A Brush with Love(97)

Ben. My dime piece. My bae-goals with the bagels. Thank you for loving me exactly as I am. Your endless belief in me makes writing romance possible. I remember being on the subway to Dim Sum Garden that cold January night when you waved your hand in front of my eyes and asked where my brain had wandered off to. I looked up and told you I had an idea for a character. Three years later, you’ve let me disappear into my mind more times than I can count, and you’re always there, cat and pizza in hand, to welcome me home. It’s life’s greatest gift to be in love with my best friend.

An endless, screeching thank-you to my editor, Eileen Rothschild. Thank you for taking a chance on me and helping make this dream come true. You challenge and push me to become the best writer I can, and I’m a better person for it. Thank you for embracing my voice, for your keen eye, and for championing my characters. Working with you is a humbling privilege and I still pinch myself regularly that this is my real life. Lisa Bonvissuto, my fellow Clevelander! Thank you for being so kind and helpful and answering my endless questions. You’ve made this process such a joy.

Kelli Martin. I could fill an entire book with gratitude for you. Thank you for believing in my book. Believing in Harper and Dan. Believing that this is a story that needs to be told. My heart lives in these pages and so much of that is thanks to you. Thank you to the superstar team at Wendy Sherman Associates for cheering me on in the background; I feel so lucky to be represented by such an agency.

Hamda. Having you as a friend is better than winning the lottery (although, if I did win the lottery, we could finally escape this cruel life and live on a beach with nothing but romance novels and cats). Quite simply, this book wouldn’t exist without your tireless support and encouragement. I love you.

Helen Hoang, thank you for welcoming me into the world of authorhood with open arms and a shoulder to worry on. Your work never ceases to inspire me and to call you a friend is an honor.

Chloe Liese. My angel. My neurodivine partner in crime. You get me in a way few ever have. There aren’t words for what you mean to me, but my world is a brighter place for having you in it. I hold you close to my heart always.

Megan Stillwell, I’ve never met someone as fiercely loyal as you. You make me laugh till I pee, pick me up when I’m low, and cheer me on so loudly I can hear it across the country. I’m so lucky to know someone as wonderful as you.

Mama, thank you for our Friday night dates at Borders and for my love of reading. Thank you for seeing my struggles with anxiety and getting me help, instilling in me that doing so is a radical act of bravery.

Dad, thanks for giving me just enough trauma to make me funny.

Kristen, Katie, Ash, Mien, and Tara, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being early readers of this book. I will never be able to convey what your gorgeous, screaming kindness and love means to me. Hannah, thank you for being an invaluable sensitivity reader and an all-around wonderful soul. Gigi, thank you for giving me so many excuses to laugh and sip wine. (Sebastian St. Vincent sends his sincerest regards. From my couch where he’s cuddling me. Because he’s desperately in love with me. Katie and Mien, that goes for Rhys Winterborne too. It’s published, so it’s official.) Thank you to Eliza for reading the first pages I ever wrote of this book. You truly are my writing fairy godmother.

To my Bookstagram fam that has screamed with me about books for years, thank you for your friendship; it’s one of the most special things in my life.

Sarah Hogle, Rosie Danan, and Rachel Lynn Solomon, thank you for embracing me as I awkwardly slid into your DMs and asked if you wanted to be friends. Thank you for reading this story early and sending me reaction memes that had me screaming into my pillow like a preteen with a gut-punch crush. You all inspire me beyond compare. (This isn’t a line; I truly can’t get over the pure talent you all have. Hot damn.)

To my team at St. Martin’s Griffin, how do I even begin to express my gratitude to you? So many of you had to say yes for this dream to happen, and I’m forever grateful for each and every one of those. Thank you, Jennifer Enderlin, for the oh-so-small thing of naming my book and coming up with a title I literally want to put on everything. Thank you, Kerri Resnick, for designing the cover of my dreams and screaming in DMs about it with me. You are a creative genius. Thank you to Monique Aimee, for capturing Harper and Dan so perfectly. Thank you to Brant Janeway, Marissa Sangiacomo, Alexis Neuville, Maria Vitale, and DJ DeSmyter for all the work you’ve done to help this book reach readers and for putting up with my super-hyper, less-than-professional, excessively exclamation-point-filled emails and responding with matched enthusiasm. Not sure how I got so lucky.

And, to my readers with a mental illness: I see you. I believe in you. You are worthy of love just as you are. Hold strong in your faith of the happily ever after, whatever that may look like. It isn’t a fantasy but a reality you deserve.





Praise for


“An adorable love story. A Brush with Love blends sweetness, breathless romance, and moments of striking vulnerability.”

—Helen Hoang, New York Times bestselling author of The Kiss Quotient

“Prepare to smile, laugh, and cry your way through this witty, fast-paced rom-com debut starring a passionate heroine and a delicious cinnamon roll hero who knows how to love her just right.”

—Evie Dunmore, USA Today bestselling author of Bringing Down the Duke

“A Brush with Love reads the way young love feels. Mazey Eddings stole my heart with this laugh-out-loud funny, almost unbearably cute debut (and she made me care about dentistry).”