jenna's anger started to well up inside of her like a raging river with nowhere to go. Why was the Universe or God or whatever doing this to her?
     
    "I'm not leaving," she said without thinking.
     
    "Excuse me?"
     
    "My daughter is five years old. Her father left us here with nothing. She was up all night with a stomach virus and a fever. I've gotten like two hours of sleep. You don't want to mess with me right now. I've taken wonderful care of this house, and I'm not going to tear it down now that your boss owns it. You can tell him I will get out within the week, which is a more reasonable time, but I'm not leaving today."
     
    "Ms. Watson, we are supposed to start cleaning this house out today. My boss needs to get it ready to resell."
     
    "I don't give a rat's butt what your boss needs. If he wants me out, tell him to get his rich butt over here and remove me himself," she said as she slammed the door and locked it.
     
    As she leaned against the door, she took a big breath and wondered what was about to happen next.
     
    ***
     
    "Hello?" Kyle said as he sat at his desk. Working from his home office, Kyle had started the morning in a bad way. The offer a buyer had made on one of his investment properties has been too low, another buyer's financing fell through and cost him time on the market and unnecessary hassle, and his dog, aptly named Cat, had sneaked out of the house played in the ocean and then rolled in the sand until he was so caked in it that Kyle had to bathe him outside. It wasn't the best start to a day, and he was in no mood for more bad news.
     
    "Hey, boss," Oliver said. Oliver had been leading Kyle's cleaning