Falling for Heaven (Four Winds) by Anne Conley Page B

different?”
    “I’m not delusional, Heather,” h e said softly.
    “Okay, I just can’t talk about this anymore right now.”  She stood from the table and grabbing her wine glass and the half-full bottle, walked into the living room. Uri followed, bringing his glass.
    “Tell me about you, Heather.  How was your visit with your sister?”
    ”You don’t know?  I thought you were omniscient,” she said, sarcastically.
    “The Boss is, I’m not.  I only know what He lets me know.”  He sounded hurt, and she looked at him closer.  His eyes did seem to hold a wisdom that contradicted the age of his body.
    She sighed.  “It didn’t go well.  My sister’s an addict, and has been since…”  She paused, not sure how much she wanted to tell him.  “For more than half her life.  I take care of her, whether she wants me to or not.”  She played with the end of her hair, twisting it around a finger.  “She would be living on the streets if I didn’t go in and help her.  There’s no telling what would hap pen to her, if I weren't here for her.”  Heather shuddered at the thought.               
    She had caught Tiffany living on the streets once, the second time she’d lost an apartment.  Heather had been riding her bike to pick up s omething from the grocery store and had seen her sister begging for money on a corner.  Fate must have intervened that day.  As large as this city was, it was pure chance that she had run across Tiffany before she managed to get into a car with a stranger for money. 
    She had brought her home with her right then.  Not that it had worked out.  Eventually, they had come to the current arrangement, which worked out for Tiffany, though not so well for Heather.  It did keep her sister off the streets, though, which was her goal.
    “What all do you do for her?”  Uri inquired, breaking her reverie.
    Heather waved her hand, dismissively.  “Oh, I pay her rent, buy her food, try to get her to eat, bathe her, make sure she has clean clothes to wear.  Nothing much.”  She was trying not to be bitter and sarcastic, but it was hard to keep the emotions tamped down.
    “Why?”
    She looked at him, surprised.  “Because she’s my sister.  As many mistakes as she has made in her own life, I still love her.  I can’t seem to help myself.”  She looked down at her lap.  “I know I’m enabling her in her addiction, all the self-help groups say so, but I can’t let her live on the streets.  She would kill herself.”  She took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to fight back the tears that had suddenly sprung to her eyes.  “I’m not going to lose her that way.”
    Uri reached for her hand and held it reassuringly.  She felt comfort radiate from him, and she let him pull her closer, so that she was laying her head on his chest.  She could hear his heartbeat, and the serenity that emanated from him calmed her down.
    “Do you have other family?”  He asked , quietly.
    “My mother has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.  She lives in a home near here.  I used to have her living with me, but it got to where I couldn’t take care of her.  She burned down the house.  She was lucky to get out alive.”
    “I’m sorry, Heather.  I didn’t know.”  His hand stroked her back, like she was a child.  Heather admitted to herself it felt really good to be in somebody else’s arms, to have somebody else comfort her for a change.  She decided to go ahead and tell him everything.  Something about him made her feel at ease.  Besides, she must be drunk.  He'd just told her he was an archangel, and here she was spilling out her life story, something she'd never done with anybody else.
    “We use d to be such a happy family."  Her voice was quiet, as if talking too loudly would make all her demons appear here in her living room.  The tears that were threatening to spill had gone, but she felt the need to tell him everything.
    “We went on family