Another Piece of My Heart (The Patchwork Marriage)

340 Pages·1988·1.19 MB·English

by  Green Jane

Acknowledgments For their support,
encouragement, kindness, or simply
because they helped me on the journey
this past year: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh,
Anthony Goff, Louise Moore, Clare
Parkinson, Katya Shipster, Matthew
Shear, Jen Enderlin, and the new, shiny
team at St. Martin’s Press, for whom I
am endlessly grateful. Marie Coolman,
Elizabeth Dyssegaard, Tish Field,
Josephine and Len Finnochio, Robin
Kall, Ranjeev Khush, Victoria Love,
Cathy McKenna, Julia Obst, Celia Offir,
Sue Redston, Robin Roberts, Jill
Schwartzman, Lorilee Strate, Ken
Sunshine, and Keleigh Thomas.
To the many women who so generously shared their stories; to the forums where
I learned so much about women I don’t know, dealing with the challenges of
stepparenting; and to Wednesday Martin, whose book, Stepmonster, proved an
invaluable resource.
And finally, for my Beloved, Ian Warburg, for everything he is.
Thank you.
Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgments
Epigraph

Part One: Andi
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Part Two: Family
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Part Three: Parents
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Epilogue: Emily

Also by Jane Green
About the Author
Copyright
A Reading Group Gold Guide
Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
—ANONYMOUS
Part One
ANDI
One
The sheets are drenched. Again. Andi takes a long time to wake up, drifting in
and out, aware she is hot, then freezing, then finally, when she moves into a state
of consciousness, wet.
Opening an eye, she looks at the clock—4:02 A.M. It’s always four in the
morning, these nights when she awakes, when she cannot get back to sleep. She
turns her head to see Ethan, his back to her, his body rising and falling in deep
sleep.
Lucky.
In the bathroom, she pulls the wet T-shirt off, slides the PJ bottoms down, and
pads naked into the closet, pulling a dry T-shirt and boxer shorts off the shelf.
But that leaves the sheets. Warm and wet.
The linen closet is in the hall, at the other end of the corridor, where the girls’
bedrooms are. Andi knows she shouldn’t open their door, shouldn’t check up,
but she is being a mother, she tells herself. This is what mothers do. A
stepmother may not have the same rights, but she is trying, has tried so hard to
turn this into a proper family, and that includes treating the girls as if they were
her own.
How she wishes she had children of her own. Still. Even though she is in her
early forties, on a good day she could surely pass for thirty-six.
Every month, she keeps her fingers crossed that this might be the month, this
might be the month a miracle happens. Every month, she swallows her
disappointment and hopes for the next time.
She pushes Sophia’s door open gently to see her, fast asleep, the bald teddy
bear that she cannot sleep without, now lying on its side, on the floor next to her
bed, Sophia’s hand curled out toward it, as if she is waiting for the bear to jump
back in. Andi stands in the doorway and smiles, feeling a wave of love for her