Change of Heart (Fostering Love 2)

“Alex is so outgoing. He’s a people pleaser, no doubt about it,” she said with a fond smile. “And you’re so quiet. You bluster and bang around like you’re pissed at everything.”

I grunted. Yeah, I’d heard all the comparisons before.

“So it’s not surprising that people assume Alex cares what they think.” I looked at her in surprise as she squeezed my waist. “He doesn’t. He doesn’t give two shits what anyone else thinks. You, though? You’ve always cared—maybe too much.”

“Mom—”

“Zip it, Abraham,” she scolded. “You, my son, have always worried far more than your brother did about what Dad and I thought. Ever since you were little.”

“Yeah, probably,” I said hoarsely.

“No probably about it. But when dad and I took you in? You were ours from that moment. Didn’t matter what you did or said, we were in it for the long haul no matter what came. You need to remember that—it’s an absolute truth.”

“Okay—”

“And Ani?” Mom cut me off. “She’s a lot like you. Oh, I know she’s rough around the edges. Growing up the way she did made sure of that. But she cares what we think, she worries about how we perceive her. Hell, she’s had her tongue pierced and that god-awful thing in her nose for ages, and she’s still trying to hide it.” Mom chuckled. “Bottom line—we don’t care if you two are together. You didn’t grow up side by side. Ani came to us as practically an adult already. Your relationship with her is your business.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“But Abraham?”

“Yeah?”

“Something goes wrong with you two?” she said as she pulled away and moved toward the back door. “You don’t bring that shit to my table, you hear me?”

“I hear you.”

Mom left me on the back porch, staring at the beer in my hands. That had gone a lot easier than I’d envisioned.

I set the warming beers back in the cooler and grabbed a couple new ones to take inside.

“All good?” Alex asked as he passed me on his way to get drinks.

“Yep.”

I found Ani sitting with an empty chair beside her and grinned as I sat down. I was pretty sure Alex had been sitting there before I came in. He was going to be irritated as shit to sit between Gavin and my aunt Ellie in the only spot left. Gavin couldn’t keep his food on his plate, and Aunt Ellie kept asking Alex when he was going to find a nice girl.

“Your brother’s going to kill you,” Ani said with a smile as I set her beer in front of her.

When she looked at me, my tongue got stuck to the roof of my mouth. Shit, she was pretty. Her hair was crazy around her face, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup since we were only having family dinner before we headed back to her place. She wasn’t even showing any skin in the concert T-shirt she was wearing. But shit, was she pretty.

Ani went still as I leaned forward and raised my hand, gently nudging her septum ring down until it hung beneath her nose.

“Bram,” she said quietly, her eyes darting around the table as my thumb swept over her cheek.

I leaned closer.

“They already know it’s there, baby,” I teased, watching her eyes grow wide. “Might as well flaunt it.”

I kissed her softly.

I knew then that something had shifted. Hell, I’d known it the minute Henry slapped her ass and I’d wanted to choke him to death with his own hands.

Even if I said it a thousand times, I wasn’t just fucking Ani. It never could have been that, and I was an idiot for assuming it could. Our lives were intertwined. I cared too much before we’d started sleeping together. There was no way I was going to be able to shut that off once I’d been inside her.

We liked the same things. Liked each other. There wouldn’t be any talk of kids or pressure to move her into my place when she had her own cool-as-fuck house. She was pretty much perfect for me, and knowing that was almost a relief. I could stop fighting it. My body actually relaxed at the thought.

“We’re together, yeah?” I asked, leaning my forehead against hers.

“I think once we started sleeping in the same bed most nights, we were together,” she replied quietly.

“I’m a little slow on the uptake.”

“That’s okay.” She wrinkled her nose and grinned at me, and my stomach flipped.

“Gross, Uncle Bram!” Keller yelled as I leaned in to kiss her again.

The table grew loud as everyone dug into their dinners. Fifteen conversations were going on at once, but I could barely pay attention to any of them because Ani’s hand was resting on my thigh underneath the table. She wasn’t trying to turn me on—she wouldn’t do that in my parents’ house—it was more of a comfort thing.