The Weight of Him(89)

Breathless, her sharp inhales made her head jerk. “‘Beat,’ I said, even though I knew it was stupid. Pointless. Like after all these years I’d learned nothing. I just kept saying it. Just kept begging. ‘Beat. Beat.’”

She fell in on Billy, her scaffolding undone. “Tell me everything’s going to be okay.”

He stroked her hair, holding her to the knock of his heart. “It is. Everything’s going to be okay.”





Acknowledgments

My deep thanks to:

Brenda Copeland, my wonderful editor at St. Martin’s Press. This book is all the better because of you.

Sally Richardson, President and Publisher, and George Witte, Editor in Chief, St. Martin’s Press, for adding my book to your remarkable trove.

Lisa Senz, Dori Weintraub, Brant Janeway, Claire Leaden, Jordan Hanley, Maggie Callan, Steven Seighman, Dave Cole, Michelle Ma, and the rest of my phenomenal team at St. Martin’s Press. It takes a village.

My agent, Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary Management—you are tireless, and you went above and beyond.

The generous readers of various drafts of this book: Padraig Rohan, Danielle McLaughlin, Kirsten Menger-Anderson, Masha Hamilton, Jennifer Soloway, Rachel Howard, John Dowling, Janis Cooke Newman, Susanne Pari, Cameron Tuttle, and Lee Kravetz.

Those gifted and large-hearted writers who reached back and offered a hand: Lauren Groff, Edan Lepucki, Robert Olen Butler, Bonnie Jo Campbell, John Banville, Tom Barbash, Eowyn Ivey, Daniel Torday, and Haven Kimmel.

The owners and staff of independent bookstores everywhere, for believing. You keep books alive and vital.

The San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, for tremendous support, community, wisdom, and good times. It takes a tribe.

Steve Kettmann, Sarah Ringler, and Joe Plumeri, for a month-long residency at the Wellstone Center that greatly benefited this book, and me.

My family and friends. I’m blessed to have you.

Dad. As promised. I hope I did enough.

T., this book is also for you.