Jodi Hutchins

After landing her dream job in the heart of Seattle, Kelly Garner feels she's finally found her spot in life ... until a layoff renders her unemployed. With a monumental amount of student loan debt, Kelly is forced to act fast. Her mother offers to let her stay in her childhood room, and Kelly finds a job in her field with a remote option. Everything seems to settle, until a familiar face ignites an old blaze of feelings within Kelly. The object of her affection is her high school crush and estranged friend, Reese Garret. The strong ardor Kelly felt for her is still vivacious, and henever she sees Reese, her heart nearly seizes. The two haven’t spoken in years and she still holds tight to the guilt surrounding the situation that ended their friendship. Will Kelly let this guilt muddle the potential rekindling of their old romance?

Rekindled Love

“I’ll see you at lunch, scuttlebutt,” she called as she hurried out of the locker room and off to her next class. I waved my hand at her, my eyes still on my shoes. I feared if I met her gaze, she’d see the unmistakable red shading in my cheeks.


“Have you tried turning it off and on again?” I asked sarcastically. The impatient grumble on the other end informed me that my customer did not share my fondness of a certain dorky British comedy revolving around a group of IT workers. “Kidding. What’s the code in the bottom right-hand corner of your unit screen? I’ll take a look on my end.” The work kept my mind off my encounter with Reese that morning and the associated memories. As I finished up with my last client, I powered down the computer and headed upstairs, the faint smell of coffee and syrup indicating my mother and baby brother were awake.


Chapter 6