by Rachel Vail
“I’ll try,” he said. “You have this bit that falls over your face sometimes, though, and …”
“Off-limits, bucko.”
“Okay, and …”
I laughed a little. “Yeah? And what else?”
“And, we deal.”
I nodded. I didn’t feel like crying, or jumping out of my skin, or chattering, or making dumb jokes, or even mashing my face against his. It felt okay to just be there together, hanging out, dealing. More than friends, but not in the less-than-friends way more-than-friends had meant before. Really more. “We deal,” I agreed.
“We’re a good team,” he said. “We just—we put some stuff aside, and …”
“And keep rowing,” I said.
“Yeah. Exactly.”
Neither of us said anything for a while. It wasn’t even awkward.
“Think we can manage?” he finally asked.
“I know we can.” I took a deep breath in. “But I should warn you, in all fairness—every once in a while, you’ll probably think of me when you smell the honeysuckle.”
“Always,” he said.
And then we just lay there together, holding hands and watching the murky universe spin around us for a while.
Acknowledgments
The first fifty to sixty drafts of a book are the hardest for me to write. For their wise guidance and enthusiastic embrace of what this story needed to be through draft after draft, I am deeply indebted to Rachel Abrams as well as Elise Howard and Toni Markiet. Amy Berkower, my extraordinary agent, is not just my business partner but also my friend and pathfinder. I’m so lucky to have her in my corner. My friends sit with me around campfires both real and metaphorical, sharing stories and laughter, for which I am forever grateful. Here in this book that asks what is a family and how do we love one another, I must acknowledge how blessed I feel to be a part of my “big” extraordinarily loving family of parents, in-laws, siblings, and cousins. To my “little” family, full of inside jokes shared with you three good men who are my home and my heart: I love you beyond measure. Finally, to my readers: Thank you for asking for more from these characters and for embracing them—your passion kept them alive and brought them back. Their journey was charted by me, but powered by you.
About the Author
RACHEL VAIL is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed novels IF WE KISS and LUCKY, GORGEOUS, and BRILLIANT (the Avery sisters trilogy) and more than a dozen other novels for young teens, including the Friendship Ring series. Rachel has also written many beloved picture books, including PIGGY BUNNY and SOMETIMES I’M BOMBALOO, and two hit novels for elementary school kids, JUSTIN CASE: SCHOOL, DROOL, AND OTHER DAILY DISASTERS and JUSTIN CASE: SHELLS, SMELLS, AND THE HORRIBLE FLIP-FLOPS OF DOOM. Rachel lives in New York City with her husband and their two sons. You can visit her online at www.rachelvail.com.
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Other Works
novels by
RACHEL VAIL:
The Avery sisters trilogy
LUCKY
GORGEOUS
BRILLIANT
NEVER MIND!
IF WE KISS
YOU, MAYBE:
The Profound Asymmetry of Love in High School
JUSTIN CASE:
SCHOOL, DROOL, AND OTHER DAILY DISASTERS
JUSTIN CASE:
SHELLS, SMELLS, AND THE HORRIBLE FLIP-FLOPS OF DOOM
Credits
Cover photograph © 2013 by Gustavo Marx/MergeLeft Reps, Inc.
Author photograph: Mitchell Spencer Vail Elkind
Cover design by Alison Klapthor
Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Kiss Me Again
Copyright © 2013 by Rachel Vail
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.epicreads.com
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vail, Rachel.
Kiss me again / Rachel Vail. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Having once shared a kiss with her best friend’s boyfriend, Kevin, fourteen-year-old Charlie finds life even more awkward when their parents marry, making Kevin, still her crush, now her stepbrother.
ISBN 978-0-06-194717-9 (hardcover)
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062202888
[1. Stepfamilies—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 4. Remarriage—Fiction. 5. High schools—Fiction. 6. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.V1916Kis 2013
2012011521
[Fic]—dc23
CIP
AC
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12 13 14 15 16 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
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