It’s always difficult to distill several years of work, energy, and existential angst into a few paragraphs of thank-yous, but here goes.
To my editor, Kate Seaver: Thank you for your steady encouragement, your thoughtful and incisive edits, and most especially, your patience and flexibility in allowing me the time and space to make this book the best it could be. I am always calmer and more focused after talking to you, and I feel so fortunate to have you in my corner. Thanks also to the entire Berkley Romance team, including Amanda Maurer, Lauren Burnstein, Chelsea Pascoe, and Jessica Plummer, as well as artist Ana Hard and art director Vikki Chu for designing such a stunning cover.
To all my author friends: Your support, advice, and pep talks keep me sane! Thank you for brainstorming with me, for providing the best feedback, for hyping me up when I need it, and for talking me off more ledges than I can count.
There was quite a bit of research and real-life inspiration that went into this book, and I must give credit where it’s due. As I mentioned in my author’s note, Cassidy’s “125 Tips to Hook a Husband” list is inspired by the article “129 Ways to Get a Husband,” originally printed in the January 1958 issue of McCall’s magazine. The legend of Engagement Chicken was first credited to a Glamour magazine editor back in the 1980s, though the story and accompanying recipe didn’t make it to print until the January 2004 issue. I based Gran’s book I Do: Rules & Etiquette for the Military Wife on a book called The Air Force Wife by Nancy Shea （revised by Anna Perle Smith, Harper & Row, 1951）。 Every woman has seen her fair share of silly lists printed in magazines, but the one I couldn’t resist writing into the book was “Things to Do with Your Hands That Men Like” （Jani Gardner for Cosmopolitan, January 1970）。 It’s by far the most bonkers list I found during research, and trust me, it’s worth the google.
If you thought some of the Brawler antics sounded familiar, look no further than Barstool Sports, which provided me with a colorful foundation from which to draw inspiration. To help get into a fifties-inspired mindset, I went down many YouTube and TikTok rabbit holes. One of my favorite finds was a woman named Laci Fay （@LaciFayTheVintageGirlNextDoor）， whose YouTube videos were so charming that I promptly wrote a similar character into my story. （When asked why she lives her life like it’s the 1950s, Laci shared this delightful response: “Everybody is nerdy about something, and it might as well be about something that you love.”） While I drew plenty of inspiration from my own grandmaternal relationships in crafting the special bond between Cassidy and Gran, I found a slew of sassy grandmas on TikTok that also helped. One account in particular, @gbandme, always had me in stitches—and inspired me to turn Gran into a TikTok star.
To my family: Thank you for being my biggest fans and earliest readers, for enduring my endless publishing-related texts, for always chiming in with your opinions, and for talking up my books when I’m too embarrassed to do it myself. Mom, with the example you’ve set for me, it’s no surprise that I write strong maternal relationships into every book. There’s no doubt this book was born from the thousands of conversations we had growing up. Dad, your energy in forcing my book on non-romance readers （mostly male） is unmatched. Please never stop harassing airport bookstore employees. Kristen, I hope you enjoyed your tribute character, even if Christine barely scratches the surface of your formidability. Thank you for being my protector and defender for the past forty years. Erin, thanks for always being my number one hype woman. John, thanks for being my expert on all things Barstool. Danielle and Dolores, I can always count on your early reader enthusiasm! And of course, the most significant thank-you must go to my grandparents. Without their steady, strong presences in my life, their hard-earned, passed-down wisdom, and their unwavering commitment to marriage and family, this book would surely not exist. I can only hope to one day inspire my future grandchildren the way they’ve inspired me.
To Kate, Kirsten, and Kim （collectively, Tusks）： Thank you for tirelessly cheerleading me through all the ups and downs of our publishing journey—and I truly think of it as our journey, since you’ve been there with me every step of the way. I don’t know why I spend hours obsessing over plot holes when you’re always able to solve them in seconds. In fact, if Berkley knew just how much influence you had on this book, your names would all appear on the cover.
It’s a special treat that my kids are now old enough to help with things like brainstorming titles and taglines, judging the strength of my jokes, and keeping my pop culture references fresh （even if the majority are deemed deeply uncool）。 A, D, M, and G: Thank you for being patient with me when writing makes me cranky and distracted, and for being such good sports about my incorporating your unintentionally hilarious comments into my books （especially that Break & Bake joke, A; it’s the gift that keeps on giving）。
To Patrick: There’s a special place in heaven for the spouses of writers, especially of those who are struggling through a challenging manuscript. The amount of whining I did while writing this book is something no husband should have to endure, and you deserve a medal for handling it and me with such limitless patience. I’m only able to accomplish half of what I do because of the selfless ways you take care of me each day, from making my coffee every morning to whipping up gourmet dinners for us at night. These daily acts of love are more romantic than any grand gesture I could write in a book. You’re the best partner in life and love I could ask for.
And finally, to the Bookstagram community: Thank you for being such fierce champions of my work, for your excitement and energy, and for shouting about my books from the rooftops （I’m looking at you, M’Kenzee）。 Bookstagram is truly the kindest corner of the internet, and I feel so lucky to have been welcomed with such open arms. To hear that Meet You in the Middle is your comfort read, that it’s the book you reach for when you’re feeling down, that you’ve read it five, ten, even twenty times—I do not take any of it for granted. Being tagged in your posts and videos—which you create just for the sheer joy of it, because you want to, because you love books—will never stop being surreal to me. You are just the audience I hoped to find, and I’m so grateful for each and every one of you.