Hold Her Heart (Words of the Heart) by Holly Jacobs Read Free Book Online

and she invited me, Cooper, and her grandparents to the party. Finding out about you explained so many things about Ms. Pip. Fi’s been waiting for you. I think she thought that someday you’d show up on your birthday. It’s always an event. She sends me pictures if I’m overseas. She makes a cake and decorates. But you never came.”
    I could hear him wondering why I’d come now. “Ned found me and told me that Piper was sick. My doctor ran tests at home to see if I’m a match, but I don’t have the results yet.”
    “Is her illness the only reason you came?”
    I realized that I didn’t owe this man—this stranger—any more of my story. As we stood in the center of Ned’s kitchen, I realized the idea of staying didn’t seem wise. “I should be going.”
    “Don’t. If either of us should go anywhere, it should be me. But I meant what I said; I’ll hardly ever be here. Between work and school you’ll hardly know I’m here.”
    I thought about arguing, but he continued.
    “There are three bedrooms upstairs. You obviously know where mine is. Pick one of the other ones and settle in. I promise I won’t pepper you with personal questions, despite the evidence to the contrary.”
    He shot me a wry grin. It was scampish. It was the kind of grin that said he was probably one of those kids who was always in trouble in school. Not detention or suspension sort of trouble, but rather the kind of kid whose name the teacher used—a lot.
    I knew I should go, but I didn’t want to. I wanted a chance to know Piper. Even if I weren’t a match, I wanted to be here, close to her. “Are you sure?”
    He nodded. “To be honest, when I was overseas I shared a room with four other volunteers. We slept in shifts. Having a whole room to myself seems decadent. Having the entire house seems lonely.”
    “All right. Thank you.” I walked toward the stairs and then stopped. “Would you tell me how you met Piper?”
    “Are you still stalling?” he asked with a smile that told me he was teasing.
    I shook my head. “I think I wore her out, so I sent her in to rest. She invited me back for dinner. So, no, I’m not stalling.”
    Logan nodded and we both walked into the living room. “You know she’s a writer?”
    “I grew up reading her books, though I didn’t know she was my birth mother then.” I sat on the far end of the couch. “After Ned came, I dug them all out of the attic and reread all the ones I had. I know she’s written a lot since then. I plan on catching up.”
    “Do you know about the rest?” he asked.
    “Rest?”
    “Have you read her bio or any of the articles on her?”
    I shook my head. “I looked her up on the Internet. I realized she’d written a lot of books, and I found her picture.” I didn’t add that she didn’t look like that picture now.
    “Ms. Pip started and ran a food pantry—Amanda’s Pantry. Over the years, she expanded it and added Amanda’s Closet, supplying winter coats to the kids who visited, and Amanda’s Bookshelf, giving them free books. But more than all that, she cared. She helped. After she married Ned, they kept his house and used it over the years to help out families. Mine was one of those.”
    “Pardon?” I asked.
    He smiled as I said the word, and though we’d just met, I could read his teasing in just his expression.
    “My mom got pregnant when she was in high school and dropped out of school before she graduated,” he said. “We used Amanda’s Pantry. But you have to understand that Ms. Pip didn’t just hand out food. She talked to the people. She got to know my mom. We were couch-surfing most of the time, and Mom worked at odd jobs here and there. Long story short, Ms. Pip offered us this house on the condition that Mom went back to school. So Mom got her GED and then trained as an electrician. Other people occasionally stayed with us for a while, but Mom and I were here through my last year of high school.”
    He paused a moment and then added,