Better together, p.1
Better Together, page 1
K. Anthony Wilson
Better Together
Loved by You Series, book 2
Copyright © 2020 by K. Anthony Wilson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
K. Anthony Wilson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Second edition
Cover art by Storm Thornicroft
This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy
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Contents
Prologue
Best Friends
Eavesdrop
Just a Little Crush
Sunset Kiss
Observant
Shreveport
Surprise
Mudbugs
Leading Lady
Beautiful Surprise
Welcome to Garvey
Reel it In
Obnoxious
Big Picture
P.K.
Too Hot
Interested
Let’s Go for a Drive
Mustang
My Attention
Competition
Love Hurts
Thirsty
Rich, Tall and Southern
The Guest Singer
Mr. Wonderful
Brotherly Love
Dating
Iron Sharpens Iron
Perspective
My Best Friend
Who Has Your Heart
Ready for the Real
Love on my Mind
The Instigator
Girlfriend
Moon and Stars
Double Trouble
Detention
Unfair
Knight
Under Control
Intercession
Forgiveness
About the Author
Also by K. Anthony Wilson
Prologue
Where am I? My heart beats so fast that I think it’s going to burst out of my chest. I rise to my feet and survey the area. I’m downtown. Kate’s Cakes and Coffee is to the right of me. The Government building is to the left of me. Aromas of fresh bread and pastries draw me into the bakery and the bell over the door chimes as I walk in.
“Be right with you,” a voice calls from the back. What is going on? I hadn’t been here since January. Nothing’s changed. Everything’s still the same. The signs, the punny posters like “Donut forget a napkin”, “They see me rolling”–with a picture of a rolling pin, “All this sugar, got me hooked”-with a mixer and hook attached; they’re all still hanging on the wall. I used to think these posters were funny. It’s making me smile even though this whole scene is perplexing.
My breath draws in as the woman who greeted me wipes her hands on a towel in the back. Her apron is tied around her petite frame. Her short, curly afro is covered with a hairnet. I can almost smell her scent of cinnamon, vanilla, and clove from where I stand.
“Good morning, Buttercup. What can I get you?”
I can’t talk. I really can’t form words because I think I’m dreaming. I should be dreaming but this feels so real. I reach out to touch my mama and meet flesh, warm flesh. This doesn’t make any sense. She’s dead. Am I dead?
Mama comes from behind the counter and swallows me into the tightest hug that only she can give.
Tears fill my eyes.
“Don’t you cry now, sweetie. I am very happy here. The pay is good, the hours aren’t long. I’m doing what I love and I get to live in a really big mansion. Would you like to see it?”
Around us, a few customers are sitting down, reading newspapers or tablets, and sipping mugs steaming with hot liquid. Are we just going to leave the customers in here?
Mama smiles as if she’s reading my thoughts. “They’ll be fine. Come with me.”
She takes my hand and leads me back outside where the front bakery sign says Honey’s Sweets.
I’m finally able to speak. “Mama, is this your bakery?”
Mama grins. “Yes. You like it?”
I love it. My feet are standing on gold bricks. Not yellow-gold, but real gold. Downtown looks brand new, bright, and beautiful. It’s like seeing the Wizard of OZ in full HD color but far better.
In the blink of an eye, I see a mansion that’s so big, I can’t take it all in. It’s surrounded by gates made of pearl with people guarding it.
The gates open and Mama points. “My home is in there. I was waiting at the shop for you,” she tells me. Her brilliant white smile reaches her eyes as she gently grabs my chin. “In life, the road gets messy and the journey has twists and turns,” she tells me. “You will stumble, you will trip, you may fall, but always remember to get back up and stay the course. Okay, Buttercup?”
I understand, so I nod.
An orange butterfly, identical to the one JJ and I saw almost a month ago, lands on her shoulder. My best friend JJ once told me that if you whisper “I love you” to a butterfly, it’ll take your message to your loved ones in heaven, I didn’t believe him at first, but one day we saw one and decided to whisper a message to it. Now here it is on Mama’s shoulder. How did she get it to land on her shoulder?
Mama smiles. “I got your message. You know that I love you always. I have to go now and so do you.” She begins to fade and float away.
“Mama wait,” I call after her. There are so many things to say, so many questions I want to ask.
“Clove, I will always be with you,” her voice becomes a whisper. She blows me a kiss and I blow one back. The vision before me starts to blur and fade.
My eyes open and focus on the numbers of the alarm clock. 9:00 a.m.
I’m in shock. Finally, I’ve had a dream of Mama and I haven’t woken up at 5 a.m. The sleep, the dream, the way I feel, it’s all good. Mama’s all good. There’s this peacefulness I feel that I just can’t seem to explain. I smile to myself. Then I reach for my phone.
Me: Good morning! How’s Science Camp so far?
I know in the mornings JJ is usually busy with his campers, but just maybe he’ll have a break to reply. I wait for a few seconds.
JJ: Hey!!! Good Morning! Science camp is good. Kind of crazy, but good. How’s ATL w/ ur Aunt Didi?
Me: It’s cool. Guess what?
JJ: What?
Me: I finally had a dream about my mom. She was in heaven, owned her own bakery and everything. I swear I saw and felt her like it was the real thing.
JJ: That’s amahsome! I’m glad you got to see her.
Me: Amahsome???
JJ: Amazing and awesome. These kids at the camp got me combining words.
Me: LOL! In the dream, that butterfly we whispered to was there on her shoulder. Weird right?
JJ: Not weird. I think that’s beautiful.
He’s right, the dream was beautiful. I want to tell him more but I also want to tell him that I miss him, even though we’re only a week into our summer vacay. JJ left town right after our friends’, Xavier and Jessa, graduation. I decide to just go for it. Friends tell each other they miss each other all the time, right?
Me: I miss u.
JJ: I miss u two
JJ: *too
There go those feelings again. We agreed to be friends, but sometimes when he says things, it gives me butterflies inside.
JJ: May I text u later? We’re getting ready for a hike.
Me: Sure. Have fun! Talk to u in 6 weeks!
JJ: I meant later as in later tonight. I can’t go that long without talking to u.
See. Things like that put flutters inside my stomach. He always knows when to say the right things. I think about sending him a blushing emoticon, but instead, I choose something different.
Me: 🦋
I put my phone down and get out of bed, but then it vibrates.
JJ: 🦋🦋
1
Best Friends
~Clove
I can’t get off this plane fast enough. Flying from Atlanta to Memphis is only about a 1 hour and 20-minute flight, but it took two hours because we had to circle around in the sky to wait for a funnel cloud to move.
I have to pee something fierce but I have a fear of airplane toilets. And school toilets. Actually, all public toilets.
Everyone seems to be taking their good sweet time getting off this plane. I try to listen as the flight attendant tells us where to pick up our luggage. I have two checked bags that I need to pick up. I’d started with only one, but since I’d spent the entire summer with Aunt Didi and she took me back to school shopping, I had to get an extra suitcase to make room for all of the new clothes she bought me.
As soon as I turn on my phone, three text messages appear.
Dad: Text me when you land.
Why do I have to text him? Why can’t he be progressive. He could just type in my flight information and see that I’ve landed.
Aunt Didi: Text me when you get home.
Oh Lord, neither one of them know how to use technology. I swear they need a class or something.
Jessa: Can’t wait to see you!
I’m exc ited to see my best friends: Jessa, Xavier and JJ. Especially JJ. We normally spend our summers apart, but this time, being away from JJ has done something to me. It has tugged on my heart and made it beat faster with every waking thought of him. I wonder if he’s back in town.
Finally, I’m able to move out of my seat and make it to the restroom.
After washing my hands, I take the escalator to Baggage Claim. In just a couple of days, I’ll be doing this all over again. My dad has been approved to open his church in Las Vegas. Once I get home, I’ll have just enough time to pack and say goodbye to my friends before hopping on another plane.
I’m thrilled to be getting out of Smalltown, but not to be going to Las Vegas. Of all places, why’d he have to pick Sin City? Their slogan is “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” The stories I’ve heard are outrageous, like how there are a bunch of strip clubs, liquor stores, and even slot machines inside the airport and every hotel. It sounds wild.
My first thought was that we were going to be living in a hotel but Dad told me we’re renting a house. I’ve only seen pictures of it, but it looks nice.
As the escalators descend further, my heart jumps when I see three familiar faces.
Jessa, JJ and Xavier stand out in the crowd with grins on their faces. I head straight for JJ and practically leap into his arms.
“Hey Clove,” he says in my ear.
“Well we must be chopped liver,” Jessa says, “There are three of us here and you only see JJ.”
I feel myself blush and apologize before hugging both her and Xavier.
The three of them have changed over the summer. Jessa has a pixie cut with pink tips. Xavier has cut off all of his dreadlocks and sports a short curly fade and JJ’s hair is still long, but no longer frizzy. His glasses are missing.
“What happened to your glasses?” I ask him.
He stares into my eyes. “I got contacts. Can you tell?”
No, but I stare back anyway.
Several seconds pass before a hand waves up and down in front of us. “Alright lovebirds,” Xavier says. “Let’s go get Clove’s stuff.”
I’ve missed all of my friends but can’t deny I have missed JJ the most. We didn’t get to talk very much because he had poor cell phone reception at the camps he worked for. The one time we did talk it was when he called me from someone else’s phone.
“Hey,” he said.
“JJ? Is this you?” I asked.
“Yes. I have bad reception and can’t get a call out. I’m borrowing Hannah’s phone. Apparently, her cell carrier is better.”
“Hannah from our church?”
“Yes. Is that weird that I’m calling you from her phone?”
“No, not at all,” I said. I was lying though. It did bother me. Hannah had been crushing on JJ since last fall or perhaps longer. I had no idea she was working at Camp Titus with him.
“I didn’t want much, Clove,” he said. “I just wanted to hear your voice.”
My heart raced then just like it’s doing now. If I didn’t have so much stuff, I’d be trying to hold JJ’s hand.
I spot my two pieces of luggage on the baggage carousel and point them out. JJ grabs one and Xavier grabs the other. Jessa begins talking about her summer as if I hadn’t already heard about it. She leaves for college in Nashville this weekend. I’m so going to miss her. She’s the only girl friend I’ve had since elementary school. Xavier is staying in town for college, and JJ will still be here in Smalltown, finishing up his Senior year of high school.
I begin to get a little sad. In a few days, I will be leaving Smalltown and saying goodbye to all my friends. This is going to be heartbreaking.
2
Eavesdrop
~Jonah
I had asked to borrow my mom’s Explorer so that I would be able to load whatever Clove brought with her from Atlanta. The surprised look on her face was worth all the turmoil I had to go through just to get her dad to let me pick her up. Mr. Daniels is very protective of Clove, with good reason. She’s an only child and she just lost her mom to a drunk driving accident.
Before we parted ways over the summer, we decided that we should only be friends. Seeing her today in her cropped leggings and otter t-shirt has reminded me just how much I’ve missed her. Absence does make the heart grow fonder.
There have been many times I’ve wanted to text her how I feel, but I didn’t want to rush her. I have to keep my feelings for her in check. She’s still healing from losing a parent. I respect and understand her need to mend.
And then, there’s the long-distance factor. She’s leaving, and I’m staying. Maybe our friendship will make it through the miles, maybe it won’t.
“When’d you get back in town?” she asks me.
“Last night.”
There’s an awkward silence as I turn out of the airport. We have a 45-minute drive back to Smalltown. I hope this ride isn’t going to be weird.
Xave clears his throat. “So Clove, tell us about your summer.”
“Oh, it was cool I worked at–”
Her phone rings. I glance over at her screen. Someone is trying to video call her but she declines it.
“What was I saying?” she asks. “Oh yeah, um so I worked at this ice–”
Her phone rings again this time with a picture of her hugged up with some guy.
“Hold on,” she says.
“Hey,” she answers. I’m not trying to listen but it’s hard not to in such an enclosed space.
She chuckles. “You’re so crazy. I’m fine. Stop worrying. I landed 20 minutes ago…No, my friends picked me up. You know the ones I told you about? JJ, Jessa, and Xavier…No, not yet…I will…just haven’t done it yet…Okay. Yeah um…”
She begins to get lower and mumbles something into the phone. My ears are tuned into supersonic hearing. Did she just say that she misses him too?
Once Clove hangs up the phone, Jessa says “Who you over there missin’?”
Guess I wasn’t the only one ear hustling. Jessa has always been the straightforward one. She asks the questions everyone is thinking and says the things no one wants to say out loud.
Clove scratches her head and puts her phone back in her bag. “It was no one.”
“Naw. Nuh-uhn,” Jessa says. “We heard you, so gon’ tell us who it was.”
Clove sighs. “Just someone I worked with at the ice cream shop.”
“Name?” Xavier says.
I’m glad I’m not the one asking the questions.
“Why y’all up in my business?” Clove asks. “What’d y’all do over the summer?”
“Don’t try to change the subject,” Jessa says. “We wanna know who you said I love you to.”
“I did not say I love you. I very, almost inaudibly, said the words ‘miss you’. He said it first so I said it back.”
Is that what I need to do? Just say it first and she’ll echo?
Since I have my phone hooked up to mom’s car system, it rings and shows Hannah’s name on the screen. Hannah and I worked together at Camp Titus, the one I worked for after the space camp.
Like Clove, I reject the call.
“Why didn’t you answer?” Clove asks.
Before I can reply to her, Hannah calls me back. Clove pushes the accept button before I can reject it. She smirks, “Say something to her.”
“Hello? JJ?” Hannah asks.
I did not want to take this call, especially not right now.
“Hey Hannah,” I say flatly.
“Sweetie, I’ve been so worried about you. The weather outside is so nasty. Are you okay? Did you make it to pick up Clove? ”
I drag my hand down the side of my face. Why does she insist on calling me sweetie? It annoys me so much. To make matters worse, I can feel Clove burning a hole in the side of my face.
“I’m fine. Can I call you back?”
“Okay, but call me before you come over tonight. I wanted to talk about our plans for running the church groups this fall and then I was thinking that maybe you and I could go–”
“Hannah you’re on speaker phone and Clove, Jessa and Xavier are in the car.”
I had to cut her off because I wasn’t sure what was about to come out of her mouth. We are not in a relationship but she tried her best to be with me at camp. I think she even spread a rumor that I was her boyfriend.
“Hey Hannah,” Jessa says.
Hannah begins to speak to everyone. She starts telling them about how I was so nice to her this summer and walked her to the store to buy candy. She’s only partialy tellling the truth. We walked with other camp counselors to a gas station. I only paid for her candy because she forgot her wallet. She’s making things sound as though we were more than co-workers.
