by Jamie Pacton
Dot squeezes my shoulder affectionately and then turns to Jett. “You’ve got a real special girl here, you know. Better be good to her.”
Jett smiles. “I will.”
I blush to the roots of my hair. “Get out of here, you. I’ve got breakfast to eat and a boyfriend to talk to.”
Dot gives me a knowing look as she walks away.
“I see your strategy is to butter me up with breakfast food before we move on to matters of the heart,” I say, slathering jelly and butter onto toast.
Jett rolls his eyes. “Bad jokes are not the way to my heart.”
I hold out the ramekin of butter. “Really? No? Too much?”
“Too much. Now, won’t you come over here and sit with me, so we can give that old couple a run for their money?”
I pour half the jug of syrup onto my pancakes. “Somebody’s feeling confident this evening.”
“Somebody just got called your boyfriend,” he says with an easy grin. “I want to make this the most unsurpassably cheesy romantic breakfast of your life.”
I laugh. “Fine, fine. But you’re not having any of my pancakes.”
Jett scoots over as I slide into the booth next to him.
“This is so weird!” I turn to try to look at him as I take a bite of pancakes. “I can’t really look at you while I eat. And your elbow keeps jabbing me and—”
Jett leans in and kisses me.
I give him a playful push away. “You can’t do that every time we’re having a conversation.”
“But I’ve waited so very long to do that,” he says. “And you’re lovely when you’re complaining like my grandma.”
“Ha-ha. Eat your breakfast and leave me in peace.”
Jett laughs and cuts into his own pancakes. “So, have you decided what to do about Marquette?”
I give him the quick rundown on Mom’s late mortgage payment, the divorce, the money from my website, and getting a full ride to community college.
“I keep trying to come up with a plan so I can have it all, but without taking out tons of student loans. There’s no way I can make the money appear for Marquette’s tuition. Even if I keep working at the Castle on the weekends, it’s not enough.”
“So, stick around,” says Jett. “Go to community college for two years, then move on to something else.”
It hurts a bit, but I know he’s right.
“But, the lake, Jett! And the kite festivals! And all that cool stuff in a new place!”
“We can still visit Milwaukee,” he says. “We can go up there and hang out all the time.”
“I know we can visit, but it’s not the same.” I sigh and take a piece of bacon. It coats my fingertips in grease, reminding me of the marvelous fact that the German’s have a word—kummerspeck—which translates to “grief bacon.” It refers to the weight you gain when you’ve been eating your feelings. As I devour the piece of bacon in two bites, I can almost taste my sadness along with the salty porky deliciousness.
Grief bacon: here meaning the literal bacon Kit consumes as she says goodbye to her dream of going to Marquette.
“It might not be the same,” says Jett. “But you never know, it could be better.”
He’s right about that too. Of course.
“I think I know that on an abstract level, but it feels like I’m failing if I let the Marquette dream go.” I eat another piece of grief bacon and refill our coffee cups from the metal pot Dot left on the table.
Jett leans into me, his steady warmth and presence enough to chase my sadness away.
“It’s not failing if you stay here, Kit,” says Jett softly. “Things happen. Other things don’t work out. But you can still make a good life. Even if it’s not part of your plan.”
“I know that,” I say, shifting so I can look at him. “But I can’t help what I want.”
“But do you still want the things you did before?” Jett’s eyes don’t leave mine.
I look away, letting out a long breath. “I don’t know. It used to be so clear. I wanted to be so much more than the girl I was. When I was twelve, I used to stand in my backyard at night and chant ‘more, more, more …’, though I could never see the path to what that more would look like. It just seemed like everybody else was having a better time or that it was easier for them. My life was full of if-onlys, and that made me miss things. Good things. I know that now. Just like I know I want to be with you. Even if it’s just for the summer. Or maybe it will be longer, I don’t—”
This time, when Jett stops my monologue with a kiss, I don’t complain. He tastes like syrup and coffee and his own delicious self.
“We have our whole lives ahead of us to worry about this not being enough,” he says, when we finally stop kissing. “Let’s see where this summer goes. And let the rest take care of itself. Will that work for you, my Lady Knight?”
I smile as I look at this beautiful boy whom I’ve loved for so long. “That will be enough for me.”
We kiss again, our mouths lingering together, breathing each other’s air for a moment. Jett’s hand threads through my hair and I—
“GET A ROOM!” crows Layla as she, Maura, Penny, Chris, Alex, Mags, and Lizzy walk toward our booth.
I blush and pull away. “More of that later?” I whisper to Jett.
“As you wish,” he says, his mouth right beside my ear.
The promise sends a shiver of anticipation down my spine, and I’m suddenly ravenous for the next time we’re alone together.
Layla and Maura squeeze into the other side of the booth. Penny, Alex, and Mags pull up a few tables, making one long table that fills the back half of the restaurant. The bacon disappears, and Layla orders ten more plates of pancakes and sides.
“My treat!” she declares. “A feast for the Knights!”
We all cheer, our voices rising excitedly together. The food arrives, and the conversation flows back and forth from tonight’s performance to changes at the Castle to graduation to summer and then college plans.
Underneath the table, Jett squeezes my hand.
It’s all pretty damn perfect.
And that’s when it hits me: This is really all I want.
A life with the people I love.
Together.
Eating shit tons of pancakes.
Bravely facing whatever the future holds.
Acknowledgments
MAKING A BOOK IS NEVER A SOLITARY ACT, AND I’VE BEEN lucky enough to be supported, encouraged, and buoyed by so many people on my long, twisting road to publication.
Thank you to Kate Testerman, my wonderful agent, who pulled me out of the slush, chased me down on Twitter, never stopped believing in my books, and entertained all my ideas. I’m grateful always for your optimism, generosity, friendship, and enormous knowledge of all things publishing.
Thank you to Ashley Hearn, my delightful editor who sent me an email about KIT that made me cry in a drive-thru line. Thank you for immediately getting exactly what I was trying to do with these knights, for your brilliant notes, and for laughing so hard your sides hurt.
Thank you to Lizzy Mason, dear friend, first champion of KIT, and amazing publicist. I’m so glad we finally got to work together and thank you for always believing in this book. Hugs you fiercely.
Thank you to my copy editor, Juli Barbato, whose keen eye caught so many things I missed and who asked all the right questions.
Thank you to the amazing Page Street team who helped KIT ride into the world: editorial assistant Tamara Grasty; editorial intern Hanna Mathews; production editor Hayley Gundlach; editorial manager Marissa Giambelluca; editor Lauren Knowles; designer Rosie Stewart; publisher Will Kiester; and the wonderful sales team at Macmillan. I appreciate your hard work and vision for this book so much!
Thank you to all my writing friends—how can I thank you all enough?
Thank you, Noelle “Peanut” Salazar: Has it really been the better part of a decade since we had bagels together at PNWA? Thank you for all the friendship, enc
ouragement, and laughs over the years.
Thank you, Megan England: wonderful friend, co-mentor, and potato chip universe co-creator. I’m so glad we stumbled into each other’s lives. Let’s meet in real life soon, yes?
Thank you to my Sisters of the Pen: Cindy Baldwin, Amanda Hill, and Ashley Martin. I’m eternally grateful for our conversations about all things and for all the love and support.
Thank you to my Pitch Wars 2015 family: Joan He, Leigh Mar, Katniss Hinkel, Jenny Ferguson, Margaret Owen, Julie Artz, Courtney Gilfillan, Joanna Hathaway, Kristen Ciccarelli, Mike Mammay, Sarah Madsen, Lucy Goacher, Jenny Chou, and everyone else in our ’15 group. It really is impossible to quantify how much your messages, texts, emails, CP reads, and getting to read your stories have meant over the last few years.
Thank you to Brittany Cavallaro, for all the advice and encouragement over the years. Thank you to Hafsah Faizal, for the friendship and commiseration. And, thank you to my KT Literary fam: Jessie Hilb, Carrie Allen, and Jessica Bibi Cooper. Your books have kept me reading late into the night. Thank you for keeping me afloat and laughing through the submission process.
Thank you to Mike Lasagna for his tireless enthusiasm for KIT and for his friendship; thank you to my wonderful street team, The Round Table, for all their hard work in getting the word out about KIT; and, thank you to all the booksellers, librarians, and bloggers for the blurbs, early reviews, and excitement about KIT. I am so grateful to you all!
Thank you to the friends who’ve been with me through so much of my life and without whom a book like KIT could never have arisen. Truly, this story is a love letter to you all: Thank you to my BFF Ashleigh Bunn for the packages, the visits, the walks, and for working so hard to build bridges of understanding when things got tough in our adult lives. Oh, and also for Gatlinburg. I’ll be thanking you for that until we’re ninety. You were magnificent.
Thank you to Liana Bowen, who listened to so many of my ideas on so many walks and who always wanted to know what I was working on next.
Thank you to the original Overshare Circle, Lindy Russell and Luke Anderson.
Thank you to my many other friends, who’ve shared so much of their own lives and stories with me: Kim Donohoe, Andrea Dula, Melanie Richards, Cheryl Clearwater, and Sarah Banck.
Thanks also to all the friends in the autism community who understand what it is to balance our particular parenting journey with everything else in life and to the autistic adults who’ve taught me so much. Thank you especially to Lyn Jones, Shannon Rosa, Anna Yarrow, Chris Lacey, Patti Moore, and Ryan Mulligan.
Thank you to the Merrimans, especially those of you who have who been part of my writing adventure: My parents for giving me love, education, and a sense of humor, and always letting me read what I wanted. Margaret, youngest sister and biggest fan who’s read all the books I’ve written and swears that some of them are her favorite books ever. (Good grief, love you.) Kim, sister and bestie. My favorite birthday present ever, who’s been there always, cheering me on, and showing up with burritos. Kathleen, whose books I loved reading. I’m so happy you’re passing your love of stories on to the students you teach. And, Mark, fabulous and opinionated friend. Thanks for telling me first. We’ll always have a bottle of gin at our house waiting for you.
Thank you to my Grandma Merriman, librarian, endless talker, and voracious reader, who fueled my love for books with her own many stories. I’m fairly certain KIT would’ve made you cackle and I’m positive you would’ve been proud I made a real book. I wish you were here to read it.
Thank you to my Grandma Rightmyer, whose heart is bigger than the family she’s grown. I’m so grateful for all your letters and your love.
Thank you to my wonderful in-laws, Greg and Kathy Pacton, for watching the boys, for always asking about my books, and for giving us so much support through the years.
And thank you to the three people in my immediate family who make every day challenging, fun, and interesting: Thank you to Liam. For being exactly the person you’re meant to be and for all the snuggles. Thank you to Eliot, a dreamer like me, whose fan art and encouragement kept me writing in those months when I wanted to give up. I can’t wait for the world to read your stories someday. And thank you to Adam. Great love and best friend. Who talked to me first on that snowy night so long ago. Who’s been there through it all. Who’s always supported me and this writing dream. Who sends me out to write. Who keeps me laughing. Who’s cried with me in good times and in bad. I couldn’t do any of this without you. I love you.
About the Author
JAMIE PACTON GREW UP MINUTES away from the National Storytelling Center in the mountains of East Tennessee, and stories have always been a huge part of her life.
Although she’s been writing since she was a kid, after college, Jamie spent a long time working as a server (including a few years at a ’50s-themed restaurant, where she had to do lots of dancing in costume), a nanny, a pen salesperson, a bookseller, and many other jobs that will certainly find their way into books someday.
Jamie currently teaches English and writing at the college level, and she’s written for national and local magazines about parenting, autism, and writing. When she’s not writing books or teaching, Jamie’s usually reading, exploring the world with her family, wandering through a museum, drinking coffee, or rattling off history fun facts to whoever will listen. The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly is her debut novel.
Learn more about Jamie and her books at jamiepacton.com.
You can also find her at @JamiePacton on Twitter and Instagram.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Acknowledgment
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Jamie Pacton
First published in 2020 by
Page Street Publishing Co.
27 Congress Street, Suite 105
Salem, MA 01970
www.pagestreetpublishing.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
eISBN 978-1-62414-953-5
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension. 5442, or by e-
mail at [email protected].
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019948964
Cover and book design by Rosie Stewart for Page Street Publishing Co.
Cover illustration of Kit & Jett by Mina Price