“I’m gonna try real hard,” Ike said.
The tears came again. They poured from his eyes and ran over his cheeks. Flowed down to the stubble on his chin.
This time they didn’t feel so much like razorblades.They felt like the long-awaited answer to a mournful prayer for rain.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A novel is always a collaborative effort. The words are mine but the polishing and molding of the story bears the fingerprints of many hands.
I’d like to thank Josh Getzler, my agent and the biggest champion of my writing. Thank you for believing in me and my stories. Fate threw us together and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Thank you to Christine Kopprasch and the entire team at Flatiron Books. I continue to learn from you even as I attempt to teach you as many Southern colloquialisms as possible.
I’d like to thank my friends and fellow writers Nikki Dolson, P. J. Vernon, Chad Williamson, and Jerry Bloomfield for reading early versions of this book. Your candor and support meant more than I could ever say.
And as always, thank you, Kim.
You know why.
You’ve always known.