Billie Standish Was Here
Page 19
I’ve been up here in my pink bedroom all night memorizing the last five years. Writing it all down. Trying to digest every detail before something gets away and I lose any little bit of her. What I have now will need to last me from now on.
I thought she should have one last night at home. She deserves that. Come morning, soon now, I’ll call Harlan to come say good-bye to her. He will appreciate that.
We’ll tell them he woke me by knocking and that’s when I found her.
And then it will all begin.
Life as I will come to know it.
An adventure I would not have been able to imagine five years ago, no doubt.
I’m nervous, but I’m not afraid. I know I will miss her with every fragment of my soul as long as I live. But I also know this: she left me with everything I need to live without her.
She left me knowing who I am without looking into anybody’s mirror. She left me believing I deserve to be loved. She left me the ability to trust.
And that is worth more than anything in her will, more than all the money in the world can buy. That is her true legacy to me.
Sure as rain.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the fine writers who read early drafts—Dan Roettger, Terrance Griep, and Mary Logue. Jennifer Flannery, thanks for being so good in every sense of the word. Eternal gratitude goes to Emily Meehan for breathing life into this book.
I recognize the good fortune that makes Dave Lybarger my friend as well as my favorite brother, and am grateful to our parents, Charlie and Anna Jean Lybarger, who never let me believe there was anything I couldn’t achieve.
Barbara Felt and Pete Barber, your endless offerings of support speak of the pompitous of love. Thank you.
Charlie, my son, you make me want to be the best I can be, every day of my life. I’m so glad you picked me.
Nancy Crocker is a native of Missouri who started her career as a singer and appeared with Loretta Lynn at age thirteen. She graduated from Columbia College and since the has been acting and writing. Her work has appeared in the American Heritage Anthology, and she is the author of the picture book Betty Lou Blue, published by Dial. This is her first novel. Nancy lives with her husband and son near a lake in Minneapolis, where they enjoy fishing. You can visit Nancy at www.nancycrocker.com.
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SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS · An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division · 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 · www.SimonandSchuster.com · This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. · Copyright © 2007 by Nancy Crocker · All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. · SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. · Book design by Alicia Mikles · Jacket Design by Jessica Sonkin · Jacket photography copyright © 2007 by Trinette Reed/Getty Images · The text for this book is set in Bembo. · CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data · ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-2423-4 · ISBN-10: 1-4169-2423-X · eISBN: 978-1-4814-4456-9