CHAPTER 2
OLIVIA
THREE MONTHS AGO
I flick off the lights as I make my way towards my new bedroom, lingering for a moment as I take in my surroundings, and a proud smile touches my lips.
We did it.
Today my best friend and I moved halfway across the world and into our new forever home with her daughter.
If someone had told me five years ago that I would pack up my entire life and move to America, I’d have laughed in their face. I was born and raised in London, and up until a few years ago, I was convinced that was where I’d stay.
But after everything Savannah has faced in the last few years, everything we have overcome and achieved together, it was a no brainer that I’d follow her wherever she ended up.
Savannah Wilde was my rock during one of the hardest times in my life. As teenagers, the two of us created a bond not many are lucky enough to experience. She’s my family. My only family. And there wasn’t a chance in hell I was just gonna watch my family move half a world away.
We began planning this home years ago. Savannah was working multiple part-time jobs to provide for her daughter, and I was a college drop out with more money than I knew what to do with. I tried to tell her on multiple occasions that she didn’t need to work so many jobs. That I could take care of everything, but Savannah is stubborn.
Contrary to her last name, the only wild thing Savannah has ever done was fall in love and get pregnant with a man that didn’t deserve her. I was the wild one of the two of us. The out-of-control best friend that spent her teen years losing herself in parties and random men in a desperate bid to fill the hole the death of her parents had left.
My selfishness resulted in me missing the signs that my best friend, the only person I had left in this world, needed me.
My eyes burn from exhaustion after a long few days of travelling and moving in and I blink several times as my surroundings come back into focus. I turn away from the living room and head towards my bedroom.
It’s not much right now. Just a bed and chest of drawers, but with a cute rug and some accessories, I’m sure it’ll feel more like home in no time.
I haven’t given much thought to what life in Rosewater Creek will look like for me. I’ve always been kind of a free spirit, taking each day as it comes, with no real plan for my life. I have no job. No hobbies. And honestly, no fucking clue what I want.
After my parents died, I was left with no home and a fuckton of money. I knew they worked hard. Knew they both had good jobs and earned a decent wage. Our house was a telltale sign of that .
We didn’t live in a mansion by any means, but we lived comfortably in our four bedroom, detached home on the outskirts of London. The house was big, sure. Big by UK standard that is, but it always felt like a home. It was warm. Welcoming.
I’m yet to step foot inside it.
I’m afraid that the familiar warmth will be gone. Because it was them that made it the home it had been. The sound of my mothers old fashioned record player filtering through the halls. The soft laughs from my parents as they slow danced around the kitchen. The distinct smell of my father’s cologne permeating the air. All of those things – gone.
After my parents died, everything that was theirs, became mine. Their house, their cars, their money. I had no other living relatives. No grandparents. No aunts or uncles. Just me.
I didn’t have access to the inheritance until I turned eighteen, of course, but in the almost ten years since they passed, I’ve not had the courage to go home. Before we left, I decided I would pull on my big girl pants and go there one last time. I made is as far as the driveway. The moment I saw the overgrown lawn and dark, dingey windows, I climbed back in my car and cried for an hour straight before I pulled my phone out and called my good friend Carter.
We came to an agreement that I would continue to pay the bills in the house with the inheritance my parents left me in exchange for him living there and taking care of the place until I’m ready to sell. It’s a little strange to think that there’s someone living in my childhood home, but I trust Carter, and I know he will look after it in my absence .
One day, I will go back there. I’ll pack up their belongings for the final time and get the closure I’ve longed for since I was fifteen years old. Just not today.