Page 74 of The Library of Borrowed Hearts

He nods. “Yeah. It does. Your sister said something similar.”

I nod back, echoing his movements so he knows I know we’re on the same page. I also say the thing that’s been causing my stomach to tie up in knots.

“Chloe’s mad that I called her.”

“Not mad,” he corrects me. “Just worried, I think. She’s afraid you need something she can’t give you.” This feels like an awfully heavyconversation, so I’m glad when he gets up and tilts his head toward a tent that’s been set up off to one side of the parking lot. “How do you feel about discussing this while we make a fishing net out of old parachute cord?”

“Um…amazing?”

He laughs in that special way of his, like Santa Claus before he got old and ate too many cookies. “Then grab those crutches and lead the way, little man. I think you’ll like untying all those knots.”

As I settle into the pile of blankets Zach set up in the tent for me, I can overhear him call Chloe to tell her where I am and not to worry. Even though I don’t mind, I pretend I didn’t hear anything when he returns with a pile of knotted-up ropes and dumps them in my lap.

“Before we can make a net, we need to get at least ten feet of unbroken cord,” he says. “Get those tiny fingers of yours to work.”

I’m happy to have something to keep my hands busy while we talk, so I start poking and prodding until I find a loose thread.

“Can you really catch fish when you’re all done with this?” I ask as he settles next to me and starts whittling a long, curved stick. “Like, the kind to eat?”

“That’s the goal, anyway. Survival at all costs. You’d be surprised how delicious a meal is when you’ve had a hand in every part of it, catching, killing, and cooking it.”

I know I’m supposed to be talking about Chloe and Jasper’s book, but this is awaymore interesting subject. I’m not like Theo, but listening to Zach is almost like reading an adventure story.

“How did you learn to do all this stuff?” I ask. “Like, knowing which plants are safe to eat and how to catch animals and disguising yourself to blend into the trees?”

“Well, now,” he says, sitting back in his chair and extending his long legs in front of him. “That’s a pretty big question.”

I hold up the pile of knots. “That’s okay. This is gonna take me forever.”

He laughs his Santa laugh again. “Fair enough. Most of this stuff I learned from my dad. He was a big fan of the great outdoors. When I was your age, we used to go camping together for weeks at a time.”

“Your dad?” I repeat slowly. Saying those words makes me feel a little lost, but not sad. I don’t remember meeting my own dad, even though he technically belongs to both me and Theo. Trixie has a different dad, and so does Chloe, but none of us really care. When all you have for a father is a blank space, it’s easy to pretend he’s the same blank space for everyone. “What’s he like?”

Zach stops to think about it for a second. “A lot like me, actually. Tall. Rough around the edges. Good with his hands. And he enjoys his solitude, but only for a little while. He can spend a month in the wilderness, but then he comes home and spends the whole next month taking my mom out dancing. He calls it life-life balance.”

I like that.Life-life balance.

“All the men in my family are outdoorsy that way,” he adds, watching me out of the corner of his eye. “You could say it’s in our blood.”

“Books are in my blood,” I’m quick to respond. “In mine and Chloe’s, anyway. Theo says reading is for people who don’t haveMinecraft, and Trixie would rather talk to people than read about them, but Chloe and me are the same.”

Instead of shooting me down, like lots of grown-ups might do, Zach nods. “I agree. You two are very similar.” Then he does the thingallgrown-ups do and tries to sneak one past me. “That’s why you came up here today, isn’t it? Because of a book? Because of Jasper’s book?”

Since I like Zach and I like undoing these knots, I decide to play along. “Kind of, yeah. I stole one from the cabin the other day.”

Zach doesn’t blink—not even once. “You stole one?”

“Yeah. I should’ve asked first, but I was afraid he’d say no, so I took the book he was talking about. The one about the lady—Wuthering Heights.”

Zach blows out a long breath thatfeelslike it’s not mad. I can tell for sure that he’s not mad when he laughs. “You sneaky little devil. I didn’t even notice that one on the shelf. Where did you find it?”

“It was just sitting there with all the other books.” I find a tricky knot and concentrate on it until it’s all the way gone. It must take a while, because when I look up, it’s to find Zach watching me with an expression I can’t understand. “I don’t think he reads that one very much. It was the dustiest of all of them, and the pages aren’t bent at all.”

“Did you bring the book with you?” he asks.

“Yup. It’s full of the writing. I thought you and Chloe might want to see it.”

He’s quiet again, and this time I don’t have a tricky knot to distract me, so I have no choice but to listen to the silence. Eventually, he says, “Can I ask you a question, Aloysius?”