Kate Clayborn

From Kate Clayborn, the author Jasmine Guillory describes as “emotional and real” comes a new novel echoing with timely questions about love, friendship, career, and family. Wise and witty, threaded through with a complex, emotionally fulfilling modern love story, this is a book that readers will immediately identify with and take to heart. In this heartfelt tale of one woman’s quest to reinvent herself, the acclaimed author of Love Lettering and Love at First delivers a poignant, witty reflection on how the hopes, dreams, and stories from our past shape our future . . . Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page. But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact—a “friendfic” diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary’s simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path. Georgie’s plans hit a snag when she comes face to face with an unexpected roommate—Levi Fanning, onetime town troublemaker and current town hermit. But this quiet, grouchy man is more than just his reputation, and he offers to help Georgie with her quest. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side—if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back. Honest and deeply emotional, Georgie, All Along is a smart, tender must-read for everyone who’s ever wondered about the life that got away . . . “Clayborn’s writing is magnetic, witty, and expansive. The world is going to fall hard for this deliciously whimsical and captivating story, and I cannot wait to see it!” —Ali Hazelwood, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis “A sweet novel that reminds you going back is sometimes the best path forward . . . and that planning is never as rewarding as doing.” —Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author

Georgie, All Along

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“Sorry,” I mutter, sending him a scolding look. He’s got no fucking idea why; he’s a dog.

Sometimes, someone loves you so much that they can’t quite see you clearly.

She huffs—a messy, inelegant sound, and all I can think is: I want to have that sound up close. I’d get her to laugh, somehow, and she’d do it, a noisy puff of her breath against me.

“Levi,” she says, setting her hand on my forearm to still me. It works, because I turn into a statue beneath her touch, if statues had big, beating hearts and also blood flow directly to their dicks. I’ve never felt this fragile and firm at the same time in my whole life.

Funny. Alive. Messy. Impulsive. So pretty I can still see her when I close my eyes at night.

I’d thought my whole entire heart had stopped.

Maybe I’d done too much, pulling her out of the water as if she were a rag doll, as if she couldn’t swim herself, but I panicked at the thought of her under there, too close to that old dock, and all I could think about was getting her out. As soon as I had her across from me, as soon as I’d had a good look at her—eyelashes all tangled together, drops of water magnifying the freckles on her cheeks, her soaked hair so dark it almost looked burgundy—my heart had gotten going again, and it started beating out one word to me.

Another kiss from Levi Fanning, she’s written, and when I look at her, she’s flushed, tentative, and so, so pretty. I’d make her wish come true right now, but I know she wants me to play along, to write a wish of my own. I take the marker, and what I want to write is, I know, all wrong. Too big for the moment.

I wonder what it would’ve been like if I could’ve picked something else.

If I could’ve somehow picked Georgie. If I could have had her in my life all along.

It’s everything all at once and I decide that must be Levi, who’s been everything all at once ever since I first met him. Mad at me while he buys me my milkshakes; sharp with me but only because he’s so soft.

She goes right back up to that rock and—as though it’s the most natural thing in the world—she sprays a big pink heart around our initials.

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