I ease my foot off the brake and start the downhill coast to home. “Almost there.”

Acknowledgments

Huge hugs and a bucket of cinnamon jellybeans to the following fine people:

Jarrett and Rosie, the two main planets in my universe, for enduring a houseful of scribbled-on sticky notes and helping me to the finish line with just the right blend of tough and sweet love.

My mom and dad, for teaching me that brains are for using and that real love and respect survives differences.

Margie, Anthony, Kim, & Brett, for understanding when I vanish with my laptop.

Mindy Dunn, cover designer extraordinaire, for being consistently awesome and putting up with my OMG-my-first-book-cover eagerness and indecision.

Andrea Sabaliauskas, for the brilliant cover illustration of Brandon and Abel and nearly two decades of friendship, support, and B&N chats.

Wendy Bond, my lifelong BFF, one of the first people I ever shared my writing with.

The illustrious Dr. Maverick, my partner in crime and #1 fandom-enabler.

My work pals, for being excited about this project (especially Courtney Stansbury, for coding advice, cheerleading, and lively Game of Thrones debates).

My writing mentors who made me think I could do this, especially Charles Marsh.

The magnificent geeks who invented the Internet so other magnificent geeks could find each other and perpetuate the species. Without you, fanfic would be mimeographed and mailed, this story would not exist, and people would not be skimming this acknowledgments page like “tl;dr.”

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

CastieCon #1 - Cleveland, Ohio

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

CastieCon #2 - Atlanta, Georgia

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

CastieCon #3 - San Antonio, Texas

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

CastieCon #4 - Long Beach, California

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

CastieCon #5 - Salt Lake City, Utah

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

CastieCon #6 - Baltimore, Maryland

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Home

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Acknowledgments