“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.

A knock sounded at the bedroom door before I could reply.

“Sarai? If you’re not ready, I’m telling the whole family that you forced us to go to a sex shop today and made us wait for hours while you searched for Alex’s gift,” Ani called, then knocked again. “Up and at ’em.”

“See?” Alex whispered, his body shaking with laughter.

I gave him a quick kiss on the lips and climbed out of bed. Smoothing my hair, I grabbed my purse and opened the door. “I’ll see you in twelve hours.”

“Love you,” he called, amused.

“Love you, too.”

When I got to the kitchen, all the women were there. Liz and Ellie looked like their normal selves, neatly dressed but comfortable. Morgan was slightly rumpled and looked like I felt, and Ani appeared as if she hadn’t slept, and had a slightly deranged look in her eyes.

“No coffee for you,” Liz said firmly to Ani as she handed out travel cups.

“Don’t need it,” Ani replied, clapping her hands and shrugging her shoulders. “I’ve got Red Bull running through my veins.”

“Did you sleep?” I asked, eyeing her wild mess of wispy short hair.

“Nope.” She grinned wildly. “Arie woke up in the car and was still wide awake and playing in the living room when I left.”

“Damn,” Morgan murmured, looking at me in horror.

“Ani’ll crash on the way home,” Ellie said with a laugh as she ushered us toward the front door. “Bram will end up carrying her and her bags inside when we drop her off.”

“Not this year,” Ani said, pointing into the air. “This year, I’ll make it home and unpack before crashing.”

“No she won’t,” Liz said, bringing up the rear of our group as we stepped onto the front porch.

My hands were clenched as we drove into town in Ellie’s large SUV. The women around me talked about the stores they wanted to hit and the early-bird deals they hoped to find, but I couldn’t focus on any of that. The rain pounding on the windshield, and the bright lights that passed us on the highway held all my attention. Ellie was a good driver, but I knew that didn’t mean much. My dad had been a good driver, too, and that hadn’t stopped someone from hitting us. I didn’t relax until we pulled into the first parking lot and slowed down to a crawl as we found a parking space.