Friendship and family carried me through a great many rough patches as I finished this book. I offer special thanks to a few who saw this one come together up close. Sarah MacLean and Jennifer Prokop were always a phone call away; Sarah in particular helped in the earliest and latest stages of plotting this book (“You just have to write it,” she would say, which is very good advice), while Jen stood at the ready for my weird, highly specific Chicago-related questions and for my weepy moments of insecurity. I love you both so. Lauren Billings was an absolute champion: Lauren, you crash-landed into my life (or I crash-landed into yours?) at a supremely weird time in this world, but it sure does feel like fate, and I hope you know that I couldn’t have finished this one without your texts and GIFs and your total belief in me. Therese Beharrie, Alyssa Cole, Olivia Dade, Ruby Lang, Elizabeth Kingston, Kennedy Ryan, and Jill Smith were all generous and patient friends at various stages of the process. My longtime first reader, Amy, was heroic for this one—particularly for the last part of my drafting, reading at all hours and always live-texting her reactions.

Kensington Books has been my publishing home since my debut, and I send my most sincere thanks to the entire team for their support and enthusiasm for my books, and for working on them until they (sometimes literally!) sparkled. I extend special gratitude to Michelle Addo, Lynn Cully, Jackie Dinas, Vida Engstrand, Susanna Gruninger, Norma Perez-Hernandez, Lauren Jernigan, Alexandra Nicolajsen, Kristine Noble, Adam Zacharius, and Steve Zacharius. I also extend thanks to the Kensington team for working with people like Erica Ferguson, who deserves my gratitude for her careful copyediting in the final stage of this book’s development. You all have made so many of my publishing dreams come true.

A final word for my husband, for this book especially: how fortunate was I to first see you when we were only fifteen, and how sensible were you to know first that we had something rare and special. Thank you for growing up with me, and for always seeing clearly in me the things I struggle to see for myself.

Teaser Chapter

Turn the page for a sneak peek at Georgie, all along by Kate Clayborn

GEORGIE, ALL ALONG

Kate Clayborn

“Outright perfection! Clayborn is in a league entirely her own.”
--Christina Lauren, authors of The Soulmate Equation

In this heartfelt tale of one woman’s quest to reinvent herself, the acclaimed author of Love Lettering and Love at First delivers a poignant, witty reflection on how the hopes, dreams, and stories from our past shape our future . . .