Page 96 of The Library of Borrowed Hearts

Catherine Martin may have been able to tear herself away and start over somewhere new, but it was like I said before—our Sampson roots drove deep. I couldn’t pull them up without damaging the whole lot of us in the process.

“I’m not leaving any time soon,” I said, and for the first time, that felt okay. “So you’re welcome to do your worst.”

He fought to hide his sudden, beaming smile. Although he eventually managed to tamp it down, the damage—for damage it was—had already been done. My heart gave a bona fide pitter-patter. Whatever stops he pulled out to earn my forgiveness were sure to be good ones. Nonsensical, probably, and highly suspicious, but good all the same.

But he wasn’t done yet. “In that case, I’m supposed to drag you next door.” He tilted his head toward the door. “Jasper’s throwing a little going-away party.”

“Going away?” I echoed. “For…my mom and Todd?”

“No, for my grandmother. I’m driving her down to the airport first thing in the morning.”

My heart gave a sudden, heaving lurch. “Oh, no. She’s leaving already? What about Jasper? What about their love story?”

“I think they both agreed that story was better left without a sequel.” He extended a hand to me. “Will you come? She really wants to see you before she goes. There’s something she wants to give you.”

I slipped my fingers into his, drawing comfort from the warm, rough feel of his hand in mine. “If that something is you, I should probably warn you that I prefer my gifts to be of the monetary variety.”

“Duly noted,” he said, his hand squeezing mine. “But I think you should wait and see. If there’s one thing my grandmother’s good at, it’s giving people the one thing they didn’t know they needed most.”

36

CHLOE

In the final story of my life, it will be written down that my opening chapter started in the year 1960. Long before I was born or even thought of, back when a young woman and a young man fell in love over an illicit copy ofTropic of Cancer, events were put into motion. Hearts were broken and babies born, money earned and hard labor performed. A garden was also planted, its seeds taking root in ways that would take more than six decades to bear fruit.

“She’s here! She came!”

“It’s about time. We’ve been waitingforever.”

“Chloe, did you remember to bring over the nondairy creamer I texted you about? I’m making a bomb with it. Just an eensy-weensy one, so you don’t need to look like that. It’s for Jasper.”

I blinked at the scene of mayhem I stepped into, surprised to find not only my own brothers and sister cluttering up the place, but Jasper, Catherine, Lonnie, Pepper, and even Gunderson, who was holding a casserole dish of something green and looking delighted to be invited, well,anywhere.

“A bomb for Jasper?” I asked, ignoring the sea of faces to focus onthe most salient of all Theo’s remarks. “Theo, he’s been nothing but nice to us. You can’t repay his generosity by blowing up his house.”

“I said it’s just a small one,” Theo protested. “To help him clear out his weeds. He made us pick them all by hand yesterday. Look.” He held up his rough, work-reddened palms. “He said if I can find a different way to uproot them, then I’m more than welcome to give it a go.”

“I also said you couldn’t do more damage to my flower beds in the process,” Jasper said in a voice that wavered uncertainly. He cast me an agonized glance. “I meant to make that part very clear.”

“Not clear enough,” Trixie muttered. “He also thinks we should adopt a goat.”

“Can we get a goat, Chloe, please?” Theo asked. “I want to name him the Great Goatsby. Jasper has been reading aloud to us at bedtime.”

I laughed, too pleased to find that my siblings were very much up to their usual tricks to care that they were plotting ways and means to build explosives.

“No, we will not be getting a goat, and no, we will not be helping Jasper in any way but with our hands,” I said as firmly as I could. Then, aware that all everyone was watching us, “Did Mom and Todd bring you guys home from school today?”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Yes. And then they drove off into the sunset together. How romantic.”

“Does this mean we can go home now?” Theo demanded. “Because Jasper’s floor isn’t very comfortable.”

Noodle drew closer and slipped his hand into mine. “You’re not sad about it, are you, Chloe? It’s okay if it goes back to just being us again?”

As all three kids stood there, watching me and anxiously awaiting my reply, the tightness that had been in my chest since the conversation with my mom loosened. I wouldn’t have chosen to discuss this in front of a gathering of people who could be counted on to ask me questions and poke their noses in my life for weeks to come, but that was the whole point. I’d neverbe able to raise these children on my own—not the way they deserved to be raised. If I was going to make a success of this, then I needed to admit that I didn’t have all the answers…or even very many of the questions.

“I’m not sad,” I said. I offered my siblings a watery smile—and then I cast it around the whole room. “I don’t need her when I have all of you. It’s taken me a long time to realize it, and I know I haven’t made things easy, but I appreciate everything you do for us—everything youhavebeen doing for a long time.”

I might have been overwhelmed by a group hug then, but Catherine spoke up before the collective group could pounce. She didn’t raise her voice or even make a big show of speaking, but it was easy to see why she’d managed such a long and varied career. She had presence, this slip of girl who’d once done the impossible—this slip of a woman who was doing it again.