Page 79 of The Library of Borrowed Hearts

Zach steps back, looking a lot like he wants the world to open up and swallow him whole—either that, or to run away from these library steps and never come back again. I’m so afraid for this second one that I speak up before Chloe can start yelling again.

“Are you going to show the book to Jasper?” I ask. “Or did you want me to sneak it back on the shelf? I can, if you want me to. As soon as my leg’s better, he said I can visit the cabin whenever I want. He’ll never know I took it.”

Chloe hesitates, and when she looks at Zach, I can tell that she’s notas upset anymore. “It’s not the worst idea in the world. If he really thinks Catherine’s dead and gone—”

“He does,” Zach says grimly.

Chloe continues as if he hasn’t spoken. “And if he purposely avoided this book because it was too painful—” She waits for another interruption, but Zach stays quiet. She shrugs to match him. “Then maybe the kindest thing we can do is let the broken pieces lie. Take it from one who knows. Sometimes, it’s better if the past stays where it belongs. Because once you let it back into your house again…”

Her voice trails off, and I can tell she’s talking about Mom. I hang my head.

“I never should’ve called her, should I?” I ask guiltily. “I’m sorry. I thought she might help, but she’s only making stuff harder for you. Theo and Trixie are gone. You and Zach are fighting. I ruined things. Ialwaysruin things.”

“No. No!” All of a sudden, Chloe is crouched down in front of me. She wants to hug me, I can tell, but she clasps her hands in front of her instead. “Noodle, this isn’t your fault, okay? None of this is your fault. You just got caught up in a lot of adult nonsense that never should’ve been yours to worry about in the first place.”

I look to Zach, glad to find him nodding and smiling again. “Your sister is right, Aloysius. I shouldn’t have let you get dragged into all this. When I came here, I never thought… That is, I didn’t plan—”

For the first time since Zach first came dashing to my rescue, it seems as if he has no idea what to do. I don’t like it.

And neither, I think, does Chloe. She reaches out and touches his arm.

“Hey,” she says. “That goes for you, too. None of this mess is your fault, and I wouldn’t blame you if you disappeared into the woods and as far away from my family as you can get. I know I warned you that we were a package deal, but what I failed to mention is that the packageis busted all to hell. Most people would take one look at us and throw it out.”

He touches her hand super quick before hopping down a few steps and putting a huge gap between them. That’s my first clue that something bad is about to happen. The second is when he takes a big long breath.

I know what that big long breath means. I’ve heard it so many times in my life that I sometimes think everyone around me has lungs the size of the sky.

“I’d have preferred to save this conversation for a different setting—and a different time—but I don’t see any way around it,” he says, and so seriously that it makes me feel itchy all over. “I’m afraid we can’t put that book back in Jasper’s cabin.”

My sister blinks. “Why not? Did you already show it to him? Because—”

Zach holds up a hand to stop her from saying more. “No, I haven’t shown it to him. I probablyshouldhave, but I wanted to get my grandmother’s take on it first. That was…a mistake.”

Chloe’s brows snap together. “What are you talking about? What does your grandmother have to do with anything?”

My heart thuds when I see Zach frown.

“I hoped maybe it was all a misunderstanding, but I was wrong,” he says.

I’m not sure what this means, but Chloe does. Her face goes white and she drops her purse all over again.

“You have to understand,” he adds in a funny voice. I want to ask what’s going on, but I don’t think either one of them remembers I’m here. “She never really talked about him. She never really talked about any of it. That’s why I moved here in the first place. Unfortunately, as soon as I told her about you and your literary scavenger hunt, she booked a flight out here. I’m supposed to pick her up from the airport tomorrow.”

“It can’t be,” Chloe says, her words so quiet they’re carried away by the air. “You aren’t his—”

“It very much is,” Zach says with a grimace. “And I’m afraid I very much am.”

PART FOUR

28

ZACH

I never meant to hurt anyone.

It was the one rule I lived by—the one rule I’dalwayslived by—but rules didn’t always cut it. Trying not to hurt people and doing it anyway was kind of my family’s curse. In fact, I suspected it was part of the reason we spent so much time in the great outdoors. When your only bed was a piece of canvas laid out on the forest floor and your only company was your own miserable self, you couldn’t do much in the way of damage.

That’s the lie we told ourselves, anyway.