Piece of My Heart (Fostering Love 4)

“They’ll be here in thirty, babe,” Alex replied, his voice hoarse from sleep and full of amusement.

“I know.” I slid my feet to the floor and stood up before I could convince myself to sleep for just a few more minutes.

I grabbed my toiletry bag and headed to the bathroom across the hall as quietly as I could. The house wasn’t very big, and I’d noticed that sound traveled through the house like a big tunnel. That had probably helped when Liz and Dan had children living with them, but it made things a little hard when you were trying to move around without waking anyone up.

It took me only about fifteen minutes to do my makeup and hair, and by the time I’d finished, I was wide awake. I was actually kind of excited to go shopping. I liked other women. I liked spending time with them and talking about clothes and shopping for deals and making big dinners. Once, when I was young, and I came home from school angry at another girl for some reason that I couldn’t even remember now, I’d said something nasty about her to my mother, and instead of giving me the affirmation I’d wanted, she’d looked at me in disappointment. No, she’d said softly. Do not do that. Women are the only people on this earth who will ever fully understand your joys and pains, your disappointments and triumphs. No man can ever understand a woman’s heart; only other women can do that. When you try to diminish a woman’s worth to make yourself feel worthy, you’re not only hurting her, you’re hurting yourself. Do you understand? I hadn’t understood her words then; they’d just been another thing for me to be angry about. Later, though, as I’d grown and dealt with my own heartbreaks, her meaning had become clear.

“I made coffee,” Liz said softly, smiling at me as I came out of the bathroom. “I didn’t want to startle you, so I didn’t knock.”

“Thanks,” I said in relief. “I’m exhausted.”

“We all are,” she snickered. “But the excitement of the deals will perk you right up, just wait.”

She tiptoed quietly down the hall as I let myself back inside the bedroom.

“All ready to shop until you drop?” Alex asked from the bed as I pulled clothes out of my suitcase.

“Mostly.” I glanced over my shoulder at him. He looked so comfortable in the bed, I almost crawled back in with him. “Your mom made coffee.”

“She’s a good egg,” he replied.

“That idiom makes no sense,” I muttered, looking back in my bag.

“Did you just call me an idiot?” he joked, his tone assuring me that he’d heard exactly what I’d said.

“If the shoe fits,” I said, using an idiom of my own.

I looked over my shoulder again, and he was grinning.

“How long do they usually shop for?” I asked as I stood up and started getting undressed. I was glad that he didn’t reach for me as I set my clean clothes at the foot of the bed. I wasn’t sure I could resist letting him pull me down beside him, and I knew if I lay down, I wasn’t getting back up until a reasonable hour.

“They’re usually done by two or three,” he said.

I looked at him in confusion for a second, then felt my mouth drop open. “Twelve hours?”

“Have you never gone shopping on Black Friday before?” he asked.

“I’m sure my mother went at some point, but I was too young to go with her,” I said, pulling on my underwear and a bra. “But my aunt never went, and I haven’t, either, since I’ve been on my own.”

“Don’t like shopping?” he asked.

“Don’t have the money,” I replied with a chuckle. “Sometimes I do the Cyber Monday sales, though. Shopping online is easier.”

“But according to Ani, it’s not as much fun.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said as I pulled a pair of jeans over my hips.

“I’m pretty sure she just likes elbowing her way through crowds and stealing things out of other women’s carts,” he mused.

“No she doesn’t,” I argued, horrified.

“Not the cart part, but probably the elbowing part,” he conceded.

“She’s so nice,” I said, pulling on my shoes.

Alex laughed, went silent, and then laughed again. “She must’ve been high yesterday,” he joked. “Ani’s not nice.”

“She was nice to me.”

“Probably high.”

“She wasn’t high.”

“Fine,” he said, leaning up quickly to grab my hand and pull me onto the bed with him. “She wasn’t high.”

I made a face, and he kissed my nose. “She’s happy for me,” he said. “But she’s not really the hearts and rainbows type—that’s Kate. Ani is more…leather jackets and sarcasm.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s mean.” I was still stuck on his description of her.

“Sarai,” he said softly, rubbing his lips over mine. “She’s my best friend. I’m not talking bad about her. She’s full of inappropriate comments and would take someone’s head off for cutting in front of her in line, but she’d also defend any of us to the death. That’s just Ani.” He shrugged.