Amelia Diane Coombs - Exactly Where You Need to Be

Exactly Where You Need to Be

Amelia Diane Coombs

With a star-crossed couple to root for and a buzz worthy setting, Between You, Me, and the Honeybees explores the joys and challenges found in realistic relationships. Many teens will see themselves in Josies coming of age experience. Authentic and heartwarming.

Laura Taylor Namey, New York Times bestselling author of A Cuban Girls Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

A sunny, engaging exploration of all different types of relationships and what it looks like to chart your own course. I loved the depth, the honey-sweet romance, and most of all, Ezra.

Jenna Evans Welch, New York Times bestselling author of Love & Gelato

A big-hearted and compassionate look at the complexity of growing up, navigating relationships, and figuring out how you want your life to look. Amelia Diane Coombs has created a wonderful character in Josie, whose struggles with anxiety feel completely believable. I loved this sweet romance set in the world of beekeeping!

Kerry Winfrey, author of Waiting for Tom Hanks

An absolute charmer of a book thats romantic and chock-full of vintage quirk, set in one of my favorite cities. Coombs has crafted wonderfully messy characters who cope with mental health issues in positive ways, and I love that. Delightful!

Jenn Bennett, author of Alex, Approximately and Starry Eyes

Amid high stakes bowling, charming and relatable friendship-to-romance, andof coursethe joys of San Francisco, Coombs crafts nuanced portraits of mental illness and the complicated legacies of parenthood. This rich and delightful debut kept our hearts from page one.

Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka, authors of Always Never Yours

Between You, Me, and the Honeybees

Keep My Heart in San Francisco

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text 2022 by Amelia Diane Coombs

Jacket illustration 2022 by Jeff Ostberg

Jacket design by Krista Vossen 2022 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Interior design by Hilary Zarycky

CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 9781534493544

ISBN 9781534493568 (ebook)

For the murderinos, the girls who were told theyre too much, and the girls who never felt like they were enough.

This ones for you.

Lets use our powers of anxiety for good and not evil.

G EORGIA H ARDSTARK

Get a job. Buy your own shit. Stay out of the forest.

K AREN K ILGARIFF

ONE

Barmouth, WA

E veryone needs a bury a dead body in the woods best friend. I mean, its the highest level of friendship possible. Someone you can trust, without question, to cover your ass when life goes sideways.

For me, that person is Kacey Hodge. Loyal to her core, my exact opposite in almost every way. If I ever had to bury a dead body in the woods? Kacey would be right beside me, shovel in hand, wiping sweat off her brow. Shes my ride or die. However, Id rather bury a dead body than help Kacey clean out her bedroom, which is how Im spending my afternoon. Because Ive never met someone who owns more clothing and random shit than my best friend.

I cant believe my mom is making me do this, Kacey mutters from the depths of her closet, where shes pulling out her lesser worn items and tossing them into the cardboard box in the center of her bedroom. I swear, Florie, shes using college as an excuse to finally purge my room. Shes wanted this for years. Its so unnecessary.

Id argue that its very, very necessary. Rosemary also said that if Kacey doesnt clean her room, she cant go on the Hodges family vacation next week. Since that trip is the last remotely exciting thing were doing together before Kacey leaves for college, this cleaning spree isnt optional.

I hold up a Russian nesting doll from her knickknack shelf. Really? Because theres literally no reason for you to bring a Russian nesting doll to college. None. Whatsoever.

Its vintage, Kacey says, but, after a hesitation, nods. I place the doll into the box. Hey, can you turn the speaker up?

I grab the Bluetooth speaker, shaped like a retro radio, off Kaceys dresser and nudge the volume button on the side. Were listening to our favorite podcast hosts, Eleanor and Trish, cover the murder of Joan Dawley.

The guy, this asshole, Trish is saying through the speaker, hired two felons to kill his wife

What a dick, Eleanor responds dryly, like shes not the least bit surprised.

Trish snorts. You want to hear the worst part? The plan fell throughone of the hired men was arrested for parole violationsbut someone still bludgeoned the wife to death.

Episodes drop every Wednesday, so Kacey and I get together at her house for our weekly dose of Eleanor and Trish. Murder Me Later is more than a podcast to meits held a special place in my anxious heart for the last two years. Because their podcast is about murder, sure, but its also about mental health and listening to your gutone thing Im often ashamed of, and the other I almost always ignore. Plus, its the whole reason Kacey and I are even friends.

Even if they hadnt brought me together with my best friend, Id still be a huge fan.

Maybe its weird, but I love true crime. Learning about all the worst-case scenarios, the survival stories, the tragedies, is almost calming. Probably because my obsessive-compulsive disorder feeds off all the unknown bad in the world. For me, the monster you know is always better than the one you dont.

Ive composed emails to Eleanor and Trish, trying to tell them how much their podcast means to me, but I never hit send. That fear, that doubt, always creeps up. Ill check the time and realize Ive spent two hours writing one paragraph. I have dozens and dozens of emails Ill never send gathering electronic dust in my drafts folder.