The biggest of thanks-yous ever to Alison Dasho—I can’t tell you how much I appreciated your immediate support and enthusiasm for this book and for all of your amazing insight and for having adorable daughters. Your words to me after reading the first draft of this story—I’ll always remember them. I’m thankful every day that I get to work with you and the entire amazing Montlake team (Anh Schluep, Lauren Grange, Megan Meier, Kris Beecroft, Jillian Cline, Andrew George, Erin Calligan Mooney, and Jessica Preeg). Thank you for being on my side and fighting for me. And an Adam Driver–size thanks to Charlotte Herscher, who always finds a way to make my stories even better and helps me to dive into what I actually meant to say. Your brilliance and advice are always so appreciated. I’m also thankful this book was a “light edit.” It’s much more fun that way. We should do that every time.

Thank you to the copyeditors and proofreaders who find all my mistakes and make me follow grammatical standards even when I don’t want to. A special shout-out to Philip Pascuzzo for this absolutely delightful cover. I can’t even tell you how much I adore it.

Sarah Younger: thank you for letting me call you after I met Adam Driver and gush to you about it and for being completely on board when I said I wanted to write a book inspired by those events. It was super late in New York, but you let me be thrilled about the experience and recognized how it made me excited about writing again. You are the best cheerleader ever, and I’m so thrilled that you’re in my corner.

A big thanks to the team at Dana Kaye Publicity for all of their support and getting me to do all the publicity type things I don’t like doing. I’m so excited to be working with you!