ONE
Sienna
“I just don’t knowwhat I’m going to do,” I tell Jem as I fold my arms on the table and drop my head onto them.
The bills around me flutter from the movement, and I groan as a few of them slip to the ground.
“We can make a plan,” Jem insists, gathering up the bills.
I peek up at her and groan again. “You don’t look very confident.”
She sighs. “Okay, it’s bad,” she admits.
I bury my face in my arms again and close my eyes.
Jem and I have been best friends practically since birth. Our moms were best friends, and we were born close together and raised more as sisters than friends.
She’s now the closest thing that I have to family. My parents passed when I was six. A car accident took them from me and changed my life forever. My grandparents took me in and raised me until they passed away. They left me this house, and I’ve been doing everything I can to hold on to it since.
Paying for their funerals hit me hard emotionally and financially. It wiped out my savings, and I used the money they left to replace the roof and pay their hospital bills.
Now, I’m screwed.
“I can’t lose this house, Jem,” I whisper.
She wraps her arms around me. “We’ll figure something out. I have some money saved. It’s not much, but it might buy us some time.”
“I can’t do that to you.”
“You’re not. I’m offering. I love this place and your family.”
I smile through my tears. “I know.” I grab the bills from the table and hang my head. “How am I going to come up with this much money?”
Jem chews on her bottom lip. “Don’t shoot me down right away…”
I frown. “I’m not becoming a hitman.”
She snorts. “I know. That’s not it.”
“What then?”
“Remember Letty?”
“Vaguely. She moved here a bit ago and married that billionaire up the mountain. Um… Hugh, right?”
Jem nods. “Yeah, but do you know how they got together?”
I shrug. “She was his assistant.”
“Yeah, but that’s not how they started dating.”
“How then?”
“She put herself in the Tease and Please Auction.”
“What?” I squeak.
“Hugh was in love with her, and when he found out what she did, he joined the auction and won her.”
