The au pairs skinny-dipping (27 page)

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say. Ryan had told Mara about little cottages you could rent down on the beach. Eliza was already planning her next internship, maybe for a fashion designer--she'd had enough of nightclub hostessing. And Jacqui . . . well, Jacqui was just thinking of how cute Kit had looked yesterday, and of making her dreams of NYU come true.

The day after the hurricane, the world was still, and at peace. It was a cleansing, a catharsis. The Hamptons would survive: During the fall the roads would be repaired, the monstrous houses rebuilt, and, come May, a new crew of hopefuls looking for fun and sun would come to play, fall in love, and drink too much champagne on the sandy white beaches.

Mara, Jacqui, and Eliza vowed that they would be back. Next summer would be here before they knew it.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Les Morgenstein, Josh Bank, Ben Schrank, and everyone else at Alloy for their wit, wisdom, and encouragement. Thanks to Emily Thomas, Jennifer Zatorski, Tracy van Straaten, and Rick Richter at Simon & Schuster for the wonderful support. Thanks to Deborah Schneider and Cathy Gleason for the thoughtful guidance.

Much love and thanks to all my family and friends, especially the DLCs; Bert, Ching, and Francis de la Cruz; Aina, Steve, and Nicholas Green; the Johnstons; Dennis, Marsha, John, Anji, Alexander, Tim, Rob, Jenn, and Valerie, and all the rest of the Ongs, de la Cruzes, Torreses, Gaisanos, and Izumis out there. Thanks to Kim De Marco, Deborah "Diva" Gittel, Thad and Gabby Sheely, Tristan Ashby, Gabriel Sandoval, Liz Craft, Caroline Suh, Tyler Rollins, Karen Robinovitz, Audrey Slivka, Katie Davis, Tina Hay, Tom Dolby, Lisa Marsh, Alyssa Giacobbe, Sarah Eisen, Jason Oliver Nixon, Andrew Stone, Paige Herman, Juliet Gray, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, and Ed "Jean-Luc" Kleefield.

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Thanks to the Flatotel, Khrystine Muldowney at Chanel, Siren PR, Norah Lawlor, and everyone at Lawlor Media Group for the fabulous New York launch. Thanks to Citrine, Nadia, Meredith, and everyone at Wagstaff Worldwide for the awesome West Coast party.

Thanks to everyone who dished and whose names I cannot mention here. You know who you are.

Last, I'd like to thank all of you who e-mailed, reviewed, and blogged about
The Au Pairs.
Thank you for your enthusiasm and good wishes. May all your summers be fun and scandalous!

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About the Author

MELISSA DE LA CRUZ is the author of many books, including
The Au Pairs
and her autobiographical teen novel
Fresh off the Boat.
She is also the coauthor of the tongue-in-cheek handbook to fashion
The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-Inch Heels and Faux-Pas.
Look for her next novel,
The Fortune Hunters,
and the forthcoming
Blue Blood series
in 2006.

Melissa has appeared as an expert on style, trends, and fame for CNN and the E! Entertainment Network and has written for
Glamour, Marie Claire, Harpers Bazaar, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan,
and
The New York Times.
She started her journalism career as a nightclub reviewer (and was once thrown out of a New York nightclub for giving it a bad review!).

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, but considers herself bicoastal, since mentally, she's still in New York (and the Hamptons). You can e-mail her at [email protected]. And check out the Web site: www.theaupairs.com