Page 6 of Guarding My Love

“Bet Drew is excited though,” she said of her older sister’s husband, Drew Bond.

If anyone had told her years ago she’d rekindle a horrible sibling relationship and be close to best friends with her sister, she’d have laughed them out of the room.

But it happened.

And the closer she got to her sister, the more she saw what a real family looked like.

What love was meant to be.

Something she’d been searching for and couldn’t seem to find.

“Over the moon,” Amanda said.

“I’m so happy for you,” she said. “I really am.”

“I know you are,” Amanda said. “I wish you could find what you were looking for too.”

“I will, someday,” she said. “But you know what I said. I’m not looking. I’m done. I can’t go through it again. Either my prince will land in my lap, or I’ll end up being a great auntie.”

“You are a wonderful auntie,” Amanda said. “How is the house setup going? I’m so proud of you for buying your own place.”

“I needed to do this for me.”

Landon had tried to get her fired from her job and all it did was backfire on him and she ended up with a promotion once they found out she’d left him. Should have done that sooner.

“You absolutely did,” Amanda said. “Have you got everything all set up?”

“Getting there,” she said. “The movers got everything in place for me and now I’m looking at color swatches for my office. I’ll tackle that first. I love that I’m working from home and don’t need to go into the City more than a few times a month. I want to make this a nice calming place for me to be.”

“Things are coming together for you,” Amanda said. “You have to look at the positives.”

“All I’m focusing on are the positives,” she said. “That’s my new motto. Men can go shove it. Except for Marco.”

“Marco?” Amanda asked. “Who is that?”

“My new puppy.”

“You got a dog,” Amanda said, laughing. “You always did want one.”

“And Mom said no way. They were dirty and took too much care. But now that I’ve got my own place, I’m doing things my way.”

“Good for you,” Amanda said.

Charlotte smiled and wondered how she’d gone so long in life not having this with her sister.

Because she’d listened to her mother and was fearful of having the things said to her sister done to her.

She did all the right things and followed the rules, and in the end, she was in the same situation with her family as Amanda.

No relationship with her parents at all and couldn’t have been more ecstatic over it.

Sometimes toxic crap just had to be eliminated from your life and that was one of the things she had to bring to the dump.

“Yes,” she said. “Good for me.”

Amanda laughed on the other end. “Do you think you’ll get lonely there? You’ve always liked to be around people and go to events and parties.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I hope I don’t, but it could happen. The truth is, whatever I’ve been doing in life hasn’t been working. I’m thirty-three years old and I need to break out of the box of the familiar. Small town living seemed to work for you. Maybe it will for me too.”

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