Change of Heart (Fostering Love 2)

I snorted and grabbed a sandwich for myself. “What do you think the kids would say if they saw us together like this?” I asked, biting into my sandwich.

“Katie would scream and dance around the room. Shane would walk away without saying anything. Henry would stare at your tits. Trevor would close his eyes and start trying to discuss the situation, and Alex would fucking high-five me,” Bram said with no hesitation.

My mouth dropped open at his very accurate assessment. He was totally right. Katie would be excited as hell. Shane wouldn’t want anything to do with the mess. Levelheaded Trev would try to make sense of what he was seeing. Henry wouldn’t care except that he’d get to see me naked, and Alex would be stoked as hell that his two best friends were together.

“So you don’t think Shane would want a good look first?” I asked after a minute.

“Of course he would,” Bram said mockingly while shaking his head.

“He should be so lucky.”

“Amen,” Bram said, giving me a small smile. “So I’m thinking we’ll get the sander and shit tomorrow—then we can take Tuesday off and get the floors done.”

“I can’t take any more time off,” I answered, shaking my head. “I just took a whole week, not that long ago.”

“I’ve got shit on Monday, but Tuesday’s pretty clear. You’re fine. It’s one day.”

“I can’t, Bram,” I argued.

“Yeah you can.”

“No, really.”

“No, really, you can. I’ll tell Trev and the dads not to let you into the office on Tuesday.”

“I’ll junk-punch you.”

“No you won’t. You need me to help you with the floors.”

Chapter 7

Abraham

You’re such a fucking pain in my ass,” I barked, stomping toward where Anita was standing in front of the Harris and Evans Logging office Tuesday morning.

“They locked me out!” she shouted incredulously, pointing at the office door.

“I told you I’d meet you at your house.”

“I told you I wasn’t taking a day off work!” she screeched back.

“Looks like you don’t have a choice.”

“This is ridiculous,” she bitched, shaking her head as she moved toward me. “Who forces their employee to take a day off?”

“You’re also family¸” I reminded her, throwing an arm over her shoulder and steering her to my truck. “Come on, you can ride with me, and we’ll get your car later.”

I glanced up as she was climbing in the passenger seat, and noticed my dad at the glass front door, his arms crossed over his chest and a shit-eating grin on his face. Crap. I narrowed my eyes at him and watched him laugh as I closed the door behind her.

“Thanks for doing this,” Ani finally said after almost fifteen minutes of silence.

“No problem. Today would have been a slow day for me anyway.”

“Exactly,” she murmured as we came to a stop in front of her little house. “You could have had a slow day.”

“You need the floor done, right?” I asked, turning off the truck but staying inside the cab.

“Yeah, but—”

“Well, let’s get it done then.”

Ani’s eyes met mine, and her lips pulled into a shy smile. “You’re good to me,” she said softly. “When the hell did that happen?”

Her words made me squirm. Did she think we were in a relationship? It was sex. Fucking great sex, but nothing more than that. We didn’t have a relationship; I didn’t do relationships. The thought of anything long-term made my skin crawl.

“When you started letting me fuck you,” I said with a nervous laugh.

I pretended I didn’t see her smile fall as I climbed out of the truck.

* * *

We didn’t talk much as I sanded the floor—the machine was too loud for that—but Ani stayed pretty close while I worked, using the smaller sander on the edges and corners of the room. By the time we were done, the room was covered in a fine layer of dust, and we were both sweaty as hell.

“You have the rags?” I asked as I came back in from dragging the sanders to my truck.

“Yep.” She tossed me a rag and went to work, wiping down the walls and windows with her own blue rag.

The silence between us was uncomfortable as I dropped to my knees and started wiping down the floor. I wasn’t sure what to say to get things back to the easy way they’d been before. Should I apologize? Somehow I thought that would make it worse.

It was a relief when Ani’s phone started ringing in her pocket. I didn’t even know her phone could ring—usually when it went off, it was someone’s voice telling her to pick up the phone.

“Hello?” she answered behind me. She didn’t say something for a long time after that, so I turned to check if she was still there.

Her head was bowed as she held the phone to her ear, but after a moment, she looked up, and her face was completely void of color. For a second, I thought she was going to tip over.