by Jenn Bennett
“Three minutes, ladies,” LuAnn calls out behind me. “Get ready to line up.”
As my teammates zip around me, I whip out my phone and ask one of the girls to take a photo of me smiling over my shoulder with the crowd in the background. My skate name is printed in bold letters on the back of my jersey: MINK.
I text the photo, with the time, date, and precise geolocation, to my mother. I don’t wait for a reply; I know it won’t come. But I haven’t given up hope that one day she’ll be ready to forgive herself. To forgive me for leaving her and moving out here. And when she is ready? She can come and visit me and Dad. Maybe we’ll even take her out for posole, who knows.
After the last call, I stash my phone in the locker and line up with my teammates. Everyone’s buzzing. It’s always like this before we go out. It’s such a rush. I shake out my arms and adjust the strap on my helmet. Everything’s in place. I can hear the announcer riling up the crowd. They’re cheering. It’s almost time to go.
“Are you ready, girls?” LuAnn asks, skating down the line, making eye contact with each one of us.
She touches my shoulder, reminding me of how Pangborn used to, and I give her a little nod.
I’m so ready.
I am Mink. Hear me roar.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Megaton thank-yous to:
10. My extraordinary agent, Laura Bradford, for the extremes she endured to deliver good news, which put the US Postal Service’s “rain nor heat nor gloom of night” motto to shame.
9. My badass editor, Nicole Ellul, for being the best I’ve ever had, hands down.
8. My awesome US team at Simon Pulse—Mara Anastas, Liesa Abrams, Tara Grieco, Carolyn Swerdloff, Regina Flath, and all the names and faces I don’t know yet—for championing this book and believing in its potential.
7. My amazing UK team at Simon & Schuster UK—Rachel Mann, Becky Peacock, Liz Binks, and everyone else who works tirelessly behind the scenes—for your infectious enthusiasm.
6. My foreign editors, Barbara König and Leonel Teti, for continuing to have faith in my books, and to Christina at LOVEBOOKS for taking a chance on me.
5. My beta readers, Veronica Buck and Stacey Kalani, for their honesty and kindness.
4. My foreign rights agent, Taryn Fagerness, for tolerating my dumb questions.
3. My personal support team—Karen and Ron and Gregg and Heidi and Hank and Patsy and Don and Gina and Shane and Seph—for all their endless cheerleading. I don’t deserve any of you.
2. My husband, for continuing to endure my Writing Madness. I don’t deserve you most of all. Love you.
1. And to my readers, thank you for giving me a reason to believe in myself. I hope I can return the favor through the words in this book, even in a small way.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenn Bennett is an artist and RITA Award–nominated author of the Arcadia Bell urban fantasy series (for Kindling the Moon) and the Roaring Twenties romance series, including Bitter Spirits, which was chosen as a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2014 and was the winner of the RT Book Reviews Choice Paranormal Romance Book of the Year, and Grave Phantoms, which was awarded the RT Book Reviews May Seal of Excellence for 2015. The Anatomical Shape of a Heart (titled Night Owls in the UK) was her first YA contemporary romance. She lives near Atlanta with one husband and two evil pugs.
SIMON PULSE
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
VISIT US AT SIMONANDSCHUSTER.COM/TEEN
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Jenn-Bennett
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Simon Pulse hardcover edition April 2017
Text copyright © 2017 by Jenn Bennett
Jacket front and back photograph copyright © 2017 by svetikd/Getty Images
Jacket spine and flaps photograph copyright © 2017 by leetatee/Thinkstock
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Jacket designed by Regina Flath
Interior designed by Hilary Zarycky
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This book has been cataloged with the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4814-7877-9 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-7879-3 (eBook)