As always, a huge thank-you is due to longtime friends and critique partners Susan Crandall and Karen White. I can’t imagine being on this journey without you.
To my editor, Kate Seaver, and the great team at Berkley/Penguin Random House.
To my agent, Stephanie Rostan of Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency, for providing sage advice and for telling it like it is even when I’d rather not hear it. And for her wicked sense of humor.
To Courtney Paganelli, associate agent at LGR Literary, for her insights into how a twentysomething female talks and thinks. Because my sons were no help at all with this . . .
For sports detail, I relied on Kristi Dosh and Kevin Adler, whose passion for and encyclopedic knowledge of sports came in especially handy this time out.
For legal, I turned to Max Ruthenberg-Marshall, founding attorney at Porchlight. Mike Madsen and Realtor Andi Stein fielded questions about mortgages and real estate.
Thanks also go to:
Nick Adams, EMS division chief at Cobb County Fire & Emergency Services, for answering all my questions and for not being shocked at the details that made me blush.
Veronica Wilder, who inspired the character Jazmine Miller, who became so much more than I’d originally imagined.
Angela and Perley McBride and family and Nancy Flaherty, who made generous donations to Curing Kids Cancer, which put their names in this novel. And to Bonnie Traiman, who lent her name in support of the St. Pete Beach Library.
Close friends Dana Barrett and Annell Gerson, for allowing me to borrow their names and meld them into one fabulous character. And a great big shout-out to all the book clubs that shared their group names for this story.