hinging off the rims. He offers one to Orion and motions him toward the storage room hallway.
Orion winks at me and goes with my father, edging just ahead of him into the back office. Papi lingers for a beat. A father turns to the daughter who will leave his home in three months. He nods once, his eyes damp and heavy with endings and beginnings.
Todo está bien. All is well.
Mami and Pilar press me into a group hug then follow to their own spaces, leaving me alone in mine. This week I will show La Paloma to the world, and order a winter coat, and bake bread with Flora in this kitchen. I will tell a star-named boy I love him in front of my great uncle’s corn plot—not in secret—but under a wide-open wish across a Miami summer sky.
But before tomorrow happens, I have to do one thing today. I pull Abuela’s apron from the butcher block island. All the bakers’ hooks line the wall, her framed memorial picture smiling above the one where she stowed the white cotton cloth every evening.
“Gracias, Abuela. Te amo,” I whisper and place a single kiss on the embroidered script L. I hang up her apron for the last time. Then I move to the cardboard shipping box filled with white and blue ticking stripes.
And pick up my own.
Acknowledgments
When I began this project, I wanted to honor my mother’s journey from a small Cuban farm to the United States as a teen exchange student just before Castro assumed power. Most of my relatives followed over the next few years. By the time I came along, my extended family had grown into the loving, vibrant network I know today. My family history became the scaffolding for a story featuring another brave and vibrant teen girl, layered with many of my own teen experiences. Soon into drafting, I lost two of the beloved relatives who inhabit these pages. What started as a book became a tangible way for me to hold them close. Their spirits fill these scenes. I can think of no better place to keep them until I see them again. If you have come here after reading Lila’s story, you have experienced many anecdotes I witnessed as a girl, watching and listening, eating and cooking with my beloved Cuban relatives. Thank you to all of my tíos and primos, for all the ways you fed me.
To my brilliant editor Alex Borbolla, from day one you showed such a genuine understanding of me and the unique aspects of this story. Your love for this book and the history behind it touched me. And your skill and guidance inspired me. Partnering with you has been one of my greatest professional experiences. It is my honor to work with you.
To my agent Natascha Morris, thank you for taking this book you always call a “big hug” and working so faithfully to manage and place it. I couldn’t ask for a better cheerleader, confidant, and advocate for my stories and my career.
To my critique partners and trusted friends, Joan Smith and Allison Bitz, Lila’s story would not be what it is today without your faithful insight, editing, nudging, and wisdom. I love you both so much.
To art director, Karyn Lee, and illustrator, Andrea Porretta, thank you for envisioning and designing one of the most beautiful covers I have ever seen. You have brought Lila and Orion to life so masterfully while showcasing the perfect mashup of Miami, Cuba, and England.
To Clare McGlade, Tatyana Rosalia, Shivani Annirood, and the entire team at Atheneum, thank you for your tireless efforts in bringing this book to the world.
Thank you to my early readers and sources who helped with everything from careful beta reads, to checking those wily Spanish accents, to making sure my British rep was solid. Alexandra Overy, Marlene Lee, Ximena Avalos, Beth Ellyn Summer, Susie Cabrera, and Yamile Saied Méndez, I could not have done this without you.
To my Las Musas hermanas, thank you for your friendship, support, and our fabulous community. I am so honored to be a part of this beautiful organization.
I’m so thankful to God for the opportunity and grace to be able to write this book, and to you, reader for opening it.
About the Author
Photo © Jerry McCauley II, Jerry McCauley Photography
Laura Taylor Namey is a Cuban-American Californian who can be found haunting her favorite coffee shops, drooling over leather jackets, and wishing she was in London or Paris. She lives in San Diego with her husband, two superstar children, and her beloved miniature schnauzer-muse. Visit her at laurataylornamey.com.
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen
www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Laura-Taylor-Namey
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster, New York
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text © 2020 by Laura Taylor Namey
Jacket illustrations © 2020 by Andrea Porretta
Book design by Karyn Lee © 2020 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Atheneum logo is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Namey, Laura Taylor, author.
Title: A Cuban girl’s guide to tea and tomorrow / Laura Taylor Namey. Description: New York : Atheneum, [2020] | Audience: Ages 12 up. | Audience: Grades 10-12. | Summary: Seventeen-year-old Lila Reyes, furious when her parents send her to the English countryside to recover from grief and heartbreak, unexpectedly falls in love with a teashop clerk—and England, itself.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019055585 (print) | LCCN 2019055586 (ebook) | ISBN 9781534471245 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534471269 (eBook)
Subjects: CYAC: Loss (Psychology)—Fiction. | Cuban Americans—Fiction. | Bakers and bakeries—Fiction. | Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. | Love—Fiction. | England—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.N3555 Cub 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.N3555 (eBook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019055585
LC eBook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019055586