Authors: Anne Dayton

The Book of Jane (24 page)

“
Twoâ¦
”

God is good, and wants what's best for us, even if he has to strip away our own desires to get us to see it.

“
Oneâ¦
”

I love this man, and suddenly I want the world to know it. As the year ends, I bend over and kiss him, and the crowd erupts in cheers.

As the first notes of “Auld Lang Syne” float across the ballroom, Coates stands up and wraps his arms around me. I sink into his warmth as I think about how mournful this song is. I know that
auld lang syne
means “time long past,” and I think about what it means to say good-bye to another year. I think about all the dreams that died this year, and the pain, and about the friends who have gone away, some forever. And I also think about the good that I've seenâthe new life that's come into the world, and the deep ties of friendship, and the hope for better things to come.

I hear the people around us, still cheering as we sway to the music, but all I can see is Coates. I've never seen his smile so big. I laugh, and thank God for a new year. A whole new start for us all.

Acknowledgments

As always there were a lot of brilliant minds that helped us with this book. Thanks to our amazing agent, Claudia Cross, for giving us great comments and never minding when we e-mail you every day. Thanks to Trace Murphy, the kindest, straightest, malest chick lit editor in the business. Thanks to Darya Porat for being a huge help and funny to boot. Thanks to Carly Fraser and Preeti Parasharami for pitching our book all over town. Thanks to Beth Meister for keeping us honest and being the best friend two knuckleheads could have. Also to Haymaker, for being the other Beth. And thanks to Shannon Hill at Waterbrook for being our friend and editor-at-large.

Anne
: Mom, you're the choice of a new generation. Dad, you're just what the doctor ordered. Nick, don't ever forget you can't beat the feeling, and Peter, you can't beat the real thing. Jeff, I like the Sprite in you (and thanks for reading). Wayne, with you, life tastes good.

May
: Thanks to Dad for swearing people are crazy when they don't hire me. Thanks to Mom for being the original bookworm in the family. Thanks to Matt and Diem for not taking the name Walker. Thanks to Isaac and Aaron for being the life of the party. Thanks to Sandy, my partner in crime. Thanks to the Bransfords for making Buster your “granddog.” And thanks to Nathan. I know I'm a handful, but you make it seem like you're having fun.

About the Authors

Anne Dayton
graduated from Princeton University and is earning her master's degree in English at New York University. She works for a New York publishing company and lives in Brooklyn. Another publishing veteran,
May Vanderbilt
graduated from Baylor University and went on to earn a master's degree in fiction from Johns Hopkins University. She lives in San Francisco, where she is a freelance writer.

Also by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt

Emily Ever After

Consider Lily

PUBLISHED BY BROADWAY BOOKS

Published in the United States by Broadway Books, an imprint of The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.broadwaybooks.com

BROADWAY BOOKS
and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the authors' imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Illustration by Bonnie Dain for Lilla Rogers Studio

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dayton, Anne.

The Book of Jane / Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt.â1st ed.

p. cm.

1. New York (N.Y.)âFiction. I. Vanderbilt, May. II. Title.

PS3604.A989B66 2007

813'.6âdc22

2006036515

eISBN: 978-0-7679-2787-1

v3.0