Love, Jacaranda
Page 23
Falcon is staying to work during the summer program, too, and we’ll room together. We also plan to be roommates next year, with Phoebe and Daisy in the other half of the suite. Somehow, I’ll have to make room for her art supplies, but that means I’ll have her art everywhere too!
And I know you saw the commercial because you just texted me from the airport to say it was on the TV there. My agent says she’s gotten other calls about me, which brings me to . . .
One summer program offered me a full scholarship, including room and board. And it’s in NYC, so maybe I can go on some other auditions. I’ll be in New York for 3 weeks in July!
Don’t get too excited. I plan on working hard, probably even nights and weekends, and I can’t slack off to be with you. But maybe you can go by the school and throw a pebble at the window, and I’ll know you’re there. And some weekend, we can take a walk in the park again, and dance and kiss like the first time.
But, before any of that, I’m taking the last of the airline gift card you gave me to visit my mother for the first time in six years. Vanessa has generously offered to accompany me.
When I spoke to you before you left the hospital, you sounded healthy and happy and excited for the future. I am too. One day this week, Phoebe and Daisy and Falcon and I plan to walk into town to visit the sweet tearoom where we went that first day, and I’ll think of you.
I can’t wait to see you again in three long weeks. We belong to each other. Even when we’re apart, I’ll be yours, and you’ll be mine. Always.
Love, Jacaranda
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the following individuals for helping me with this book:
Alyson Day for her loving editing, Megan Ilnitzki for all her help, my agent, Elizabeth Bewley, a great ear and sounding board. I thank my critique group—Gaby Triana, Danielle Cohen Joseph, Christina Diaz Gonzalez, Alexandra Alessandri, and Stephanie Rae—for listening to early bits of this. Thanks to Debbie Reed Fischer and Flora Stamatiades for info on agents, unions, and commercials. Special thanks to my daughter, Meredith Flinn, whose idea it was to go to the Daddy Long Legs musical, which reminded me how much I’d loved this book, and who let me share her high school musical theater experiences.
About the Author
Photo by Eugene Flinn
ALEX FLINN was a lawyer and an opera singer before becoming an author. This is her fourteenth novel. Her novel Beastly was a #1 New York Times bestseller and a major motion picture. She lives in Miami with her husband, occasionally her college-age children, two dogs, two cats, and an African spur thigh tortoise. Visit her online at www.alexflinn.com.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Books by Alex Flinn
Beastly
Beastly: Lindy’s Diary
Bewitching
Mirrored
Three Beastly Kendra Chronicles
Four Beastly Kendra Chronicles
Cloaked
A Kiss in Time
Towering
A Magical Trio
Breathing Underwater
Diva
Fade to Black
Nothing to Lose
Breaking Point
Girls of July
Love, Jacaranda
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Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
LOVE, JACARANDA. Copyright © 2020 by Alex Flinn. 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cover art © 2020 by Matt Carlson
Cover design by Molly Fehr
* * *
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019044022
Digital Edition JULY 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-244789-0
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-244786-9
* * *
2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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* “Jerk” was not the word he used.
** I had a math teacher who said this, but we all thought he was weird.
* These may not be their actual names.