“You don’t want to stay for the rest of the bonfire? I thought this was supposed to be a sacred Oar’s Rest tradition.”

“It is, but now that my Jedi’s returned…” I trailed off suggestively.

He grinned. “Wanna see my lightsaber?”

“Want to see lightsaber, I do,” I said in a Yoda voice.

“Okay, the mood’s shot.” But he grinned and kissed me quick, and I could tell that the Force was with him.

“We’ll be back fast enough to catch the end of it,” I promised. Right then, I wasn’t interested in taking it slow.

“Ha.” Levi’s mouth curved into a slow, lush smile, full of promise and a thousand everythings. “Maybe not that fast.”

And then I was reaching out. Reaching for the boy I loved, for the town I belonged to, for the moon I could almost reach. For all those things that seemed near and far away. For summer and everything that came after.

acknowledgments

It would be impossible to begin without first acknowledging my parents for their support, guidance, and unflinching ability to read all my manuscripts. Mom, you gave me the love of stories and a library card without parental restrictions—any coarse language is therefore not my fault. Dad, I can’t thank you enough for being my biggest cheerleader and helping me find the first spark of “fire in the belly.” Without you both, I wouldn’t be able to follow my dream.

Thank you to Jean Feiwel, Lauren Scobell, my editor Kat Brzozowski, and the entire Macmillan/Swoon Reads team for helping this book come together. Kat, I hope Small Town Hearts makes you really hungry. Thank you for always asking the right questions to make me dig deeper and, on occasion, reminding my characters to be a bit less murder-y (this will always be my favorite comment). Big thanks to André-Naquian Wheeler, Hayley Jozwiak, and Jessica White for their sharp eyes and insightful copyediting. Swoon Squad, you’ve been the best crew I could hope to sail with. Especially when the seas get rough. I’m also grateful to have the Novel19s community and my Twitter writing pals just a click away.

Thanks to Jen Dibble, the first person outside of family to believe in me. When you reached out that day in 2015, you helped set my life on a new course. And the journey wouldn’t have been half as fun without my pals Sam Pennington and Alessandra Ferreri, who are the best people to fangirl with. You three are truly the best. My sanity and I also thank my best friend Kate Holiday, who was always a willing ear, shoulder, and everything in between. You’re my fairy-tale sister. Here’s to slaying more dragons together.