My mom stood with one hand against the doorway, like she was afraid to come inside. Betsy looked at her. "Are you all right?"
"Fine," she said faintly. Then she shook her head and seemed to collect herself. "Better question: How are you?"
My mother pulled up a chair, and the two of them talked about labor and Apgar scores and episiotomies. As soon as I heard the word "placenta," I closed my ears and walked the baby over to the window, thinking that he didn't need to hear about any of that. "Check it out," I said, bouncing him lightly in my arms, aiming his face so he could look out at the night sky. He looked at me with eyes that were a muddy grayish-brown. "Charlie," I said experimentally, and cuddled him close to my chest. I felt my mother's hand on my shoulder and saw her face reflected in the window, her expression tender as she looked at the baby in my arms, her eyes shining as she kissed me and then the baby's forehead; her secret face, the one she's only ever shown to me.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not have been possible without the hard work and stewardship of my agent, Joanna Pulcini. I am grateful, as ever, for her unflagging enthusiasm, painstaking attention to detail, and for her inadvertently hilarious failure to get the dirty jokes or X-rated references in any of my books.
My editor, Greer Hendricks, is, as ever, worth a price above rubies for her patience, kindness, and good humor.
I'm grateful to Joanna's assistants, Elizabeth Carter and Trinh Truong, and to Greer's assistant, Sarah Walsh, for their attention to detail, and to Suzanne O'Neill and Nancy Inglis for their careful work on the manuscript. I'm also lucky to have found an assistant as fabulous, indefatigable, and good-hearted as Meghan Burnett.
Judith Curr at Atria and Carolyn Reidy at Simon & Schuster have always taken the best care of me and of Cannie, as have all of the people at Atria: Gary Urda, Lisa Keim, Kathleen Schmidt, Christine Duplessis, Craig Dean, and Jeanne Lee.
I'm grateful to Jessica Fee and her team at Greater Talent Network, and to Marcy Engelman, Dana Gidney, and Jordana Tal, my NYC PR miracle workers.
Curtis Sittenfeld was a perceptive and generous reader.
In researching this book, I was lucky enough to be invited to the bar mitzvah of Charlie Sucher and the bat mitzvahs of Samantha Wladis in Cherry Hill and Abby Kalen in Simsbury, Connecticut, where absolutely NOTHING untoward happened. I thank Charlie, Samantha, and Abby and their parents, friends, and families for being so gracious and welcoming.
My friends and family, far and wide, are still supplying me with love, support, and material. Jake and Joe Weiner are not only my brothers, they do an excellent job with my business on the coast. Molly Weiner is a constant source of inspiration and fun. I'm grateful to Faye Frumin, Frances Frumin Weiner, and Clair Kaplan, for all of their help and encouragement, for laughing with me and, occasionally, being willing for me to laugh at them.
Finally, on the home front, Wendell is still the king of all dogs. My husband, Adam, is still my traveling companion and the person I'd most like to watch The Big Lebowski with. My daughter Lucy Jane is the light of my life, and her new little sister Phoebe Pearl demonstrated unflagging courtesy by keeping the kicks and rolls to a minimum while I wrote this book. My love and thanks to all of them...and to all of the readers who've come with me this far.
Table of Contents
Cover
ALSO BY JENNIFER WEINER
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
PART ONE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
PART TWO
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
PART THREE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
FORTY
FORTY-ONE
FORTY-TWO
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS