Page 24 of The Library of Borrowed Hearts

“You already called me Jasper once,” he grumbled as he slipped a bookmark between the pages and set the book carefully aside. “You might as well keep doing it.”

“I don’t understand. What are you three doing out here? Did Noodle come to pay you a visit?”

“You didn’t cash the check,” Jasper replied.

It took me a moment to realize what he was saying. “The book check?” I asked, blinking. “No. I haven’t had a chance to stop by the bank yet.”

I also hadn’t decided on a proper sum of money—partly because I feared Jasper might end up demanding my soul if I took too much, butalso because I was waiting to see what kind of medical bill the hospital planned to slap me with.

“You were supposed to cash the check,” he echoed, this time with a curl to his lip that made me take a protective step in front of Noodle. Not that my action was appreciated. Noodle let out a grunt of frustration.

“You’re in the way, Chloe. Gummy Bear can’t jump over you.”

“Oh. Sorry.” I immediately stepped aside, but the damage had already been done. And by damage, I mean Jasper Holmes had somehow gotten the upper hand despite having kidnapped my brother and his not-very-guarded guard dog.

“You can’t leave a boy with a broken leg home alone all day,” he said, that curl still in his lip. “Do you have any idea what could have happened to him?”

Yes, I could. Hence the fact that I’d dashed over here like my whole life depended on it. In many ways, itdid.

“He could have fallen or tripped over that blasted dog,” Jasper said. “He might have slipped into shock or taken too many pain pills. Hell, for all you know, someone could have broken in and taken everything you own.”

This last one gave me the courage to speak up. “Sorry, but anyone breaking into our house is going to beverydisappointed. Unless they want a cracked laptop, a set of mismatched dinner plates, or a pile of laundry so deep I think there might be baby clothes at the bottom, there’s not much to be had.”

I could have kept going, but Noodle gave a low cough. His voice dropped down to its customary whisper. “Don’t be mad, Chloe. Mr. Holmes said I can keep him company for a few days. Did you know that he’s never read a graphic novel before? He says he likes gory stories, so I loaned him one of mine. I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay,” I said, ruffling his hair in what I hoped was a soothing manner. My hands still shook as I came down from the adrenaline, but I don’t think he noticed. “But we can’t ask Mr. Holmes—”

“Jasper,” the man in question grunted.

“We can’t askJasperto babysit you. I’m sure he has lots of things he should be doing—”

This time, Jasper didn’t grunt so much as laugh. It was a rough, coarse sound, almost like Gummy Bear summoning demons with his howl.

“I don’t have anything to do, and you know it,” he said. Then, more hesitantly, “Until you make alternate arrangements, you can send the boy here in the morning. I’ll make sure he eats and doesn’t get into any trouble.”

Just in case I got the wrong idea about this generous offer, he made a motion as if to spit at my feet. “I won’t do more than that, mind. I don’t change diapers, and I won’t do any dressing changes. I’m not a nursemaid.”

I doubted anyone would ever accuse Jasper of being a nursemaid, but Noodle only grinned.

“I don’t wear diapers,” he said and then cast an expectant look my way. “Well, Chloe? Can I?”

Every fiber of my being balked at this arrangement. Not only did I loathe the idea of owing this man a favor for, well,anything, but I’d noticed a particularly flourishing patch of crocuses and lilies in the shape of a rectangle near the back of the garden. A quote from the burial scene in Hardy’sFar from the Madding Crowdimmediately sprang to my mind.

The crocuses and hyacinths were to grow in rows; some of the summer flowers he placed over her head and feet, the lilies and forget-me-nots over her heart. The remainder were dispersed in the spaces between these.

Now that I knew Jasper was an avid reader, it seemed possible that he’d read the same book and took it upon himself to festoon Catherine’sburial ground with a flower for each part of her body. Murderers could be weird like that.

Although it wasn’t the best justification I’d ever come up with, it wasn’t the worst, either, so I held on to it with both hands. When you were grasping at straws, you couldn’t be too particular about how flimsy they were.

But then Jasper ruined it.

“It’s not as if you have any other choice,” he said with something like a sneer. “Or did you want me to call CPS over this, too?”

His words hit me like a blow to the chest, staggering me backwards. Walking out on three kids under the age of eleven wasn’t the same as leaving a twelve-year-old home alone for a six-hour shift at the local library, but that didn’t seem to matter to my heart. The guilt I’d been grappling with all day was lodged there as solidly as a stone wall.

“That was uncalled for,” I said, my voice deceptively quiet.

“I know it was. Is that ayeson my offer?”