Page 27 of Borrow My Heart

“I don’t think he likes me,” Zoey said.

“He would like you, eventually, I think.” Actually, I didn’t think that was true. Bean seemed to form an immediate opinion of someone and never change it. “But maybe tonight at dinner you can help me convince Dad to let me adopt him.”

“I will do my best.”

We stopped at a booth selling incense—a dozen tall jars lined the table, each holding different scented sticks. I pulled one out and sniffed. Patchouli and rose. “You know who’s easy to shop for?” I said.

“Mom,” Zoey answered, reading my mind.

“Yep.” Our mom collected anything and everything. Pine cones and lotions and hair clips. Whatever she was gifted she loved and obsessed over for a period of time, before moving on to the next thing. “Do you remember the magic beans?”

“Should I?” Zoey asked.

“Wait, you don’t?”

“I don’t.”

“Remember, we were here.” I spun a circle with my arms out. “Somewhere on this street during the farmers’ market one year and a guy had a booth selling bags of miscellaneous seeds and Mom kept asking him if they were magic beans. He kept telling her no, just seeds from the packing-room floor. But she bought them anyway and insisted they were magic. She planted them in the backyard. I was convinced they would grow into a beanstalk like Jack’s.”

“And then what happened?” Zoey asked.

“You don’t remember this?”

“I don’t remember it at all,” she said.

“What happened was, she stopped watering them after a while and they shriveled up and died.”

Zoey let out a small sigh. “And you took it as some sort of metaphor?”

“I was eight. I didn’t know what a metaphor was. But now that you mention it…” I shook my head. “Nomemory of this?”

She shrugged. “You seem to remember every little thing Mom did wrong.”

And you seem to forget the huge thing.That’s what I wanted to say, but I knew Zoey thought I was too harsh on Mom. She always took her side. Another thing I didn’t understand about my sister. I gave her a side glance. She was smelling an incense stick. How could she not remember the magic beans? “I’m going to find that guy. I wonder if he still sells his miscellaneous seeds.”

“Are you going to buy them this time?” she asked.

“Maybe I will. I’ll water them until they grow something.”

She raised her eyebrows. “A magic beanstalk?”

“That was Mom’s claim, not mine.”

She laughed and pulled out her buzzing phone from her pocket. “Speaking of…,” she said. On the screen I saw the wordsMom calling.

“Don’t answer that,” I said. We were in the middle of a crowded street. Mom could wait.

Zoey didn’t listen. She swiped to answer. “Hi, Mom.”

My sister had zero boundaries. She really needed a list of her own rules.

She listened for a bit, then said, “Yes, she’s with me.”

I shook my head and mouthed,I am not with you.

“Right here. We’re shopping for Dad’s birthday. You want to talk to her?” Zoey held the phone out to me.

“Zoe, not cool.”

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