The Other Half of My Heart by Sundee T. Frazier Read Free Book Online Page A

V neckline and buttons up the back, and spun in the center of the room. The double layer of ruffles at the hem floated upward with the breeze. “Don’t you just love how the empire waist is decorated with this chiffon band gathered ever so delicately with pearl clusters?” Her face glowed with excitement. “Isn’t it
breathtaking?”
She gave Gigi a big smooch.
    “I told you we’d find just the right thing,” Gigi said.
    Keira’s eyes narrowed. “No thanks to that crazy lady at the first store.”
    Minni stiffened. Hopefully Mama wouldn’t ask.
    “What crazy lady?”
    Of course she would.
    “All I did was take a dress off the rack to look at it. She practically ripped the thing in half grabbing it out of my hands.”
    “She said she didn’t like people touching the dresses,” Gigi said, “and she wasn’t very friendly about it. So we left.”
    “She was rude.” Keira’s mouth turned down at the corners. She held the dress up again. “But, whatever, I got a way better dress than I would have found at her dumb store anyhow.”
    Mama listened quietly. She put her hand on Minni’s knee. “What about you?”
    Minni couldn’t breathe. The shame she’d felt in the storefor not pointing out the lady’s different treatment of her and her sister washed over her again.
    “Yeah, where’s your dress?” Daddy came up from behind and squeezed her shoulders.
    Minni pointed to the garment bag hanging over the chair by the front door. She had chosen the least frilly dress she could find—an A-line sky-blue silk dress with a straight-across neckline and solid, sturdy straps. No pearl clusters, bows, rhinestones or fussy lace anywhere. A layer of sheer organza covered the skirt, but Minni actually liked how it made the dress shimmer like moonlight on the ocean.
    “Well, let’s see it!”
    Holding up the dress wasn’t enough. Daddy wanted a fashion show, so they went and put on the gowns. Keira zipped Minni, then found a matching pendant in her ballerina jewelry box and fastened it around Minni’s neck.
    Minni hoped Keira wouldn’t ask how the woman had acted before she and Gigi came into the store. Then when she didn’t, Minni almost told her. They never kept
anything
from each other. They were sisters, best friends—as wide open with each other as the ocean to the sky. But she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She zipped Keira’s dress and they went into the hall.
    Keira floated into the living room, stopped to pose at the side table topped by the framed black-and-white photo Daddy had taken of her and Minni on the beach, then whipped around and continued across the floor.
    “Go on, girl. Show us what you got,” Mama said.
    Mama, Daddy and Gigi clapped. Banjo barked.
    Keira swiveled at the opposite wall and raised her arms like a movie starlet. She stood in front of Mama’s huge acrylic painting of purple, orange and red starfish, looking very dramatic. She batted her eyelashes. Even Banjo got a smile.
    “Your turn, Little Moon,” Mama said, looking to the doorway, where Minni peered out from behind the wall.
    Minni took a few small steps. The sky-blue skirt swished back and forth.
    Mama made a sound—sort of a gasp-sigh.
“Beautiful.”
    Was she? Minni looked at her pink arms, crossed in front of the dress.
    Daddy came and took her hand. He spun her under his arm. “Yes, you are. Both of you.” He took Keira’s hand as well. “Our twin beauties.”

Chapter Seven

    “A m I black or white or what?” Minni sat in a beach chair next to Mama’s stool on their large back deck, watching her work. She had put on sunscreen today. Keira was at gymnastics and Daddy was up in the air somewhere, giving a flying lesson.
    Mama added more carmine to the brown-skinned lady’s dress in her painting. “All of the above, and more.”
    “But I don’t
look
black.”
    Mama rested her painting hand on her leg. “You don’t?”
    Minni rolled her eyes.
“Mama.”
    “Where do you think you got those big