the fireplace.
“Quit ordering me around,” he griped.
“If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to find breakfast somewhere else.”
“I’m probably better off. You’re going to poison me one of these days.”
Liv scooped the onions into a neat pile and then dumped the peelings into a bowl that Rosie would take out to the goats later. They wouldn’t be thrilled, but they’d eat it. They’d eat anything. Cabbage day was definitely their favorite. Wait, no, second-favorite. The best day was when Rosie made them fresh biscuits.
Jesus, this was her life now. She knew the eating habits of chickens and goats. Liv groaned and dropped her forehead to the island and banged it twice.
“What’d I miss?” Hop asked, wheezing slightly as he came back into the kitchen.
“Livvie got fired last night.”
Hop patted her on the shoulder. “Finally told him where he could stick his spatula, huh?”
Liv laughed. “I wish.”
Rosie spun away from the sink, knife pointed like a weapon. “I’ll tell you what happened. She caught him sexually harassing a young college girl, and he fired her for it. Just like a typical man.”
“Spoken like a typical feminist,” Hop snorted.
Liv sighed heavily and shook her head. This fight was going to be a long one. She removed the knife from Rosie’s hand. “I’ll finish the potatoes.”
Rosie swatted her hand away. “You go on up to your room and relax. I’ll bring you some food when it’s ready.”
Liv considered protesting, but Rosie and Hop had settled into a hearty argument. She was too exhausted to play referee. She slipped out the back door and headed toward the garage. A staircase in the back of the building led to her apartment, which was cozy but small. The door opened into an eat-in kitchen that faced a small living room. A single hallway led to her bedroom on one side and the bathroom on the other. It smelled faintly of dust from the garage below, but she could usually mask it with a couple of well-placed candles.
Liv sat down at her small kitchen table and turned on her laptop. She’d lied when she’d told Thea she’d already done this, and she had officially put this off too long. She needed to crunch some numbers. She logged into her bank account and did some quick math.
After ten minutes of holding her breath, Liv realized she had enough in savings to last three months without a paycheck. Would it take that long to find another job? Would she be able to find another job? And if she did, would it be in Nashville? She didn’t want to leave. Thea and Gavin and their twins were there. And Rosie was basically a grandmother to her.
What if Royce really did try to ruin her in the restaurant scene? Now that she’d seen him in action, he knew she was a threat to him, so he probably would make good on his threat to make sure she never got another job. A man who would sexually harass an employee would think nothing of ruining someone’s career to protect his dirty little secret.
If it even was much of a secret. How many women had he done this to? How many women had he harassed or fired to cover it up? How many people had helped him?
Part of her wanted to scream it’s not fair! But nothing in her life had been very fair, and whining about it hadn’t ever done much for her.
Maybe she was being stupid. Maybe she should just give in and take Thea up on her offer and open her own damn restaurant and be thankful that her sister was willing to get her started. But money had a way of changing things between people. It had a way of corrupting. She didn’t want that hanging between her and her sister. Thea was too important to her.
When Rosie knocked on the door, Liv jumped up and let her in. Rosie walked in balancing a tray. “Brought you an omelet and some toast.”
Liv stretched her arms over her head. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
Rosie set it on the table and then pointed a finger at Liv. “Now you listen to me. I know you, so I know you’re sitting here worried about how you’re going to pay your rent and all that shit, so just stop. I don’t care about that.”
“Rosie, I can’t live here rent-free.”
“You can if I say you can.”
Liv swallowed against a surge of emotion. “All I want you to do is decide what