Hold Her Heart (Words of the Heart) by Holly Jacobs

into my ballet flats and opened the door. “I want to make a good impression.”
    Logan was wearing jeans and a polo shirt. “They’re not dressy people. And they’re family. You’d look beautiful to them in Ms. Pip’s holey jeans.”
    My accidental roommate was a very nice man. He nodded toward the stairs. “Are you ready?”
    I nodded. “Thank you for coming with me. I know we’ve just met, but I feel like I have an ally.”
    “This isn’t a battle, Siobhan. You don’t need an ally, but maybe you need a friend. I can be that.” He reached out and took my hand. It was simply for moral support—I got that. I took comfort in it as we walked across the driveway and up onto Piper’s porch. I dropped his hand as I knocked.
    “This is her office,” he said conversationally, nodding at the chair on the porch. “Every year, as soon as the weather is even halfway warm enough, she’s out here working every day. In the winter, she moves inside by the front window. I know that most people count robins as a true sign of spring, but everyone at school looked for Ms. Pip on the porch. That’s how we marked the change of seasons.”
    “I work on my porch, too,” I said.
    In a world of nine-to-fivers, it was weird to find someone else who worked for themselves. Jaylin was the only other person I’d ever met who understood that sometimes having no boss was worse than working for a tyrant. I mean, when I got hung up on an encroaching deadline, I only had myself to blame.
    I bet Piper would understand that.
    It was a tangible connection to my birth mother that I hadn’t considered before.
    “Thanks,” I told Logan just as Ned opened the door.
    “Welcome home,” Ned said as he threw the door open wide.
    Logan and I stepped inside the house. Again, I was thankful for Logan’s presence. He didn’t wait for further invitation. He walked toward the back of the house—which I guessed was the kitchen—as if he’d done it hundreds of times.
    He probably had.
    But I hadn’t. I stood, rooted to the spot, trying to catch my breath.
    “It’s overwhelming for Pip, too,” Ned told me softly. “But I swear we don’t bite.”
    Suddenly a giant hairy dog ran into the foyer and jumped at me. I had just enough time to brace myself before he hit me like a ton of bricks. There was no menace in him. He was tall enough that he began to lick my face, doing his part to assure me I was his new best friend.
    Ned grabbed at his collar, but the dog wouldn’t be denied. He wrestled to stay close to me.
    “Killer watchdog?” I asked Ned, laughing as they battled.
    He laughed. “Archie, down.”
    The dog thumped down to the floor, swinging his giant tail from side to side like some huge dust mop, seemingly not carrying that he was whacking it against the newel post.
    I leaned down and patted his head, which made his tail wag even faster. “He seems sweet. What kind of dog is he?”
    “A shepoodle,” Ned answered. “At least that’s what Fi calls him.”
    He looked like a dust mop. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that.”
    “Part sheepdog, part standard poodle. I think there might be an official name for them, but Fi has firm opinions on everything,” Ned supplied. He paused a moment as the dog flopped on to his back, telling me a stomach scratch was in order without saying a word. “He’s obviously king of the castle.”
    Fiona came barreling into the living room so quickly she almost made Archie seem sedate. The dog jumped back up and ran over to kiss her and then came back to me.
    “Mom said there’s ten minutes till dinner, so you have time to come see my room before we eat,” she blurted out in one breathless stream of words.
    “Fiona, I don’t think—” Ned started.
    “It’s okay. I’d love to see your room,” I told her.
    She took my hand, pulled me up the stairs as Ned called after us, “I’m going to help finish things up.”
    “I’ll bring her down in a minute, Dad,” Fiona called back to