Let’s begin with a riddle.
You have me today, and tomorrow you’ll have more; As your time passes, I’m not easy to store; I don’t take up space, but I’m only in one place; I am what you saw, but not what you see.
What am I?
Well, this is embarrassing. I forgot the answer. Somebody let me know if you figure it out. The point is, I’m a middle-aged woman with too much noise in my brain to remember things like garbage day is Thursday, and it’s a left turn to the dentist, but a right turn to the gynecologist. (Boy, did I scare that hygienist.)
And yet! The years and people that inspired this book are carved into my soul. Andi, Carolina, Mack, Dom, Queenie, and Chandler, you know who you are. Thanks for the back then and the now. Double thanks for letting me twist your real persons into the fictional expressions on these pages. All the best parts are yours. The bad stuff, I made up.
Thank you to the many writer and book friends who support and inspire me, even when I act like a whiney child. Josh Moehling, Laska Nygaard, J. Ryan Stradal, Mindy Mejia, Lorna Landvik, Kathleen West, Nicole Kronzer, Helen Ellis, Pamela Klinger-Horn, Mary O’Malley, Maxwell Gregory, Judith Kissner, Gretchen West, Jennifer Jubenville, Annie and Matthew and the team at Magers & Quinn, and all the people that I’m forgetting here because I do that. A lot.
Holly Root of Root Literary, my agent extraordinaire. Thanks for seeing my potential, especially when I can’t.
Laura Brown and Nicole Luongo, the impossibly unstoppable dynamic editing duo. It took two of you to finally pull this book out of me. Frankly, I was scared. That phone call (you know the one) made all the difference. How strong you are! I’m so very grateful to have you.
To all the crew at HarperCollins and Park Row Books... In Minnesota, we have a term for people like you: Super Duper!
Hey, Mom, I did it again.
Thanks to my brother, Andy, who supplied me with horror stories from the dozens of weddings he’s performed and loosely inspired the nuptial chaos in this book.
Chad, Connor, Carsten, and J. I love you guys. I really, really do.
Gretchen Anthony
September 2023