Page 41 of The Library of Borrowed Hearts

There was, however, a lonely old man sitting hunched on a kitchen stool, a smile touching his lips as he flipped through the pages of the book in front of him.

“She always did have a way of making me say and do things against my will,” he said as he ran his fingers over the scrawled lines in the margins. “Imagine me, carrying on like this with a librarian, of all things.”

“Wait,” I said, and with that, all my plans to handle Jasper with tact disappeared. “Catherine was alibrarian? Here in Colville? At the same library where I work?”

“She was way out of my league. I knew that from the start.” He glanced up at me with an unreadable expression. “And if I’d had my way, that would’ve also been the end.”

It seemed as much of an answer as I was going to get. I blew out a long breath. “So she worked at the library. That’s why you guys left each other notes inside books.”

“We left each other notes because we didn’t have any of this newfangled technology you kids seem to put so much value in,” Jasper corrected me, his voice like a rap to the knuckles. “We didn’t have the option of texting naked pictures or those stupid yellow circles back and forth.”

I was careful not to look at Zach at the “naked pictures” part, but the second half got my attention. “Stupid yellow circles?”

Jasper waved an impatient hand. “The ones that smile and drool and fart. I don’t know what you call them.”

“Emojis, sir,” Zach said.

Jasper pointed a warning finger at him. “Call me ‘sir’ again, and you’ll find yourself wishing you’d never set foot inside this house.”

“Yes, sir,” he said with a bland and—in my opinion, at least—bold disregard for Jasper. “I’ll work on that.”

Jasper looked as though he was contemplating making good on his threat, but he sighed and waved around the kitchen. “You might as well sit down,” he said, sounding irritable. “I can see you won’t be easy to dislodge.”

Since he’d been the one to invite us in, I ignored the comment and made myself comfortable on a wooden stool. Zach waited only a few seconds before joining me.

“It was 1960,” Jasper said, unprompted. “That was when we started…corresponding. Her father got put in charge of the radar base during its final years of operation, so she took a post at the library to pass the time.”

This was already way more information than I’d been expecting—and offered up free of charge. I sensed a trap.

“And before you ask, no, you can’t haveTropic of Cancerback.” Jasper turned a sharp pair of eyes on me. “You still haven’t cashed that check, but that doesn’t mean the transaction is void. It’s not my fault you refuse to go to the bank like a normal person.”

I could see Zach looking curiously at us, so I was quick to turn the conversation. I had no way of explaining why that check still sat uncashed in the bottom of my purse. The more I needed that money, the less willing I was to take it. Pepper would have been quick to point out my inability to accept help, but there was more to it than that. To cash in on this man’s pain, to reduce his life story to a series of zeros and dollar bills—it felt wrong.

Peoplehadto be more than a number in their bank account. Lifehadto carry more meaning than that.

“So, you and Catherine started by writing to each other inA Farewell to Arms,” I said, phrasing it as a statement of fact.

Jasper’s hands moved reverently over the cover. “That we did.”

“And then you moved on toThe Haunting of Hill House.”

“Did we make it that easy to figure out? That was indiscreet of us.” A smile touched his lips as he rifled through the pages. “Now that I think about it, a lot of the things we did were indiscreet, but that’s the nature of youth. None of you are as good at hiding things as you think you are.”

I was sensing an attack now rather than a trap but Jasper wasn’t done yet.

“If the book says we moved on to Shirley Jackson next, then I’m sure that’s what we did,” he said. “It’s so long ago now that I don’t remember everything we put to paper. Catherine loved horror books—the darker, the better. She was always happiest when people were being torn limb from limb.”

“Sounds like my kinda girl,” Zach murmured.

“You wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in her company,” Jasper returned as easily as batting a tennis ball at high speed. “She’d have had your measure, chewed you up, and spit you out before you could put the twinkle in your eye.”

“My measure?” Zach echoed. He looked at me and, even though I had no idea how, put a twinkle in his eye. “Should I ask?”

“You’re everything that’s wrong with modern youth,” Jasper said without waiting for an invitation. I was so happy not to be the one under attack anymore that I actually found myself enjoying the exchange. “You’re too aware of your own worth. All you kids are. You make endless videos of your exploits, preen in front of mirrors, and get a blue ribbon every time you join a sport.”

Zach chuckled and waved a hand over himself. Although he’d washed his customary dirt away, he still looked weathered and—to my eyes, at least—appealing in the extreme. “You thinkIpreen?”

“Of course you do. You wouldn’t be following this girl all over town, swaggering about like a pig in his sty, if you didn’t think she had a thing for barnyard animals. There’s nohumilityin any of you.”