Page 51 of The Library of Borrowed Hearts

“Where did you get that?” he asked, even though he knew the answer.

“I took it from her room. I’m not stupid. I know you and Chloe are doing some weird literary scavenger hunt.”

He almost laughed out loud at how totally wrong—and devastatingly right—Trixie’s assessment of the situation was. To all outward appearances, Chloe was merely interested in tracking down a series of library books that had been damaged sixty-some-odd years ago. To Jasper, however, what she was doing was tantamount to resurrecting a corpse.

“Did you read it?” he asked, his voice sounding strained.

“Nah. Books are Chloe’s thing, not mine, and they turned this one into a Netflix series anyway.” Trixie dangled the book closer. “What do you say? Do we have a deal? I’ll give you this smelly old book, and in exchange, you’ll let me and Theo stay here until the hosebeast leaves?”

“Hosebeast?” he echoed in an effort to buy himself some time. What he planned to do with that time, however, was anyone’s guess.

“She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named?” Trixie suggested. “The devil incarnate? The Great Disappearing Ravenna? I don’t care what you call her just so long as you don’t call hermy mother.”

Theo sniffled. “She didn’t even say she was sorry. She just walked in like nothing had happened.”

“She’s married now,” Trixie added. “She changed her last name. She’s not a Sampson anymore.”

Each of these was uttered like the clincher to an argument that hadlong since been won. Which, to be perfectly honest, ithad. Jasper wasn’t sure when he’d become such a pushover where this family was concerned, but he suspected it was the day that Ravenna had first brought Chloe home from the hospital. That red-faced, wriggling baby had taken one look at him and screamed as though she’d give anything to crawl back into the warm cocoon she’d come from.

Me too, kid, he’d thought at the time.Me too.

“Let me see the book,” he said, reaching for it. Trixie didn’t balk as he snatched the book from her hands and turned greedily to the last page. He didn’t rememberallthe things he and Catherine had written in the margins, but those final words were imprinted on his heart.

In the unending, crashing second before the car hurled into the tree she thought clearly, Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why don’t they stop me?

Serious question for the definitely-not-Eleanor in my life: If someone tried to stop you now, what would you do? Would you walk away? From me? From us?

You know I wouldn’t. I can’t.

But why are you doing this?Why are you doing this?

Because I love you, C. You know it as well as I do. I’ve loved you since the moment I first laid eyes on you.

Yes, but you’ve read the book now. It didn’t end well for Eleanor, and it’s not going to end well for us, either.

I know.

Jasper ran his fingers over that last line, his hastily scribbledI know. Oh, that he could reach back through time and shake the young man who’d committed those words to the page. He didn’t know. Hecouldn’tknow. The kid he’d been—only a few years older than Trixie and Theo, his eyes burning just as hopefully—had no idea that he was in for a lifetime of heartbreak and regret and loneliness.

Loneliness most of all.

“Does this mean you’ll let us stay?” Trixie asked eagerly.

“Yes,” he said, suddenly feeling too exhausted to fight back. He’d been fighting since the day he was born, and what had it gotten him? A house full of plants but no pictures. Empty halls and emptier holidays. A closet crammed with Frisbees he didn’t need or want, but that he held on to because those bright spots of color were the closest thing to a life he had.

“Yes!” Theo cried.

“Thank you!” Trixie sighed.

Both kids made a move as if to tackle him in a hug, but Jasper was quick to step out of the way.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warned. He hadn’t felt the affectionate pull of another person’s arms in too long. He was pretty sure that breaking the streak now might actually kill him. “I don’t have a guest room, so you’ll have to sleep on the living room floor.”

“I can sleep anywhere,” Theo boasted.

“We’ll make a fort,” Trixie agreed.

“And if that family of yours comes knocking, I’m not lying. I’ll tell them exactly where you are and how you coerced me into taking you in.”