First and foremost, I am truly one of the lucky ones. I am honored and blessed and amazed every day that all the people named below came into my life and that I was lucky enough to keep them in it…and, man. I’m not sure lucky is a strong enough word.

This book wouldn’t be a book without…a lot of people. It takes a village—NAY! It takes a city—a country—a world to make a book. So many pieces have to come together!

To start, my fantastic, funny, brilliant editor, Krista Marino, who fell in love with Zach and May right away. I feel so fortunate that my first foray into publishing was with you. You are hilarious and wise, and I have loved getting to know you over the past year. Thank you for chatting with me about everything and making me laugh, even when it was hard. To Beverly Horowitz, Barbara Marcus, Judith Haut, Alison Impey, Monica Jean, Felicia Frazier, Elizabeth Ward, and the rest of the fantastic team at Delacorte Press and Penguin Random House: thank you all so much for all the hard work you’ve put in on my book baby. For having me in to the office and giving me such a warm welcome. It’s appreciated more than I can properly put into words.

Likewise, to my badass agent, Andrea Morrison, thank you for believing in me, my book, my writing. Thank you for always being a calming force in response to my slightly…panicky emails. Thank you for accepting and appreciating my thought process and the fact that I don’t love to bow to the status quo without serious conversation. Your encouragement, editorial skills, responsiveness, and all-around badassery is always appreciated. I feel very, very, very, very, very lucky to have ended up with you in my corner. Thank you also to the team at Writers House, particularly Amy Berkower, Erica McGrath, Erin Patterson, and Carolyn Kelly, all of whom gave terrific and much-appreciated notes on this book.

And to Writers House in-house editor extraordinaire Genevieve Gagne-Hawes: without you, this book would NOT be a book. Or, rather, it would be, but it would still be sitting on my computer, twenty thousand words shorter, lacking much of what’s in it now. Not to mention, I might not have even written this book if it weren’t for the fact that you pulled me out of the slush pile and requested a full of my previous manuscript. Even though that ultimately ended in a rejection, your beautiful, heartfelt, enormously encouraging response to my writing gave me enough hope to keep trying. Thank you. Truly.

Sincere thanks to all the authors who blurbed my book, for your time, for your words, and for reading! A particular thanks to Erin Hahn, Karen McManus, Kathleen Glasgow, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, Kelly Coon, Courtney Summers, and Brigid Kemmerer for the advice, guidance, and synopsis help along the way.