Piece of My Heart (Fostering Love 4)

We’d been in the car for a little less than an hour when the SUV slowed down and pulled into a long driveway.

“Almost home,” Alex said softly, glancing over to give me a sweet smile.

“This is where you grew up?” I asked in awe, leaning so that I could look out the front window.

Everything was green—from the grass and the ferns to the tall evergreen trees that seemed to go on for miles. It was beautiful and peaceful, but I couldn’t imagine living so far from everything.

“Yep, the best place on Earth.” Alex rolled down his window and inhaled deeply. “It’s going to rain.”

“How can you tell?” I whispered, rolling down my own window.

“I can smell it.”

“No you can’t,” I argued, sniffing.

“He’s right,” Ani said from the front seat. “If you’re around here long enough, you’ll notice the smell, too.”

I glanced between the two of them, trying to figure out if they were full of shit, but before I could argue anymore, we came to a stop in front of a well-kept single-story house.

“Mom must have heard us pull up,” Bram said, turning off the car. A slight older woman was standing on the porch, grinning at us.

“Just leave the bags for now,” Alex said excitedly as he held the door for me to climb out. As soon as my feet had hit the ground and he’d closed the door behind me, he was jogging toward the front of the house and up the two steps that led to the porch.

“Why don’t you open my door?” Ani asked Bram as she climbed out of the car.

“Because you don’t sit still long enough,” Bram replied.

I heard them, but I didn’t see them. My eyes were glued to the man and woman on the porch. Alex was hugging his mom and lifting her off her feet to swing her around in a circle.

“Sarai,” Alex called, waving me over. “Come meet my mom.”

Alex and his mom stepped off the porch and met me halfway.

“Sarai, this is my mom, Liz. Mom, this is Sarai.”

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Liz said warmly, reaching out to shake my hand. “Alex has talked about you a lot.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Evans.”

“Please call me Liz,” Alex’s mom said with a small laugh. “Mrs. Evans makes me sound old.”

“I think it sounds distinguished,” Ani argued, joining our circle. “Like a proper mature lady.”

“Anita knows a lot about mature-lady names,” Alex said with a laugh.

“Like Alexander is much better.”

They both looked to the side and laughed as Bram walked toward us. “Abraham is worse,” they joked in unison.

“Ignore them,” Liz told me, setting her hand gently on my upper back so she could steer me toward the house. “They’re always like this at first. I swear, they won’t be quiet for a full twenty-four hours, and then suddenly they’ll mellow and things will get relatively normal again.”

“Thank you so much for inviting me,” I said, grinning as we entered the house. The walls of the entryway were covered with framed black-and-white photographs, and I made a mental note to look at them more carefully later. “I was just going to be sitting at home, watching television and eating ramen noodles all weekend.”

“Of course,” Liz said, smiling. “We love having a full house. Your family doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving?”

“They do,” I replied as Alex, Ani, and Bram came through the front door. “We’ve just never made a big deal about it, so flying all the way to New York for the weekend seemed kind of silly.”

Liz laughed. “Well, you’re in for a treat, because we go all out. You won’t be able to button your pants by the time you’re done with dessert.”

“Hey, where’s Arie?” Ani asked, coming abruptly to a stop.

“Well, she was driving me crazy, so I sent her outside to play,” Liz said jokingly about their toddler. When Ani didn’t take the bait, she sighed. “She and Dad fell asleep in the recliner when they were watching a movie. You walked right past them when you came in.”

“Aw,” Alex said. He’d taken one step back toward the living room when Ani jumped onto his back, covering his mouth with one hand while she clung to him like a monkey.

“If you wake my child, I will make this weekend absolute hell for you,” she hissed.

I watched them in fascination. As an only child, I hadn’t grown up horsing around and fighting with siblings, and for the first time in my life I wondered if I’d missed out.

“I’d like to say they’re usually not like this,” Liz said with a sigh. “But I’d be lying. Ani, get off Alex’s back before you wake the baby. Alex and Abraham, I need some wood brought in for the woodstove, and I haven’t bothered your dad with it, because his back’s been giving him trouble.”