Flat-Out Love (37 page)

Matt was serious now. “I never would have guessed this was where you two were taking me.” He paused and bit his lip, a soft smile forming. “The last time I was here was with Finn.”

Julie clapped her hands together. “We’re going skydiving.”

He looked at her. “What do you mean
we’re
going?”

She nodded. “You’re not very bright, are you? I mean that you and I are going to jump out of a plane, and then a life-saving parachute thingy will pop out, and we will land on the ground in one piece.”

“Both of us are going?”

“Yes,” she said. “I want to jump with you, Matt. For real this time.”

She loved when he was speechless.

“And Flat Finn too,” Celeste said. “We called the skydiving center this week. They remember you and Finn, and they said that you could take Flat Finn when you jump. I think it’s a fitting way to celebrate. The real Finn would genuinely like this idea.”

“Of course I’ll take him,” Matt said. “Of course. Julie, are you sure about this?”

“Yes,” she said. And she meant it. She trusted him completely. “I want to do this with you.”

Matt leaned over and put a hand on the back of her neck. He pulled her in gently, kissing her softly and perfectly.

“I knew it!” Celeste squealed. “I told you, Julie, didn’t I? I said this would work out, and it has. Does this mean that there will not be any more unpleasant spats between you two? I found those squabbles to be incredibly disquieting.”

Julie sat back and laughed. “I don’t know about
that
.” She looked into Matt’s eyes. “Even so, I love you.”

Matt smiled at her and winked. “I know.”

Celeste and Julie both smacked him.

“This would be an appropriate time not to be a dork or a smartass,” Julie said.

Celeste popped her head into the front seat. “Be the hero, Matty. Come on. You’re supposed to be the hero now. The romantic lead.”

“I know that too,” he said. Matt did not hesitate a moment longer. “Julie, I love you. I absolutely love you.”

“Good,” Celeste said, satisfied. “Now it’s time to jump.”

Tremendous thanks to my entire family for putting up with my obsessive demeanor (and occasional lack of showering) while writing this book. A special thanks to my dad, who put on his psychotherapist hat while reading my manuscript and took copious and helpful notes. I love you, Daddy.

A gazillion hugs to Jessica Whitney, who always calls me “sweet girl” when I need it the most. Everyone should have such a delightful coconspirator.

Lori Gondelman has obtained goddess status. She proofread chapters, offered endless encouragement, yelled at me to write faster, told me what should stay and what should go, and mailed me bags of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee so I that could throw myself into a caffeine high and write until midnight. I suspect that she would have held my hand as I wrote would it not have interfered with typing. No one could have done more, and I am impossibly grateful for her unfailing belief in this book and in me.

Christy Poser shared her skydiving experiences with me via telephone and even sent DVD copies of her jumps. Although she is obviously a freakish daredevil, Julie owes her one. As do I.

Authors Karen MacInerney and Heather Webber are simply brilliant. Both pointed me in the right direction and managed not to be obnoxious about how right they were. They are total smarties, talented writers, and fabulous friends.

Thank you to Meg Travis, Shelly Toler Franz, Caitlyn Henderson, Carrie Spellman, and Pixie Poe for reading various versions of the outline and manuscript and showering me with support. I’ve known Meg since junior high, and she is as unforgettable now as she was then. Shelly and Caitlyn are both an author’s dream and proof that Facebook friends are, in fact, real friends. Carrie is a trusted reader and reviewer, and her glowing words were the boost I needed to finish the book. Not only is Pixie a book fiend, but she has a cool name and owns a pink Christmas tree. What more can a girl ask for in a friend?

The obscenely brilliant Adam Conner-Sax deciphered MIT speak and put up with my babbling as I figured out my characters. As he has his entire life, he showed himself to be warm, adorable, and frighteningly well rounded.

A captain’s nod to Jonathan Slavin, who enjoys every
Jaws
movie as much as I do.

The incomparable and devastatingly funny David Pacheco was generous enough to provide the large majority of the status updates for the book. (Dave, pay attention; this is where you are getting credit for your genius.) He patiently tolerated my many questions and answered them all with more attention and humor than they deserved. As a thank you, I will be sending him a zombie, a time travel machine, a ledger for the Procrastinator’s Club, and a spray-cheese sandwich. Follow him on Twitter @whatdoIknow if you think you can keep up. But don’t worry, most of us can’t.

Carmen Comeaux and Jim Thomsen were both kind enough to do fantastic editing work on a very rough manuscript.
Carmen bravely forged ahead, even when my grammatical errors caused her to write “Horrors!” in the margins. And Jim will hereby be known as “The Hyphen King.” You two are impeccable, tough, and outrageously skilled.

Brian Yagel did everything from giving me real life technical support to spouting off geeky terminology that I still don’t totally understand. But it made sense to him. And he managed to remain charming even when saying things like “third-party app” and “console logs.” Enjoy your two minutes for those FB updates, kiddo.

Amazon has changed my life, and without them I might not be writing anymore. I’m not a fan of playing by rules, and knowing that I might self-publish through KDP let me write
Flat-Out Love
with total abandon. I got to write the story that I wanted to—the one I believed in—not the one that I thought legacy publishers would want me to. Deciding to self-publish this book was the smartest thing I’ve ever done. Now that I’ve signed with Amazon Children’s Publishing, I get to hold on to so many of the benefits that I’ve had, but now with the added support of a dynamic team. ACP not only supports writing outside of the box, they embrace it, and signing over
Flat-Out Love
and my next book to such a stupendous team is pure joy. Associate Publisher Tim Ditlow and the entire publishing team at Amazon are outstanding; their belief in me and in my career is deeply humbling, and I am deeply grateful. I have true partners now, and there is no better feeling. Amazon may be a massive company, but I know without a doubt that my team has heart, dedication, and a drive to try new things. They run to unchartered territory, and those are my kind of people.

My agent, Deborah Schneider, has been devoted to this book from the beginning, and she took the repeated this-book-will-never-sell rejections from traditional publishers as hard as I did. When I decided to self-publish, she cheered me on. “Give ’em hell!” she said. And I did.
We
did. Finally. Deborah, thank you for everything that you have done for me, and most of all, thank you for letting me yell, “Congratulations! You’re still my agent!” and not hanging up on me.

Jessica Park grew up in the Boston area and then went to Macalester College in frigid St. Paul, Minnesota. During her freshman year, there was a blizzard on Halloween, and so after graduation, she decided that she was not cut out for such torture. So she moved back to the East Coast, where, she’d forgotten, it still snows. Oops. She now lives in New Hampshire with her husband, son, bananas dog named Fritzy, and two selfish cats. When not writing, she is probably on Facebook, pining over eighties rock stars, or searching for the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts. Oh, and she’s a complete Gleek.