Best Friend Extraordinaire

"I just loooovvvve Billy Joe!"

I heard this so many times while my beta readers read the manuscript of True Blue Forever that I ended up putting it in the book itself. In typical Billy Joe Dubose style, he tells Jeana, "Yeah, everybody loves Billy Joe. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it."

Here's six sentences to show you a little bit of why Jeana loves him.

He handed it to her and she tore off the paper to reveal a framed sketch of herself, and Jeana gasped as she realized she actually remembered the day depicted: a scorcher in late August the summer they were twelve. They’d been spraying each other with the hose, and her shirt was drenched and clinging to her budding breasts. She was pointing the nozzle at an unseen Billy Joe, laughing with her head thrown back and leaves caught in the dripping ringlets of her hair.

“You never gave a damn about how you looked,” he said, “and I’ve always thought you were the most beautiful creature on the face of the Earth. That was the day I finally got up the nerve to tell you how I felt about you, or I thought I had anyway. I remember watching your face while you were laughing, and I knew I couldn’t stand it if things ever got awkward between us because you didn’t feel the same way about me, so I chickened out and told myself that being your best friend was better than not having you at all.”

As always, you can find my books here. Please also check out the other Six Sentencers here, especially my BFF Lee Ann Ward.

And this time the hunk featured in the picture is my adorable son TJ when he was sixteen--the absolute embodiment of Billy Joe. Everybody loves him too, especially me.

~Stay true to yourself and your dreams will come true!