Where Last Summer had been my most challenging project to write (and plot) to date, Side Trip was the complete opposite. I’d heard tales from authors about story concepts that appear to them in dreams and they’ll outline the entire plot in a notepad before their morning coffee. That magic had yet to happen to me, until Side Trip. I was doing floor exercises in my garage gym when the entire concept—the beginning, middle, and end—literally dropped into my head. By the time I finished, I had character names and backstories. Nothing like an ab workout to light the creative spark. This is not to say the editing and rewriting were easier than my previous projects, but Side Trip became that book I had to write before I could write anything else. Joy and Dylan were so real to me, more real than Aimee and James from the Everything series, and I needed to flesh them out ASAP. I hope you fell in love with them and their story as much as I did.

Every book takes a village, and this one not only took one but needed its patience and support because of my own personal health battle that hit me right before we launched into edits. I’m unceasingly grateful for my agent, Gordon Warnock, and Fuse Literary Agency for truly being there for me. You’re incredible! To my team at Amazon Publishing—Chris Werner, Danielle Marshall, Gabriella Dumpit, Laura Barrett, Kellie Osborne, Ashley Vanicek, Dennelle Catlett, Kyla Pigoni, Jacqueline Smith, Hai-Yen Mura, Mikyla Bruder, Jeffrey Belle—I couldn’t ask to work with anyone better in this industry.

To my family, friends, and online communities who’ve rallied for my books and, later, rallied for me: I’m blessed to have you in my life. To my developmental editor, Tiffany Yates Martin, who adjusted her schedule to work around my turtle pace, along with my copyeditor, Cheri Madison, and all my proofreaders, for working tirelessly to make Side Trip shine and sparkle. I love working with each one of you.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I have the best top readers in the Tiki Lounge. The Tikis give me reason to log on to social media. They also come up with the most creative ideas. Thank you, Jacki Rosher, for “designing” Westfield Records’ logo (and Dylan’s tattoo). Thank you, Shelley Nowak, for naming one of Westfield Records’ bands, Catharsis. Thank you to my assistant, Jen Cannon, who stepped in at the perfect time and smoothly took on tasks so that I could focus on writing. Thank you to the book bloggers, Bookstagrammers, early readers, and my publicist Kathleen Carter, who helped make this book soar.