Unbreak My Heart (Fostering Love 1)

“Really good moves,” I replied blearily, closing my eyes as he chuckled.

* * *

Hours later, we were still awake, talking quietly about anything and everything from our favorite sexual positions to stories from our childhoods.

“I’m pretty sure, if our moms didn’t know before, they know what we were doing now,” I said with a groan as Shane traced his fingers over a couple of stretch marks on my belly.

“We got a little loud at the end,” he agreed, leaning down to run his lips over my belly button.

“We? What we, kemosabe? That was all you. I was quiet.”

“Yeah yeah.”

“Man, I’m going to have to start working out,” I grumbled. “My legs are sore as shit.”

“Thighs or calves?” he asked, sitting up.

“Yes,” I answered, making him smile.

He reached out and began to massage my legs, starting with my thighs.

“We should sell the house,” he said after a quiet few minutes.

“What?” I leaned up on my elbows to look at him.

“We’re not using the master bedroom.” He glanced at me before looking back at what he was doing to my legs. “We should have a house that’s ours.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I know that you don’t want to use that room, but—”

“Is that what you thought?” he asked, looking at me in surprise. “I don’t care what room we’re in. But at the beginning, I was sneaking in here at night and praying you wouldn’t kick my ass out. I wasn’t going to push it by asking you to switch rooms.”

“Oh,” I responded quietly.

“Everything I have is yours, Katie, okay? I don’t have any hang-ups about that shit.”

“I don’t know. It’s just a little weird.” I shrugged uncomfortably. “It probably shouldn’t bother me.”

“But it does.”

I nodded, giving him a half smile.

“So we should get our own house,” he said, switching legs. “It’ll probably take a while to sell this one though.”

“I’m not in any hurry,” I assured him.

We grew quiet, both lost in our own thoughts.

I’d gotten past the feeling of being Rachel’s substitute—my relationship with Shane had very little to do with her—but sometimes I still felt funny when I went through their bedroom to use the shower or found something she’d bought in the back of a closet. I figured that kind of stuff would pass with time, but I wasn’t quite there yet.

“Sometimes I think I would have always found my way back to you,” Shane said quietly as he stretched out next to me. “Which makes me feel like shit.”

“There’s no reason to think like that,” I whispered, sliding my hand up his bare chest and around his neck.

“I wouldn’t trade Iris for Rachel,” he said softly. “I wouldn’t trade Iris for anything.”

“Shane,” I said, my throat clogged with emotion, “if Rachel hadn’t died, you wouldn’t even know Iris. Making those kind of comparisons is pointless. Don’t do that.”

“I love you. I love our life. I don’t think I could go back,” he said hoarsely.

“That’s not even an option, so stop it.”

He closed his eyes tight, and I slid my hand to the front of his throat as he swallowed.

“Why do you do that?” he asked, opening his eyes again slowly as he reached up to grip my wrist.

My face heated as I rubbed my thumb up and down the side of his neck, clearing my throat. “When you first came to Aunt Ellie and Uncle Mike’s, you were so quiet,” I told him, meeting his emotion-filled eyes. “I could usually read people, but you—I couldn’t tell what you were thinking. I watched you, you know?”

He nodded, smiling slightly.

“Well, I finally noticed that if you were upset, or mad, or even happy, you swallowed hard. Just once sometimes, but it always happened. I learned to watch for that.”

“Weird,” he whispered.

“I knew what you were doing when I caught you kissing Rachel because your faces were so close together, but for a second you raised your head, and I saw you swallow hard.”

“That was such a shitty thing to do.”

“Yeah, you were such a little asshole,” I agreed, running my hand down his chest to pinch his nipple.

“Ow!” he yelped, catching my hand and bringing it back to his neck.

“I put my hand on your throat”—I followed the words with the movement—“because even if you’re not saying anything, I can physically feel your emotion. It’s a million times better when I know that emotion’s for me.”

“Marry me,” he whispered hoarsely, searching my eyes as he placed his hand over mine and I felt his Adam’s apple bob. “Be my wife.”

“Yes.”

Epilogue

Shane

Tell me again why you’re wearing all that junk on your face,” I said to my girl, switching lanes so I could pull off the freeway.

“Because Auntie Kate said I could!” Sage replied, glancing over at me. “Since it’s a special night.”

Kate had adopted the kids less than a month after we’d married, and the little boys started calling her “Mom” right away—probably because Iris did. Keller had taken a little longer to feel comfortable with the idea, but he’d eventually started doing it, too. Sage, though—well, she remembered her mom clearly, and when she continued to call Kate “Auntie Kate” long after the adoption, we hadn’t mentioned it. That was her decision. It didn’t matter what she called Kate; their bond was set in stone.