Piece of My Heart (Fostering Love 4)

“Because my phone is in the bedroom with my sweet little demon, who is currently asleep for the first time in twenty-four hours,” she replied, still whispering.

“Damn, woman. Go get some sleep!”

“I am,” she hissed. “I was just calling you to make sure you didn’t call me.”

“I wasn’t planning on calling you.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?”

“You need some sleep,” I said, dropping onto my couch with a sigh. “You’re acting crazy.”

“Do you think Bram would find me if I slept in the bathtub?” she asked seriously. “I could put some towels in there, and—”

“Yes, he would notice. You have his phone,” I replied with a laugh. “Go get in bed.”

“If he asks for sex, he’s coming to live with you.”

“That’s a little extreme,” I said. “Make him live with the parents.”

“He’d be too close,” she said, groaning. “If I had to see his face, I’d kill him.”

“He’s probably already asleep,” I assured her, trying and failing to take her seriously. “Just go get in bed and get some rest while you can.”

“Fine.” She hung up without saying good-bye, and I grinned as I dropped my phone on the couch beside me.

Ani was one of the best people I’d ever known. She’d also been right. I would have called her once I’d had a few beers. I wanted to bitch about Sean not paying for dinner, and I still couldn’t get over the way Sarai had shot me down so easily, and I wanted to tell Ani about it. She’d laugh her ass off.

I knew that I wasn’t God’s gift to women or anything like that, but I did pretty well with the fairer sex. I’d never in my life been told no flat out when I’d asked a woman to have dinner with me. I’d heard excuses and had women give me the brush-off, sure, but never gotten a plain “No.” If I was being honest, that had burned a little.

I stripped down to my boxers and grabbed a six-pack from the fridge before settling back down on the couch again. Since I didn’t have anything going on the next day, I was going to drink every single one of those beers and burn off some frustration by killing some video game zombies.

Before I turned on the TV, I flipped through my text messages until I found one from Sean and replied to it, You owe me for dinner, fuckface.

Chapter 2

Sarai

School was going to kill me. I’d been working all day on a paper, and I finally had the rough draft written, but I still had to outline the next paper before I could go to sleep. Neither of them was due until Monday, but I had plans tomorrow that I really couldn’t cancel. I rubbed at my forehead, where a headache was forming.

“I know, Auntie,” I muttered, staring at her through the computer screen. She was complaining again about the distance between us. She didn’t understand why I’d gone all the way to Missouri for school when there were plenty of good schools in New York. Why couldn’t I live at home and go to school? Was I trying to get away from her? How was she supposed to check on me? I was twenty-six—wasn’t it time for me to settle down and give her some babies to hold?

It drove me crazy, but I also kind of loved that she forced me to Skype her at least once a week to make sure that my cheeks hadn’t thinned out. I hadn’t been back home in over a year, because the tickets were so expensive and I couldn’t afford to take any time off from the accounting office where I worked. I missed New York, though, and my aunt and uncle’s little apartment. I missed the smells and the sounds and the food and the family that was always around when I needed them.

I’d grown up in Missouri, and it wasn’t until my parents died in a car accident when I was fourteen that I moved to New York to live with my uncle and aunt. I’d expected the old familiar landmarks to feel like home when I came back to Missouri, but they hadn’t.

When I decided to return to Missouri for school, I’d been so confident. I’d rolled my eyes when family and friends had told me how homesick I’d feel. After all, I’d grown up in Missouri. It was as familiar to me as New York was. Sure, I’d miss the people I’d left in New York, but it was an adventure. I’d settle easily into my old hometown.

How wrong I’d been. I hated thinking of those first two years at school. The isolation I’d felt. The homesickness. It had only been pure stubbornness that had kept me there. Sheer force of will. Everything was so spread out. I had to drive if I wanted to go anywhere, and walking to the corner store was a thing of the past. Neighbors didn’t stop me to say hello and ask how my studies were going. No one cared what I was doing or where I was going. The very things I’d looked forward to when planning to move so far away were the things that depressed me.