“Thursday, when I had to rush off to Montefiore, I had a waiting room full of children and their parents, and I needed someone to deal with them. Jen was terrific, and I don’t want her to leave. So we talked yesterday and we’re going to work out a buy-in plan she can handle. And now that I’m going to have a partner, I can travel even more.”

“Didn’t Italy count?”

She smiled. “That’s only one country.”

I noticed that Glenna was wearing a gold necklace with a turquoise, leaf-shaped pendant. “That’s pretty. I haven’t seen it before.”

“Julie gave it to me last night after you went to bed. It belonged to her mom.”

“Alex told me how much Julie appreciates all you do for her. He said that no matter how lousy a day she’s having, when she’s done talking to you, everything’s fine.”

“I adore Julie, and I’m glad to get a chance to treat her the way I wished my mother had treated me.”

A warm wind blew through the treetops, and the air was rich with the fragrance of grass and flowers.

Glenna said, “Last night, it took me an hour to fall asleep, and as I was closing my eyes, I remembered that when I was a little girl, I believed that I’d never grow up to be happy. At least not in any lasting way. And that feeling’s been with me most of my life.”

“And now?”

She half rose out of her chair to kiss me. “Now I don’t believe that anymore.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard.”

“A lot harder than I wanted it to be.”

A Metro-North train en route to the city pulled into the station. Several passengers were milling around on the platform. They boarded and the train rolled on along the blue water of the creek.

Glenna said, “We should go in and get breakfast started.”

“What should I make?”

“After that dinner? Kelp, wheat germ, and Lipitor.”

I looked over at Glenna, and we laughed, lingering for a moment, just listening to the vanishing clack of the train and watching the morning come.

Acknowledgments

TO BE PUBLISHED with great care requires a corps of dedicated professionals, and in this regard I’ve been extremely fortunate.

I’m grateful to my agent, Susan Golomb, for her wise counsel and her persistence on my behalf; and to my editor, Greer Hendricks, for her keen eye and her talent for making even a criticism sound like a compliment.

Much thanks to Susan’s assistant, Eliza Rothstein, who is as efficient as she is pleasant, and to Greer’s assistant, Sarah Cantin, whose good cheer is only matched by her patience with my many questions.

At Atria Books, I’d like to thank executive publisher Judith Curr; deputy publisher Chris Lloreda; marketing manager Hillary Tisman; senior production editor Carole Schwin-deller; copy editor Steven Boldt; and Jeanne Lee and Laywan Kwan, who are responsible for the beautiful cover.

In a somewhat different form, Comeback Love was originally published by Staff Picks Press, a small publishing company founded by Susan Novotny. Susan is a longtime owner of independent bookstores, and she did a marvelous job spreading the word about my novel. One person who heard about it was John Muse, a national accounts manager for Simon & Schuster, and John soon became a tireless advocate on behalf of Comeback Love. I owe much to Susan and John.