I nodded, wrapping my arms around his neck to hold on to him.

“Think fast.” He nipped at my lip.

“Okay, okay…”

“Hannah,” Marco warned.

Standing on my tiptoes, I brushed my lips against his ear and whispered, “I’ll say yes. I promise.”

“Then say it now,” he whispered back.

“You’re my best friend.”

“Hannah.”

“Always have been. Always will be.” I pulled back to hold his handsome face in my hands.

“I’ll take that as your yes,” he replied, his voice hoarse with emotion.

Letting all my feelings of tender affection and love shine out of my eyes, I grinned. “You always were good at reading me.”

He kissed me, pulling back only to look me deep in the eyes. Understanding passed silently between us. We could do this.

It hadn’t been an easy journey to here. We’d tried to fly numerous times since meeting each other, and we’d fallen more times than we liked to count. That was life.

Flying and falling.

Next week, for all we knew, we could very well fall, but in that moment, we were happy because we knew with certainty that if we fell… together, we’d get back up to try again.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Hannah and Marco’s story made it into readers’ hands because of my wonderful, determined, and amazingly supportive agent, Lauren Abramo. As always, thank you for going above and beyond the call of duty, Lauren!

Moreover, I have to thank my awesome editor, Kerry Donovan, for not only loving the ODS world as much as I do, but for helping to make it so much better than I ever thought possible. Working on this series with you, Kerry, is a dream.

I must say a big thank-you to Erin Galloway and the team at New American Library for all their hard work on this series, too. You guys are phenomenal!

Thank you to Anna Boatman and the team at Piatkus for believing in this series and bringing Hannah and Marco’s story to the UK readers. Your enthusiasm means the absolute world to me.

To Georgia Cates, thank you so much, not only for being a great friend and part of the amazing support system we call the Hellcats, but for sharing your wisdom from fifteen years as a delivery nurse and for providing me with invaluable advice on the medical information in Hannah’s story.

And to Shanine Christoffersen and Kate McJennett, thank you for being such wonderful teachers and such an inspiration. The kids you teach have no idea how lucky they are to have you, and how much it matters that you care so deeply for what you do. Kate, thank you for all your advice as a high school English teacher. Hannah came alive as a teacher as I was writing, and a lot of that came from you. Also, thanks for letting me steal your Dark Knight Rises lesson plan. Very cool.

Finally, a massive thank-you to you, my reader.

You know why.