Someone Like You

By Crystal V. Rhodes

JOLENE CARSON is at the lowest point in her life. Unemployed and homeless, she is unable to see a brighter future, until her son presents her with an opportunity that changes everything. Unfortunately, it means having to deal with her son's boss, who turns out to be the most disagreeable man that Jolene has ever met. How in the world is she supposed to deal with someone like him?

SOLO REEDUS is content with his life. why wouldn't he be? He's smart, healthy, wealthy and good looking. Solo has everything a man could want. The last thing he needs is an obnoxious woman, with too much attitude, invading his well ordered life. How is he supposed to deal with someone like her?

It takes unexpected circumstances for Jolene to realize her self-worth. In the process, Solo learns to appreciate the strength and courage of an ordinary woman who turns out to be extraordinary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crystal V. Rhodes
• Release date: Mar 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9780996325752

Crystal V. Rhodes

CRYSTAL V. RHODES is an author and an award-winning playwright. Her romantic suspense SIN SERIES novels include: SIN, SWEET SACRIFICE, SINFUL INTENTIONS, SINGING A SONG, SECRETS, STRANGERS and SHADOWS OF LOVE. Her latest series is the STILLWATERS SERIES, stories about three ordinary sisters who experience extraordinary events that changes their lives forever. The titles in this series are, SOMEONE LIKE ME, SOMEONE LIKE YOU and soon to be released, SOMEONE LIKE THEM.Rhodes is also the co-author of the GRANDMOTHERS, INCORPORATED cozy mystery series, written with fellow author and playwright, L. Barnett Evans. Their novels include: GRANDMOTHERS, INCORPORATED, SAVING SIN CITY and THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH MISS ZELDA and WHOSE KNIFE IS IT ANYWAY?Written Word Magazine named Rhodes one of the Ten Up and Coming Authors in the Midwest. She has written for newspapers, magazines, radio and television.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Mr. Marvin, I just need a few more days, Jolene hoped that she was putting the right amount of pleading in her voice to evoke some amount of sympathy from her landlord.

I gave you more than thirty days to pay me, came the chilly reply.

I know, but…

Your charms no longer work on me, Miss Carson…

I’m not tryin’ to…

As soon as I saw you leave, I went and changed the lock on your apartment door…

But my bed and some of my clothes are in there! she whined, glad that she removed most of her belongings to a storage facility some time ago. Can’t you let me in to get them?

No, he grunted without a hint of regret in his voice. Neither the apartment or what’s inside it belongs to you anymore. The finality of that declaration was reinforced by his disconnecting.

Jolene Carson stared at her cell phone in disbelief. No he didn’t hang up on me!

Jamming the phone in her pocket, she was determined not to let this setback send her into despair. After all this wasn’t the first time she’d been in a tough situation. Being threatened with eviction was nothing new, but now it had actually happened!

Jolene pulled her jacket around her slim frame, shifted the grocery bag in her arm and walked toward her battered old car. If she hadn’t been forced to leave her apartment for groceries she might have been there to persuade Mr. Marvin to give her a few more days.

Oh, well. Except for the bed, she’d lost nothing of real importance. There were a couple of boxes filled with clothes in the trunk of her car. The ones in the apartment weren’t that great anyway.

A week ago, anticipating that the lack of rent might become a problem she used her last unemployment check to rent a storage locker and discretely move a few pieces of what little furniture she owned into it. By the time she paid her cell phone bill and filled her gas tank there hadn’t been enough left. Her plan to use her next check to put a little something on the rent wouldn’t make a difference anyway.

It wasn’t like she wasn’t looking for a job. During her first months of unemployed she looked for work at every fast food joint displaying a help wanted sign. But, Bauer was a small town. Middle aged women with no high school diploma weren’t in high demand.

Tossing the groceries inside her car, she slipped behind the steering wheel. Damn! If it hadn’t been for that bastard, Irving Potter, she wouldn’t be in this mess.

She had been working at Quickie Burger for months, hardly missing a day. Luther Potter, the eighty year old owner, called her one of his best employees. It made her feel proud. Luther liked her and even rewarded her efforts by making her crew chief. Things were going fine until he died and his son, Irving, took over.

Irving had been running the family owned Quickie Burger thirty miles away, in the town of Anders. It was when he turned his attention to the fast food joint in Bauer that Jolene’s troubles began. Less than a week after his arrival it became apparent that the new owner was more interested in chasing booty than selling burgers. Being a married man didn’t appear to bother him.

Jolene became his main target. She managed to avoid his advances until he trapped her in the supply room one evening and told her that if she didn’t screw him she would be looking for another job. She planted a knee firmly in his groin. A few days later he laid her off, claiming that business was slow. Of course it was a lie. Business was booming. She told him that she would sue him for sexual harassment, but he threatened to challenge her unemployment claim if she did. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she let it go and now here she was unemployed and homeless.

After being out of work for a month, with no prospects in sight, she eventually got the message that not having a high school diploma wasn’t helping her situation. For more years than she could count, Jolene had loudly declared that too much education was a waste of time. She could live without it! Her older sister, Melanie, took her G.E.D. test, passed it and went on to take college classes for a decade until she graduated. She encouraged her sisters to do the same. Instead, Jolene, and their eldest sister, Wanda, were Melanie’s biggest critics, but reality proved them both wrong. Melanie was doing quite well, and as the job rejections mounted for Jolene, she decided to get her G.E.D. too. After studying the materials, she drove to the town of Anders, took the test, and she passed. The proof of her accomplishment arrived the day before yesterday. The certificate was folded neatly in her purse. She felt good about what she did, although she would never admit it aloud. Her buddies at her old watering hole, Daisy’s Bar & Lounge, would have a big laugh if they knew. They would label her a hypocrite, and so would Wanda.

Well, she was a high school graduate now. Hopefully, being one might help her get a job. Of course her eviction made her situation more difficult. She sure didn’t need this! Here she was a forty-five year old grown ass woman with no place to lay her head.

Her mother, Faith, would love to have her baby daughter living with her again. Over the years Jolene lost count of how often she moved in and out of her mother’s house.

She was a pregnant sixteen year old when she first left home to live with her baby’s father. That turned out to be a disaster. Three babies later, much older, but not much wiser, Jolene was back under her mother’s roof. Faith expressed disappointment in her youngest daughter’s inability to keep a man.

Most of her life Faith Carson depended on men to take care of her. She expected the same from her daughters. Jolene was tired of hearing what she was doing wrong. No! Moving back in with her mother was the last thing she wanted to do.

Moving in with Wanda wasn’t an option. She was already struggling financially raising two granddaughters. Besides, her place was too small to handle another person, especially one who was flat broke.

Of course there was, Melanie. She had a good paying job working in that fancy Bo Shoppe in the town of Stillwaters, and she lived alone in a four bedroom house in Anders. Yet, there was no way that Jolene was going to ask her if she could move in with her. Melanie was generous enough with the family. She was the one who talked Faith into opening a licensed Day Care Center. Her sister paid for everything, from the rental space to all of the equipment to furnish the place.

Melanie was the family rock. She was the ‘go to’ person for personal loans. Jolene couldn’t count the amount of money she’d borrowed or the many favors Melanie did for her. Moving in might be one favor too many. Besides, her sister was always preaching to everybody in the family about how they could do better for themselves. Jolene didn’t want to listen to that sermon. No thanks. She’d live on the street first! The only problem was that with no job and no apartment, that’s where she might end up.

CHAPTER 2

Jolene was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot when she heard the honk of a horn, and then—

Mama!

Looking up she saw a silver SUV pulling in front of her car. To her delight, her son, Jaymond—whose nickname was Jay—jumped out of the vehicle.

Jolene’s heart leapt with joy as she watched her strapping twenty-one year old saunter toward her. A smile the size of a canyon split his boyish face. Jolene’s youngest son was a perfect combination of both his parents. Like his mother, he was the color of roasted chestnuts, but he sported his father’s brown eyes and thick, bushy eyebrows. Jolene’s ex-boyfriend, Eddie Ward, passed that distinctive feature on to each of their three sons. Yet the wide, inviting smile that curved his lips was all Jay’s. It lit up his entire face, instantly turning Jolene’s dreary day brighter. She rolled her window down.

Hey you.

Hey, yourself. Leaning into the window, he planted a kiss on her cheek. This is luck. I was planning on tracking you down today. I figured if I couldn’t find you at Grandma’s I’d go to Daisy’s Bar.

Jolene’s stomach lurched, but she managed to keep the smile on her face.

Well I’m glad you found me, she told him truthfully. I’m always glad to see you. Actually, she was overjoyed.

Jay was the only one of her sons with whom she had developed any type of relationship. Despite that, it had been more than six months since she’d seen or heard from him. Remembering the reason for his last call, she asked, How’s that new job of yours goin’?

His grin widened. Great! I want to tell you all about it. Where are you headin’ now? To your place? Where you livin’? I’ll follow you there and we can talk.

Jolene thought quickly. I’m going over to Mama’s. Where are you headed?

The grocery store, but I can meet you over there.

She nodded. Alright, I’ll see you in a few.

Melanie watched as he got back in his car, parked and entered the store. The joy in her heart was replaced by pain as she recalled what he said on seeing her. He was going to Daisy’s Bar to look for me.

The impact of those words seared her soul, putting a stamp on a truth that she grappled with for a very long time. I’m a bad mother.

As she pulled out of the lot and headed toward her mother’s house, that thought echoed in her head.

****

When she pulled up in front of Faith’s house, Jolene saw Wanda’s car, but thankfully Melanie’s car wasn’t there. She wanted to avoid her, which really wouldn’t be difficult. Since getting that fancy job in Stillwaters her family didn’t see as much of Melanie as they used to.

At one time their mother’s home was the center of each of her daughters’ universe. Men came and went, but Faith Carson was always there for them. She was the family matriarch.

Until recently, she never had a fulltime job. In her youth it was Faith’s breathtaking beauty that attracted the men who provided financial security for her family. Each of the Carson sisters had different fathers and each of these men provided varied levels of emotional support, but Faith’s love and devotion to her children always remained constant.

In her sixties, she was still an attractive woman, but she had been between men for a while. So, she reveled in the love and attention of her daughters and their children. Frequent visits from them were expected, if not required. Like the good daughters they were, Wanda and Jolene made the pilgrimage faithfully. Melanie’s violation of this rule was viewed as sacrilege.

Jolene knocked on her mother’s front door. Wanda let her in.

Girl, you just in time. Mama just finished cookin’ a pot of greens.

Jolene followed her sister to the dining room, glad to know that even if she no longer had a roof over her head she wouldn’t go hungry today.

Faith was sitting at the lace covered table when they entered. Her caramel colored face broke into an inviting smile.

Hi, baby.

Hey, Mama. Jolene said brightly, determined not to let anyone in the room know how down she was feeling. Needing the comfort of her mother’s warmth, she wrapped her arms around her shoulders and gave her a tight hug.

Faith returned the gesture. Want some greens?

I sure do.

Jolene accepted a plate, took a slice of golden cornbread from the platter in the middle of the table and slid into a chair across from Wanda. Taking a mouth full of the savory combination, she groaned with satisfaction.

I bumped into Jay, she informed them between bites. He’s on his way over here.

Faith’s hazel eyes sparkled with pleasure. Oh, good! I haven’t seen that boy since Lord knows when.

Jay’s presence among them meant that her youngest would provide information about his older brothers, Steven, and Phillip, known as Little P. Jolene’s interaction with her two oldest sons was all but nonexistent. Her relationship with their father had been volatile, with verbal and physical abuse and too many makeups and breakups to count. After Jay was born, she and Eddie went their separate ways, but it was their father who gained custody of the boys. Jolene had suffered the consequences of that heartbreaking decision ever since.

What’s he up to now? Wanda asked over a mouth full of cornbread.

Jolene shrugged, ashamed to admit that she knew so little about the lives of any of her sons. Her only solace was that Wanda wasn’t faring much better with her three children. Her two sons had recently left town together. She hadn’t heard from them in weeks. Her daughter—the mother of the twins Wanda was raising—was a drug addict. The last the family heard, she was living with some man, but no one knew where. No, neither she nor her sister could be named Mother of the Year. Even Melanie’s oldest son died in prison while serving time for armed robbery. However, her other three children seemed to be faring well. Her youngest child was presently in college.

A knock on her mother’s front door jolted Jolene out of her reverie.

That must be Jay, she said brightly, getting up from the table to let him in.

An hour later Faith’s cozy dining room was alive with laughter as Jolene’s son charmed his adoring audience. His father had urged his sons to cut Jolene out of their lives. Her older boys did so successfully, but Jay ignored his father’s edict. At the age of eighteen he reconciled with his mother and the two of them established the tenuous relationship that they now enjoyed. Everyday Jolene thanked God for that blessing.

Jay was a kind, thoughtful young man, filled with youthful optimism and an infectious sense of humor. She watched with pride as he interacted with his grandmother and aunt recounting the story of how he landed his latest job.

I mean I was a car washing fool, making them cars shine like they was gold, he recalled demonstrating his expertise with circular stokes of an imaginary chamois. Shoot! King Kong didn’t have nothing on me when it came to hand washing cars! He paused for the expected laughter before continuing. There was this one dude who came to the car wash every week. One time we was short one man and I washed and waxed his car by myself. I’m telling you, the thing looked like a mirror when I got finished. He loved it and asked me my name. I told him, and after that he asked for me personally every time he came in. And man, did he give good tips.

How much? asked Wanda, who was always interested in money.

$10 a pop. Hell, the car wash only cost $15!

Whoa! His aunt was impressed.

Anyway we’d do some small talk while I was workin’. One day he asked me if I liked horses.

Horses? Faith scrunched her nose up in disgust.

Yeah, and I told him I didn’t know nothin’ about horses.

I guess so, his grandmother said with a dismissive wave of her hand. How you suppose to know about horses?

By working on a horse ranch. Jay grinned. The guy hired me to work on the Square S Ranch that day.

The what? Jolene looked confused. Where’s that at?

About twenty-five miles west of here.

Out in the country? Wanda was horrified. Her small world revolved around the towns of Bauer and, less often, Anders. Any place beyond that was unexplored territory.

Jolene was curious. What do you do on a horse ranch?

I’m one of the barn hands and horse handlers. The silence that met his words called for further explanation. I clean the stalls, feed the horses, exercise them, stuff like that, he explained.

And you like doing that? Jolene wasn’t aware that her son even liked animals.

Jay’s face softened. Believe it or not, I do.

Wanda, the skeptic, wanted to know, Why?

He shrugged. I don’t know. I just like working on the Square S.

Don’t the Stillwaters own that horse ranch? asked Faith.

Jay nodded.

What don’t they own around here? Jolene scoffed.

Including our sister. Wanda proceeded to fill Jay in on his Aunt Melanie’s employment at the Bo Shoppe, as well as her new beau, Scott Stillwaters.

She got her a big shot, Faith said proudly.

That’s for sure, Wanda sniffed.

We met him and he seems nice enough, Jolene added. But everybody knows that rich folk don’t mess with poor folk like us without a reason, and it ain’t never a good one.

Her sister agreed. Faith and Jay didn’t respond. Jay rose from the table.

Well, ladies, I’ve got to go. There was a collective groan.

But you ain’t told us about Stevie and Little P, Faith complained.

Ain’t nothin’to say, Grandma. Everything’s still the same. Stevie’s still driving a truck and Little P’s still livin’ with his girlfriend, Linda. She just got a job at that new discount store where he works. The one on Waverly Road.

But what about their baby, Tianna? How big is my great-granddaughter now? Shoot, the only picture I got of her is the one you sent us with her birth announcement.

The longing in her mother’s voice broke Jolene’s heart. It was because of her estrangement from her sons that her family members had never seen Jolene’s only grandchild in person. Neither had she.

His grandmother’s distress seemed to touch Jay. I’ll take a picture of her when I see her again and send it to ya’ll.

Having satisfied them with that promise, he said his goodbyes. Taking his mother by the hand, he pulled her from her chair. Come on Mama and walk me to my car.

Jolene went outside with him reluctantly. She didn’t want him to leave. She wanted to spend more time with him, but his next words lifted her spirits.