Are We There Yet?

by Kathleen West

  After a short drive, Alice pulled her Volvo into a parking spot at a nondescript office building. She glanced at the note she’d saved on her phone with the therapist’s suite number. Rebecca D’Agostino, she said to herself as she zipped her jacket and headed inside. “Highly recommended,” her mother had told her. After Teddy had suggested she try therapy, Alice felt her only choice was to do it. If nothing else, she’d be setting a good example and proving she cared about his opinions. But besides that, she still had the manila folder stuffed in her bookshelf, the legal paper on which her mother had written the names of her birth parents shoved inside. A bespectacled woman in her sixties emerged from an inner office just as Alice had taken a seat in the waiting room. “Alice?” she said. Alice nodded and followed her through the door. She said yes to Rebecca’s offer of chamomile tea and glanced at the woman’s bookshelf as she waited. Alice recognized many of the volumes from her mother’s library. She smiled when she found the spine of Listen to Me, the tome that had gotten Alice through the first days of Teddy’s meltdown at Elm Creek Junior High.

  “So,” Rebecca said when she’d handed Alice a cerulean Le Creuset mug and sat in an adjacent chair. “What brings you in today?”

  Acknowledgments

  I can hardly believe I’ve been allowed to write another novel. My heartfelt thanks to those who’ve held my hand through this second finish line. Kerry Donovan, my brilliant editor, found the emotional truth of this story and also made the pages turn faster. I’m so grateful to continue our partnership. My agent, Joanna Mackenzie, read the earliest and most stilted drafts and still expressed faith in the effort. I don’t think one’s agent has to be a friend, but I’m happy and proud to consider Joanna that way.

  I wrote most of this book in Nicole Kronzer’s beautiful backyard Burrow. I could feel Molly Weasley’s warmth and ferocity within those four walls, and in Nicole’s steadfast friendship and whip-smart beta reading. She’s magic. In fact, all of my early readers are extraordinary. Thank you to Jordan Cushing, Alison Hammer, Lee Heffernan, and Dan West, and to my mom, Miriam Williams. Mary McAdaragh and KK Neimann told me how the book should end, thank God. Anya DeNiro, Jessie Hennen, and Christine Utz axed a whole main character. The Toucans forced me to interrogate motivations and outcomes; Nigar Alam, Maureen Fischer, and Stacy Swearingen are equally gentle and exacting. Chadd Johnson has his finger on the pulse of seventh-grade boys and understands story (and dodgeball) like no one’s business. My online writers’ community, the Ink Tank, provides a daily source of friendship, comfort, and laughter. Thank you, thank you all.

  Thank you also to the team at Berkley, including Diana Franco, Jessica Mangicaro, Mary Geren, Megha Jain, Amy J. Schneider, Craig Burke, Jeanne-Marie Hudson, Claire Zion, and everyone else. You’re unparalleled in skill and kindness, and I’m stunned by your unfailing support. Shout-out to Anthony Ramondo and Emily Osborne, who designed the perfect, striking cover, which I love so very much. I’m grateful, too, to the crew at Nelson Literary. I hope every writer feels as well cared for. And thank you to Mary Pender, Wayne Alexander, and Jenny Meyer for your good counsel and good cheer.

  Many smart and generous people helped me nail down the details in this book. Anne Nervig explained synchronized skating (and the skaters’ parents). Emily Hjelm picked the wallpaper, the furnishings, and the handbag. Laura Larson agreed that the Goyard was the perfect fit. Renee Corneille and Robin Ferguson told me how they might discipline seventh graders who make the mistakes I describe in this book. Stephanie O’Brien, my sister-in-law, advised me on physical therapy clinics and also fixed my back a few times at family parties. (Sorry, Steph.) Mary McAdaragh, who is my sister and also my favorite social worker, troubleshot the soccer, the therapy, and the HIPAA. If I made mistakes in these areas (or any others), they’re 100 percent mine.

  Thank you to the readers and booksellers who embraced me and expressed so much enthusiasm for my first book, Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes. I felt so much love from book clubs, on Bookstagram, and from independent stores like Magers & Quinn, Excelsior Bay, Valley Booksellers, Scout & Morgan, Blue Willow, Anderson’s, Madison Street, Lake Forest, and Belmont. Thank you for making me feel so welcome. I’m so hoping you’ll like this sophomore effort—I owe you.

  I have such good friends. Thanks to you all for the cocktails, the coffees, the texts, and the adventures. I love and appreciate you so much. I also love and appreciate my parents, my aunts and uncles and cousins, my siblings, my nieces and nephews, and my in-laws. This book is for you.

  And, of course, the book is also for Dan and Shef and Mac, the best three anyone could ever have. Lucky, lucky me.

  About the Author

  Kathleen West is a veteran school teacher. She graduated with a degree in English from Macalester College and holds a master's degree in literacy education from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her A+ human family and two B- dogs.

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