She read the poem again. “Oh, Tyler.”
Tyler studied her from under his hood. “I know.”
As the landscape of her normal life whirled by the window, her own mind flashed to the day at Pompeii, everyone sitting on the grass, Dylan Thomas playing guitar. You’ve got terrible vision if you don’t see that I’m in love with you…
She did. She really, really had terrible vision. Terrible, sucky missing-the-point vision.
Her mind filled with pieces of him, a little Dylan Thomas mind collage: dancing around her singing Mamma Mia!; walking alone on the beach, his face bathed in a sheet of light; chatting with Mr. Campbell at the front of the bus; his brow pinched in anger about Sean’s kiss; last night, outside the bus, the weight of his hand on her wrist like a familiar bracelet whose metal had grown warm against her skin.
I’ll miss you, you poor poet, you—said in the way only another lonely artist could say it, another soul finding its way through the fog.
Tyler already had her phone in his hand. Grabbing it, she clicked to Dylan Thomas’s number.
She texted:
Is there room at that window for another pair of eyes?
A minute later, her phone rang.
acknowledgments
Twenty Reasons I’m a lucky author:
I have so much gratitude for my agent Melissa Sarver at the Elizabeth Kaplan Literary Agency for all her love, love, love.
My writing group: Kirsten Casey, thanks for your wit and friendship and for using language in the most inspiring (and often irreverent!) ways. Jaime Young, thanks for your compassion and honesty. Ann Keeling, thanks for your heart and integrity, especially for the early read of this manuscript.
I’m grateful for my other early readers: Rachel McFarland, Tanya Egan Gibson, and Sands Hall—this book would not be what it is without your insight and encouragement.
Mom, Dad, Krista (who puts up with my constant questions about the web page)—thanks for always believing.
It’s not often a book gets three amazing editors to love it. Thank you to Daniel Ehrenhaft, who first loved Jessa’s story.
And next to Kelly Barrales-Saylor, who nurtured Jessa through so much of her journey.
And to Leah Hultenschmidt, who came in toward the end and helped bring her home.
Paul Samuelson, a terrific publicist—thank you for spreading the word.
Thanks to Kristin Zelazko, Aubrey Poole, and all the people who make the Sourcebooks Fire books so beautiful!
Michelle Litton—Italy guru! Thank you for the attention to my Italian details. Any oddities in the book are errors in my memory and my inability to Google correctly.
Thank you to my friends (all of you!) who ask, “How’s the book going?” and listen patiently to the answer, and especially to Dawn Anthney, Erin Dixon, Emily Gallup, Crystal Groome, Lillian Lacer, Caryn Shehi, Gary Wright, Michael Bodie, and Loretta Ramos. Oh, and Todd McFarland, of course!
Thanks to the Sagebiels and the Culbertsons, all of you, who always root for me.
My students, past and present, especially the ones who went to Italy with me oh so long ago—you are an inspiration.
Marnie Masuda, thanks for asking me to go to Italy in the first place—you make a most wonderful travel partner.
Forest Charter School (everyone there!)—I feel lucky to be a part of your school.
I’m so grateful for my daughter’s caregivers during the writing of this novel: Tall Pines, Karen Slattery at Pine Mountain, Sydney Lewis, Vienna Saccomano, Bethany Anderson, Daisy Sagebiel, Christie Allen, Mom and Dad (again!), Erin (again!): all of you provided such amazing care of Anabella so I could write with a clear head knowing she was in such good hands.
Thanks to the cafés that indulge my presence when I can’t write from home, especially Broad Street Books, Summer Thyme’s, and Flower Garden.
Whether it was to the same lake each summer with my parents and sister or to Europe, Peru, Mexico, Italy, Hawaii, travel transforms me, and I come back slightly altered by a place and the people I interact with there.
Most important in my little sphere, thank you to my husband, Peter.
And to my sweet daughter, Anabella.
about the author
Kim Culbertson technically writes for teenagers, but there are some grown-ups who like her work. She is the author of the award-winning young adult novel Songs for a Teenage Nomad (Sourcebooks Fire, 2010). When she’s not writing for teenagers, she’s teaching them, and she currently teaches English and creative writing at Forest Charter School. The fact that she’s a published author doesn’t seem to dazzle her students, who still complain about how much homework she gives them. She lives in the northern California foothills with her husband and daughter and travels as often as she can. Visit her website at www.kimculbertson.com.
Instructions for a Broken Heart Page 21
