Teo presses his lips to the back of my neck, then whispers, “Isn’t she beautiful?” and I know the “she” he means. For my husband, there is one she. One he, too. This morning, under the dim, soaring ceiling of the church, I heard Dev tell Rose, “Let’s find Dad.” He caught my eye after he said it, and his shy smile lit the room. “I call him that all the time in my head now,” he told me. I will tell this to Teo tonight, in bed, where we’ll be alone but for our houseful of people, people in every room: Clare, Viviana, Clare’s new father Gordon, Teo’s parents, my parents, Rose sleeping her fragrant sleep a few feet away. “We’ll get hotel rooms,” everyone had offered, but we told them all, “No. Stay.”
Sometimes, I think I would like to have us under one roof, all of us, everybody here, which makes no sense, of course. No house is big enough to hold us, with all of our tensions, all our wariness and histories. But imagine the nights, those separate breathings, everyone within my reach and safe, everyone together.
I stand here on this spring day in the center of my life. Chaos, din, and beauty. For a moment, I am still. Then “Cornelia,” cuts across the noise, and because one of them is calling me, I go.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am so grateful to the following people:
Brilliant agent and true friend Jennifer Carlson, whose instincts, heart, and good sense never stop amazing me;
My editor, Laurie Chittenden, kind, tenacious, and wise, for making me feel that my books and I were born under a lucky star;
Everyone at Morrow, especially Lisa Gallagher, Lynn Grady, Will Hinton, Tavia Kowalchuck, Debbie Stier, Sharyn Rosenblum, Dee Dee DeBartlo, Emily Fink, and Mike Brennan;
Susan Davis, Dan Fertel, Annie Pilson (seeker of blooming hydrangeas, mellow light, and the perfect shot), and my sister Kristina de los Santos, the sharp and generous early readers without whom I could not do, with additional thanks to Michael Pilson, Rebecca Schamess, and Molly Spruance;
Phineas Pilson, who now talks a blue streak but who inspired the toddler version of Toby Brown;
Andrea Nakayama and Sara Clay Goodman, who so generously corresponded with me regarding illness and hospice care; Drs. Dan Fertel and Arturo de los Santos, for help with all things medical; and Rebecca Kraus, for the aspirin bottle story;
My parents, Arturo and Mary de los Santos, whose love and support mean everything to me;
And those to whom it is my shining luck to belong: my children Charles and Annabel Teague, fierce, funny, and smart, and my husband, David Teague, whose many gifts include changing the way time moves.
About the Author
An award-winning poet and bestselling author with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing, MARISA DE LOS SANTOS lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with her husband and children. She’s the author of the bestseller Love Walked In.
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Also by Marisa de los Santos
Love Walked In
Credits
Jacket design by James L. Iacobelli
Jacket photograph by Duane Rieder/Getty Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BELONG TO ME. Copyright © 2008 by Marisa de los Santos. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub Edition © FEBRUARY 2008 ISBN: 9780061797682
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Table of Contents
Cover
TitlePage
Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About The Author
Other Books by Marisa de los Santos
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher