Dear Roomie (Rookie Rebels #5) - Kate Meader Page 0,4

the house on the way over?”

“I did. They’ve already painted the front door a teal color.”

“The red is gone?” Edie’s lip curled in disdain. “I hope it chips.”

Kennedy chuckled. “My kind of petty.”

Edie’s son, Louis had closed on his mom’s house a week ago and put the money in trust for her remaining days. Which was fine—Kennedy wasn’t here to claim a cut of the woman’s cash. She just wanted to be close to someone who cared. She could have taken a different route to avoid passing the house where she’d lived for three years until she was eighteen, then the last three months while she tried to get her shit together, but she had been parked on a side street two blocks over and it was the shortest way from point A to B. Also, she liked to think there was something therapeutic about driving by. Each change the new owners made took her a little further away from that time, the most heartbreaking period of her life.

After her parents died when she was fifteen, she had moved in with Edie, her grandfather’s second wife. Papa John (yep, that’s what he went by) had passed a couple of years before, but Edie had stepped up and given her shelter. Took her into her home and her heart.

Kennedy could never truly repay her, but since Edie’s strokes (they call them mini strokes, so not serious at all, Kennedy!), she could be here to make sure she was as comfortable as possible.

“So how’s the new roommate?”

“Great! But the landlord’s the worst.” Edie would freak if she knew that Kennedy was living out of her car. “Still hasn’t fixed the shower. Do you mind if I take a quick one in your room before I leave?”

Edie waved her assent. “I’m glad you were able to find a place so quickly.”

Kennedy kept her smile pinned on. She had an appointment with a guy she’d found online this afternoon. The place she’d looked at yesterday had a meth lab vibe. Today’s option couldn’t be worse.

“Yeah, me, too. Pity you’re so entrenched here. We could get our own place together.” She was only half-joking. She knew that with Edie’s health concerns this was the best place for her, but what she wouldn’t give to have somewhere to cushion her fall.

This wasn’t Edie’s problem, however. She had been on hand when Kennedy needed a place to land ten years ago, and Kennedy had no doubt she’d dip into her savings to find a place for the girl she treated like her granddaughter. But when it came down to it, Edie didn’t owe her a thing. She’d already given her use of her Ford Focus—now her castle—and Kennedy wouldn’t take another cent from her.

Edie raised an eyebrow. “Us as roommates? And what happens when your feet get itchy? Off to Taiwan or Thailand or wherever your mood takes you? No, I was resistant at first but I like being Queen Bee here. It didn’t take long to ascend the throne and boot that Ginny van Patten off it!”

Ginny van Patten was the head inmate at Larkvale, or had been until Edie arrived and usurped her. A fierce rivalry was born.

“Just an idea. You’re right. I’ll want to travel again soon.” She especially didn’t want to be here during any Snowpocalypse when the wind off Lake Michigan would cut through her bones.

“I’ve had another idea,” Edie said after a healthy pull on her straw. “For the bucket list.”

“Oh, yeah? Spill.”

Edie took out the notebook she carried with her everywhere. Since finishing up her rehab stint and taking up residence at Larkvale, she had been adding to her bucket list. She pointed at the last addition: See a male stripper.

“Surely you’ve already done that.”

“No, I have not. I was a married woman.”

“Never stopped anyone.” Grinning, she took the list from her and gave it another eyeball.

Go ice skating.

Get a tattoo.

Learn yoga.

Do Karaoke.

Go on a scavenger hunt.

Solve a mystery.

“I’d like to say you could cross off the yoga one but you’re one of my worst students.” She also suspected Edie added it to give Kennedy something to do while she remained Stateside. “Some of these are dangerous. Ice skating? You could break a hip.”

“I’m not an invalid.”

“I know you’re not.” But she had given Kennedy a helluva scare. Edie had always been the strongest person Kennedy knew, and it was hard to see her at less than a hundred percent. Edie was all Kennedy had left except for an uncle