Unbreak My Heart (Fostering Love 1)

Susan sputtered for a moment, then seemed to get her nerves under control. “I hadn’t realized,” she said flatly, before wrinkling her nose as if she smelled something bad. “Well, sometimes untraditional home lives can be the root of behavioral issues. Perhaps Keller—”

“Yeah, we’re done here,” Shane said in disgust, shaking his head as he stood and pulled me up beside him. “Have the office call Kate tomorrow and let us know when Keller can come back to school.”

“Mr. Anderson!” Susan called as Shane opened her office door. “We really haven’t settled on any plan of attack—”

“Keller’s mother and I will deal with any behavior issues he has,” Shane said, turning to face her. “You’ve been condescending and rude since the moment we walked into the school—and I shouldn’t have even had to come in here when you could have talked to Kate earlier. I’m not sure what your deal is, but I sure as shit hope that you treat the kids in your care better than you treat their concerned parents.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my car so fast I was practically running to keep up with him.

“That fucking bitch!” he mumbled, taking the keys from my hand so he could unlock the car for me. “Could you believe that shit?”

“She was like that when I picked Keller up.”

“Why the hell didn’t you warn me?”

I shrugged and reached up to give him a small peck on the mouth. “You took care of it.”

I climbed inside the car and started it up as he shut the door.

“I’ll follow you,” he mouthed through the window before walking over to his truck.

My hands were shaking from adrenaline as we pulled out of the parking lot, and I took a deep breath to try to calm my nerves. I’d always hated confrontation. I didn’t like it when people were mad at me, and knowing that someone disliked me made my skin crawl. I think that may have been why I was such a people pleaser as a kid.

We’d had so many other children in and out of our house growing up—children with behavioral issues that made Keller’s look like nothing—that I’d learned early how to avoid any type of conflict. When it couldn’t be avoided, my brothers had always stepped in, first Alex with his charm, and if that didn’t work, then Bram with his fists.

When I’d become an adult and entered the business world, I’d learned to deal with my fear. But emailing back and forth with a disgruntled client wasn’t anything like dealing with someone’s dislike to my face.

I’d felt frozen inside that little office, my face burning with mortification. I’d never done anything to that woman, but she’d seemed to dislike me anyway. She’d made me feel small until Shane spoke up. His words had soothed me the way nothing else could have.

He’d given me a sense of validation that he’d never given me before.

I looked up to my mirror to check on the truck behind me and caught sight of him singing along to the radio, sunglasses covering his eyes. That small piece of something I’d been waiting for suddenly clicked into place.

Tenderness filled me as I pulled off the freeway and into a small gas station parking lot.

He’d barely stopped the truck before I was out of my car and making my way to his door.

“What’s up?” he asked, opening it as I reached him.

I stepped up onto the running board and pulled his face to mine, kissing him hard as he fumbled to turn off the truck.

“I love you,” I whispered into his mouth.

One hand gripped my ass as he groaned, and suddenly the other was pulling the lever under his seat so it slid backward, giving him room to pull me into his lap. I scrambled up to straddle him, and we both moaned as our lower halves met.

“What’s this about?” he asked, gripping my hair so he could tilt my head and press his lips to my neck. “Fuck, ignore me,” he gasped against my skin. “I don’t even care.”

I laughed breathlessly, pulling away from him, and looked down into his dilated eyes. “You’re so getting lucky tonight,” I said, grinding my hips down against him.

“I’m lucky every night,” he replied softly, pulling my head back down so he could kiss me again.

* * *

“Naked,” Shane demanded as he entered our room that night after his shower.

“Damn, you’re bossy,” I teased back, pulling my hair into a ponytail.

We’d driven home that evening flushed and turned on, but by the time we’d talked to Keller and had dinner with the kids and our mothers, the tension between us had calmed considerably.

It was still there, just under the surface, but life and family had overshadowed it for a little while.

“If you’re not naked in the next fifteen seconds, I’m going to bend you over the bed and fuck you with your clothes still on,” he replied, dropping the towel from his waist. “I’m not picky at this point.”