Julie pulled the car into the parking lot. “Guess where we are?”
“Yosemite? The Grand Canyon?” Matt said. “Vegas? Oh, my God, we’re in Vegas, aren’t we? Is Celine Dion here? Cher? Are we going backstage? No, it’s the Liberace Museum. I can feel it. It’s a dream come true! I’ve waited my whole life for this.”
“That is ridiculous, Matt,” Celeste scolded. “We are not in Las Vegas. Try harder.”
“Disney World? The Mall of America? Pike Place Fish Market? Graceland?”
“It’s flattering that he thinks we’re lame enough to subject him to a tourist trap, isn’t it? Celeste, he’ll never figure it out,” Julie said. “Let’s show him.” She slid the blindfold off his eyes and watched him. He adjusted to the light and read the sign in front of the car.
Matt was serious now. “I never would have guessed this is where you two were taking me.” He paused and bit his lip, a soft smile forming. “The last time I was here was with Finn.”
Julie clapped her hands together. “We’re going skydiving.”
He looked at her. “What do you mean we’re going?”
She nodded. “You’re not very bright, are you? I mean that you and I are going to jump out of a plane and then a life-saving parachute thingy will pop out and we will land on the ground in one piece. “
“Both of us are going?”
“Yes,” she said. “I want to jump with you, Matt. For real this time.”
She loved when he was speechless.
“And Flat Finn, too,” Celeste said. “We called the skydiving center this week. They remember you and Finn, and they said that you could take Flat Finn when you jump. I think it’s a fitting way to celebrate. The real Finn would genuinely like this idea.”
“Of course I’ll take him,” Matt said. “Of course. Julie, are you sure about this?”
“Yes,” she said. And she meant it. She trusted him completely. “I want to do this with you.”
Matt leaned over and put a hand on the back of her neck. He pulled her in gently, kissing her softly and perfectly.
“I knew it!” Celeste squealed. “I told you, Julie, didn’t I? I said this would work out, and it has. Does this mean that there will not be any more unpleasant spats between you two? I found those squabbles to be incredibly disquieting.”
Julie sat back and laughed. “I don’t know about that.” She looked into Matt’s eyes. “Even so, I love you.”
Matt smiled at her and winked. “I know.”
Celeste and Julie both smacked him.
“This would be an appropriate time not to be a dork or a smartass,” Julie said.
Celeste popped her head into the front seat. “Be the hero, Matty. Come on. You’re supposed to be the hero now. The romantic lead.”
“I know that, too,” he said. Matt did not hesitate a moment longer. “Julie, I love you. I absolutely love you.”
“Good,” Celeste said, satisfied. “Now it’s time to jump.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Park grew up in the Boston area and then went to Macalester College in frigid St. Paul, Minnesota. During her freshman year, there was a blizzard on Halloween, and so after graduation, she decided that she was not cut out for such torture. So she moved back to the east coast where, she'd forgotten, it still snows. Oops. She now lives in New Hampshire with her husband, son, bananas dog named Fritzy, and two selfish cats. When not writing, she is probably on Facebook , pining over 80s rock stars, or searching for the nearest Dunkin' Donuts. Oh, and she's a complete Gleek.
She has written a young adult novel, RELATIVELY FAMOUS, that has been garnering glowing reviews throughout the blogosphere. “From start to end, Relatively Famous is un-putdown-able and fast-paced...One of the best things about the book is the way the father-daughter relationship has been portrayed. Its so touching and so very real. Despite the setting being Hollywood, there is a very realistic quality to the book too. Its not just a fairy tale, it has more depth to it."—My Love Affair With Books
About Relatively Famous: High school freshman Dani McKinley's world is rocked when she finds out that she is the daughter of B-list actor and notorious womanizer Mark Ocean. Mark is all too eager to get his acting career back on track, so he follows his agent's advice about cleaning up his image and invites his "new" daughter to spend the summer with him. Armed with credit cards, club memberships, and a new wardrobe, Dani spends the summer navigating the foreign culture of Hollywood. Her new friends school Dani in everything from attaching hair extensions to managing the paparazzi. She meets Jason, a gorgeous young personal trainer who is easy on the eyes and wildly flirtatious . . . But is this smug hottie the one for Dani? Or will she ignore her friends' eye rolling and go for Nate, the goofy but sweet surfer? Even tougher than all the new social pressures, is the challenge of trying to deal with her father. What Mark Ocean has in wealth, he sorely lacks in parenting skills. The fatherly interest Mark feigns has everything to do with charming the public and virtually nothing to do with connecting with his daughter. Dani desperately tries to teach her father that being a dad is not just about supplying her with Prada bags and trips to movie premieres, and the result of the clueless actor's attempts at fatherhood is both funny and heart-wrenching. Follow Dani and Mark while they struggle to figure out what it means to be father and daughter, and as they navigate their own complicated love lives. Humor, tears, heartache, and teen angst will leave you aching to see how their dilemmas are resolved.
Jessica has also written five Gourmet Girl mysteries (as Jessica Conant-Park) that are set in the Boston restaurant scene. The series follows the romantic, culinary, and investigative adventures of twenty-something Chloe Carter, and all books come complete with recipes
She also has a few eshorts available for download, including FACEBOOKING RICK SPRINGFIELD (AND OTHER MUSINGS OF A SCATTERED WRITER):
About FACEBOOKING RICK SPRINGFIELD: Am I the best, most knowledgeable Rick Springfield fan out there? I’ll be honest: No. Not really. I do not know all the gritty details of his life the way that some fans do. But what I lack in messy specifics, I like to think that I make up for with enthusiasm. Look, should I win the lottery, I’d probably follow him around on tour and plaster my house with expensive memorabilia. And obviously my ass would be on that Rick Springfield Cruise every November. But until then, the advantage of being a writer is that I have a decent imagination, and my fantasy Rick life placates my need for, you know, actual encounters with the cherished one. I’m pretty content to worship him from afar. So here is a collection of blogs that I’ve done (now expanded), most of which have a focus on the most charming rock god of all, Rick Springfield. The few that are not entirely Rick-centered are still funny, but less insane.
Also available are two volumes of What the Kid Says. “The first is a collection of weird discussions that I have with my nine-year-old son, taken from my blog and centralized in one downloadable location to be easily used against him when he is a teenager. Conversation topics include: God and hoodies, whether or not I killed t