Die for Me (25 page)

He wanted to be with me. Enough to change his life for me. Enough to launch upon an unknown, uncharted future. For me.

I love him.
I had been keeping those three words stuffed deep inside me, for my own protection. But I was done with self-preservation and my heart was open. I had feared that love would make me vulnerable. Instead I felt empowered.

“Kate, are you okay?” He brushed the tears off my face.

Carefully pulling the dress up to my knees, I eased myself down to sit in front of him. He took my ankles in his hands and wrapped my legs around his hips until I was sitting snugly between his legs, our faces inches away from each other.

As he took me in his arms, I lay my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. I let the knowledge that I loved him mount until it suffused me with a heat that set the entire surface of my skin aflame.

Our boat bobbed around a corner of the quay, and I opened my eyes to see the Eiffel Tower, just downriver from us, decked in a million tiny lights and sparkling like a Christmas tree. Its reflection on the surface of the water glimmered like a universe of tiny crystals. “Oh, Vincent, look!” I exclaimed.

He smiled and nodded, not needing to turn since he saw the reflection in my eyes. “Your last present,” he said. “That's what we came to see. Happy birthday, Kate.
Mon ange.
” And in a whisper so light I wasn't sure I hadn't imagined it, he breathed, “My love.”

Though I was sitting in a boat on the Seine, floating in the middle of a million points of light, holding the first boy I had ever loved, I couldn't help but think about our chances.

Luck, normalcy, fate . . . none of those seemed to be on our side. Our very being together went against all the odds. All I knew was that something good had begun. A flame had been lit. And the whole universe was watching to see if it would be blown out.

All I could do was hold my breath. And wait.

THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO HELPED ME
get here. I would like to thank just a few.

For the enthusiasm, trust, and know-how that turned my story into a book, I am profoundly grateful to my editors Tara Weikum and Catherine Onder. They patiently guided
Die for Me
into its finished form, and I am truly lucky to have worked with both of them.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my superhuman agent, Stacey Glick, who stirred up an interest for
Die for Me
that surpassed my every hope. Thanks, Stacey, for believing in me from the very beginning. Thank you to Miriam Goderich for not clicking “delete” when she found my query letter in her inbox. And to Lauren E. Abramo for selling a slew of foreign rights long before the book was even published. Dystel & Goderich rocks!

My friends Mags Harnett and Nathalie Cousin listened to my initial idea and used superhuman self-control not to show their true feelings when I said I wanted to write a zombie love story. Thank you both.

Infinite love and gratefulness to Saint Laurent of the Bleeding Ears, aka my enormously supportive husband, who let me read the very first draft to him every day over lunch and tried to hide his disappointment that the bad guys didn't show up in speedboats at the end. Thank you for having faith in me,
mon
amour
.

Also up for canonization: my friend Claudia Depkin, who went above and beyond what I would have ever dared ask, enthusiastically volunteering to read draft after draft of the manuscript. Her daily comments were invaluable and her unflagging encouragement helped me persevere.

Thank you to those friends who let me hide out in their vacant homes for precious writing time: Nicolas Mercier and Paul Krieger for their beach apartment in Trouville and castle in Saintes; Cassi Bryn Michalik for her rooftops-view apartment in Paris; Guy for his home in the Loire; and my father-in-law, Jean-Pierre, and Christiane for their home-five-minutes-away-from-home.

Remerciements
to my friend Mags Harnett for the several read-throughs and invaluable comments. Also to my sister Gretchen Scoleri, my friends Kim Lennert, James Kidd, and Sandrine Hosti, and my cousin Diana Canfield for their thoughts on the manuscript. My veteran-writer cousin-in-law Matthew Randazzo V, was of immense help with fellow-author counsel on getting published. His advice and long-distance hand-holding was much appreciated. And much thanks to my childhood friend Lou Anders, editor of Pyr Books, for his enthusiasm and for looking over my “revenant rules” to verify that my monsters made sense.

Thanks to Terry Jones for legal advice. Bill Braine for brainstorming. “Olivia” for making her opinion known and for being the book's first true fan. Melissa Randazzo for leading my own personal cheering section. And my mother-in-law, Jeannine, for being so certain that one day I would be published.

And finally, but not least importantly, thank you to the faithful readers of Chitlins And Camembert. Your constant support and enthusiasm about my writing gave me confidence that I had stories worth telling.

AMY PLUM
spent her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, her twenties in Chicago and Paris, and several more years in London and New York. Fed up with moving, she has settled down in the Loire Valley with her handsome French husband, two mostly delightful toddlers, and big red dog Ella.
DIE FOR ME
is her first novel. Visit her online at www.amyplumbooks.com.

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Jacket design by mecob.org
Jacket illustration by Johanna Basford
Jacket photographs:
© Monalyn Gracia/Corbis (figure)
© Olya Smith/Getty Images (background)

Die for Me

Copyright © 2011 by Amy Plum

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-06-200401-7

EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062077004

11 12 13 14 15 CG/RRDB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition