The Reunion

Acknowledgments I started writing this book in March 2020, in the earliest days of the pandemic: the world was scary and stressful, and I needed somewhere fun to go in my head every day (especially when we couldn’t really leave the house). Fortunately, my incredible literary agents didn’t bat a single eyelash when I told them I’d like to pivot from survival stories to the glitz and shine of a Hollywood romance—an all-caps THANK YOU to Holly Root and Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary for believing in me and my work for nearly a decade now, and for the razor-sharp instincts that landed this book at its most perfect home. Thank you, too, to my wonderful film agent, Mary Pender-Coplan at United Talent Agency, and to foreign rights agent extraordinaire Heather Baror-Shapiro at Baror International for all you’ve both done on my behalf over the years. Kaitlin Olson, you have been a dream to work with—thank you for championing this story right from the start! I see your fingerprints all over it, and am so grateful to have had the chance to collaborate with you; your editorial instincts pushed me to make this project the very best version it could be. It’s been a joy to be ALSO BY KAYLA OLSON The Sandcastle Empire This Splintered Silence About the Author Kayla Olson writes stories about heart and hope, friendship and family, and the blurred lines where those things intersect. Whether writing at her desk or curled up with a good book, she can most often be found with a fresh cup of coffee and at least one cat. SimonandSchuster.com www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Kayla-Olson @AtriaBooks @AtriaBooks @AtriaBooks 1 I’d forgotten just how hot it feels under a spotlight. “All right, Liv, we’re going live in five… four… three…” A production assistant motions for quiet, and the chorus of chatter fades in the Java with Jade studio. For a split second, it’s just me and Jade Johnson and the hum of the electricity powering her sunny morning-show set. I shift in my seat, a plush armchair upholstered in brightest white. It’s comfortable, even if I’m not entirely so. My relationship with the press: it’s complicated. I pick a focal point, anything that will ground me here in this singular moment—the coffee, dark in its bone china cup—and just like that, I’m prime-time TV starlet Liv Latimer again, not just Liv who regularly tosses her hair up in a messy bun and wakes up with morning breath like the rest