Pretty Wanted (30 page)

Cherise was always going to be my friend. We’d been through enough by now that I felt like I could count on that. We would keep in touch however we could and, who knew? Maybe someday I would even get back to Paradise Valley to visit—she’d spin some new records for me and we’d try on outfits in her room.

And Tre . . . somehow, I missed him the most. I kept hearing his laugh in my head at unexpected moments. Feeling the warmth of his gaze on me. Replaying the brush of his lips on my cheek. He’d always done what he’d thought was best for me—not just going along with what I thought I wanted—and after those last few days in St. Louis, I finally understood what it meant. Now, I could honestly say I wanted the same for him. I wanted it for both of us, for us both to be right.

My brand-new phone buzzed. I reached into my beach bag and pulled it out.

It sucks here without you. Hope you’re okay. I checked and Christmas break starts the 20th. I think I can bring the bike with me.

I squinted at the words in the sunlight, smiling. It was like Tre had read my mind or something. Then I thumbed in my response.

All is fine. We’ll pick you up at the airport.

It’s do-over time. Xo

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

WHEW! WILLA’S JOURNEY
has come to an end, and what a journey it’s been. I’m awed by the work Claudia Gabel, Melissa Miller, and Alexandra Arnold have put into this trilogy, keeping me in touch with the heart of the story and always redirecting the route when the road trip got off course. The glamorous and kind Katherine Tegen has always made me feel right at home at her imprint. The magnificent team at HarperCollins, including Barbara Fitzsimmons, Amy Ryan, Cara Petrus, Laura DiSiena, Melinda Weigel, Lauren Flower, Onalee Smith, and Casey McIntyre, have been a joy to work with. Grateful appreciation, too, to Leigh Feldman, Jean Garnett, and Henry Ginna from Writers House.

Whenever the final leg of Willa’s expedition got too daunting, my dear friends were there to nudge me on. That includes fellow YA authors Kate Walton, Eugene Myers, Tiffany Schmidt, and Eve Mont, who all happen to live in Philly, which really makes me believe in geography as destiny. It also includes nonfiction author Abbott Kahler and civilians Steve Poses and Christina Sterner, Erin Small, Holly Mack-Ward, and Rebecca Goldner, who have each, in different but powerful ways, underwritten my efforts.

I’m so grateful to have family that support me through all the various stages, emotional and physical, of writing a book, and that now includes serious childcare hours. Thanks to my parents, Zella and Stephen Ludwig, my aunt Stelle Sheller, and my mother-in-law, Penny Bean, for enabling me to sit in front of a computer and mumble to myself. Thanks to my sister Susannah for making incredible video trailers for my books. Thanks to my sister Aubrey for making me feel like a superstar.

Thanks, as ever, to my incredible husband, Jesse, and my sweet son, Rainer, my very favorites.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ELISA LUDWIG
lives in Philadelphia and studied writing at Vassar College and Temple University. Her work has appeared in the
Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia City Paper, Details, Publishers Weekly
, and many other publications. Visit Elisa at www.elisaludwig.com.

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PRAISE FOR
THE PRETTY CROOKED SERIES

“Crackling-good adventure.”—
Kirkus Reviews

“A pretty twisted, modern-day Robin Hood story.”—Melissa de la Cruz,
New York Times
bestselling author of the Blue Bloods series

“Packed with romance, humor, and adventure,
Pretty Crooked
will steal your heart.”—Sarah Mlynowski, author of
Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have)

“Tantalizing. For fans of Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars books.”—ALA
Booklist

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COPYRIGHT

Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

PRETTY WANTED
. Copyright © 2015 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

[TK]

Library of Congress catalog card number:

ISBN 978-0-06-206612-1 (trade bdg.)

EPub Edition September 2014 ISBN 9780062361493

14 15 16 17 18   
XXXXXX
   10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FIRST EDITION

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