Fostering Hope (Silver Lining Book 1)

by Amanda Perry

  He waits for some sort of response from me, but I can’t force words out. Part of me wants desperately to tell him how I feel about him, about how I feel about all of them. It’s simply too soon for me to really know what to say.

  His chest expands against my back as he takes a deep breath, but I spin in his arms before he can say anything. “I’ll tell you when I’m ready, Dec. Just, not yet.”

  He regards me silently for a moment before finally nodding. “Okay, if you promise to talk when you’re ready.”

  “I promise,” I whisper, my gaze lowering to his lips without my permission.

  Declan sucks in a sharp breath and tightens his grip on me. My hands come to rest on his chest, and without consciously meaning to, I lean forward slightly. Declan lowers his head and nearly touches my lips with his. I silently beg him to kiss me. The ghosting of his breath mingles with mine and I suddenly wonder what a kiss from him would taste like.

  Declan’s phone begins screaming a Daughtry song loudly, startling us apart.

  “Fucking hell,” Declan grumbles, pushing his wet hands through his hair. He swims to the side of the pool, and I might drool a little as I watch him place his hands on the edge and hoist himself out of the water. He answers the call with a short, “What?”

  After listening to the person on the other end he curses again under his breath and sighs. “Okay, we’ll be right there.”

  He turns and eyes me for a second, and I would give just about anything to know what he’s thinking right now. Finally, he shakes his head. “Austyn called, dinner is ready. I lost track of time, I told mom we’d be there for dinner. We should get going.”

  I wordlessly walk to the stairs and grab my towel, wrapping it around my body before we head through the empty locker rooms leading us outside.

  Declan chuckles as he does the same with his towel. “Next time, we should bring a change of clothes so we don’t have to drive home wet.”

  “Not the worst idea you’ve ever had.” I giggle, following him to his car.

  The rest of my night I spend wondering if Declan really thought about kissing me or if I imagined the moment between us. The stereotypical girl in me wants to believe we had a moment, but the sensible part of me is convinced it’s all in my head.

  Why do boys have to be so complicated?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THIREE

  “Hey, pretty lady!” Talen shouts at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing through the lower half of the house.

  My hands cover my ears at the volume and I hurry around the corner. “I’m two feet away, Talen. You don’t have to yell.”

  “You’re yelling, too.” He pulls my hands away from my ears and smirks. “How’d you know I was calling for you anyway?”

  “It’s either me or Duncan. No one else is home,” I remind him. “I really doubt you’d call Duncan pretty, or a girl. What’s up?”

  “I’m hungry.”

  I wait for him to say more, but he doesn’t. “Oh, Talen.” I laugh humorlessly. “If you think I’m about to make you a sandwich or some crap, you’re beyond wrong.”

  Talen throws his head back, laughing loudly. “No,” he snorts through his laughter. “I meant I want to go get food.”

  “Oh.” I shrug. He doesn’t need my permission and he has his own car. I’m at a loss as to why he’s telling me. “Have fun then.”

  He holds his stomach, bending at the waist and laughing soundlessly. “Parker, I’m asking you to come with me.”

  “Oh!” I blush furiously and chew on my thumb nail. It’s only food, Parker, get a grip. He isn’t asking me out on a date or something. “Yeah, sure I’ll go.”

  Talen brightens at my acceptance of his offer. “Great, what kind of food are you in the mood for?”

  “Anything sounds fine to me, really. I was actually on my way to the kitchen to search around for something.”

  “Burgers?”

  “Nah, Collin made burgers on Sunday.”

  Talen pulls his car keys from his pocket, twirling the ring around his finger as he thinks. “Pizza?”

  “Eh, it doesn’t sound great.” I trail behind him to his car, sending him a thankful smile when he opens my door.

  He rounds the front of the car and I allow my gaze to zone in on his butt. Talen has a really nice butt, firm and slightly rounded. I follow him with my eyes until he reaches the driver side door, pulling it open. “What about Italian?”

  “I had leftover lasagna for lunch.”

  “Oh my God.” He throws his hands in the air, defeated. “You pick, then.”

  I giggle, completely unapologetic. “We sound like a married couple.” As soon as the words leave my mouth I freeze. “I mean”—I cringe, wishing desperately for an undo button—“I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just, the food thing. I hear Maggie, Jack, and Collin having the same conversation about dinner almost every night.”

  “I know what you meant, sugar.” Talen chuckles, reaching his hand over to pat my thigh. The simple touch of his hand on my leg sends electricity through my body. “We do sound like them. You’re right.”

  “How about…” I stutter, my eyes on his hand. He doesn’t remove it from my thigh. Instead he squeezes me, probably to gain my attention, but my brain short circuits further. “C-c-Chinese?”

  “Yeah, we can do that.” He takes his hand away to start the car and I almost whine aloud at the loss.

  Giving myself something to do other than drool over Talen, I fiddle with the radio while he drives. After a few minutes he glances my way. “I have an idea. Do you mind if we take the food to go?”

  “I guess not. What’s the idea?”

  “You’ll see, beautiful.” He sends me a wink and I melt into my seat. I’d follow him off a cliff if he asked as long as he keeps up the compliments and sexy winking. Why is it so swoon worthy when guys wink?

  My eyes remain on the road for the rest of the ride. A large part of me is afraid if I look at Talen anymore I might try to jump on him and kiss him. The fact that he’s driving isn’t the only reason it’s a bad idea.

  After stopping at the restaurant for takeout, we hop back in the car, merging onto the freeway and we cruise to the classic rock station for about twenty minutes before he finally takes an exit.

  I search for anything familiar, but nothing stands out. “Where are we going?”

  “You suck at patience.” He laughs quietly while shaking his head. “I wanted to take you to the guys’ apartment. You’ve never been there and I have to go over work crap with Declan tonight anyway. I thought maybe we could hang out there, watch a movie, and eat while we wait on him to show his ugly face.”

  “You’re so kind.” I giggle. “Actually, that sounds perfect. I want to see their place.”

  Two left turns and three right turns later Talen pulls into a nice apartment complex. A water fountain sits in the front of the apartment office, surrounded by colorful flowers. The buildings look freshly painted on the outside. All the windows are clean and the decks tidy. The apartments go up four stories and each building has a large block letter hanging on the outside. Talen parks outside one of the buildings, jumping from his seat and rounding the car quickly. He opens my door again, taking the food bags from me before helping me from the car.

  “Maggie sure teaches you guys good manners.”

  He wiggles his eyebrows up and down. “I’m only well-mannered sometimes, beautiful.”

  Fire licks my lower belly. I’d love for Talen to show me how well he can misbehave. Rolling my eyes at my unfiltered thoughts, I follow him toward the building.

  Talen types a code into a keypad on the side of a glass door. The lock clicks open and he pulls the door out for me. We enter a sterile hallway with four elevator doors lined up. Talen presses the call button and immediately one of the elevator doors dings, and opens. Once on board, he presses the number four.

  “Carrying furniture upstairs must be a pain in the ass,” I muse, glancing around the small elevator.

  Tale
n barks out a quick laugh. “They have a service elevator, Sweets. When they have people move in or bring in large items, they use that. It’s monitored by security and only used for that specific purpose.”

  “Fancy.” I give him a cheeky grin.

  He uses his free hand to pull me into his side. His lips rest on the top of my head. “You’re something else, beautiful girl.”

  “Is that a good thing?” His mouth on me distracts me. It’s only the top of my head, but he may as well have lit a match and thrown it on me. Sparks light up my body from the inside out and I unconsciously push myself closer to him.

  Talen makes a sound of confirmation. “It’s a very good thing.”

  The elevator dings and the doors open to reveal an older couple waiting for their turn. I pull away from Talen. We hadn’t been doing anything wrong, but it felt like we got caught. Talen places his hand in mine, pulling me along when he exits the elevator. He turns right and strolls down the long hallway. We stop at a door with the number twenty-eight on the front. He doesn’t knock or ring the bell. Instead he lets my hand go to pull out his keys. I frown in disappointment when our contact is broken. He was simply holding my hand, but I liked it. Probably more than I should.

  “After you.” He gestures for me to enter the apartment after unlocking the door and pushing it open.

  The apartment is nothing like I expected. I figured they’d have a typical bachelor pad of some kind with clothes and pizza boxes littered all over the place. Instead, a beautiful black, white, and grey color schemed living room greets me. The matching grey couch and love seat take residence in the large room, both positioned in front of a massive flat screen television. Talen scoots past me and into a state of the art kitchen with stainless steel appliances and black marble counters.

  “This isn’t at all what I expected,” I admit, spinning in a slow circle around the open concept apartment.

  Talen scoffs. “Thought it’d be a disgusting mess, huh?”

  “Kind of,” I admit sheepishly.

  “Sorry to disappoint.” He looks around the apartment before shooting a mischievous smirk my way. “We could mess the place up for them if you want. Throw food all over, spill some beer on the floor, leave some playboy magazine’s out in the open.”

  Giggling at his suggestion, I grab my food from the bar where he set it. “First off, that’s a terrible idea and second I can’t even drink beer. I’m not of age yet.”

  “Ah, right.” He nods solemnly. “That’s alright; it’s not that good anyway.”

  “It smells horrible.”

  Following Talen’s lead, I sit down next to him on the couch. “It does,” he agrees. “So if we aren’t going to trash the place, what kind of movie would you like to watch?”

  “Are we going to have the food conversation all over again?”

  Talen throws his head back laughing. “Probably, because I’m not going to watch some chick flick.”

  I take a quick bite of fried rice while thinking about my options. “What about a comedy?”

  “I’m good with comedy.”

  He picks up the remote, flicking through the channels. After a few minutes he finds a good movie we’ve both seen already. “How about this one?”

  “Yeah, I love this movie.”

  We settle in with our food and focus on the movie, laughing together at the good parts. After finishing our food I reach for a fortune cookie on the coffee table, but Talen’s gasp stops me.

  “You can’t just take one like that!”

  I blink, not understanding what the big deal is. “Huh?”

  “It’s an art,” he informs me, leaning forward and pointing at the fortune cookies. “You have to pick just the right one. It has to be perfect. Plus, the only real fortune is the first persons pick. The rest are just leftover fortunes.”

  “Okay, Mr. Miyagi.” I snort. “Pick yours first.”

  “I was going to let you go first this once, but I’ll take you up on that offer.” He leans closer to the table, inspecting the two cookies. “I don’t want the leftover fortune.”

  He spends ages looking back and forth between the two cookies before finally deciding on one. I pick up the other and open the package. We both crack our cookies and I pull the fortune from mine, ready to read it.

  “No.” Talen grabs the strip of paper from my hand. “Are you crazy? You can’t read it first or it won’t come true.”

  “Really?” I roll my eyes. “There’s a protocol for eating fortune cookies?”

  “Of course there is. You crack the cookie, then you eat the cookie, and after you finish the last bite you can read your fortune.”

  I purse my lips. “But if you picked first and mine is just the leftover, what does it matter if I read it before eating it?”

  Talen opens his mouth to answer but the logic of my words clicks and he snaps his mouth shut. He narrows his eyes on my fortune pinched between his fingers. “Okay, fair enough. I won’t break the rules, but since this isn’t your true fortune you can test fate.”

  “Dork.” I pluck my paper from his hand again and read my fortune while he chews his cookie. “Life is not a mystery to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

  “Wise cookie,” he mutters around his last bite.

  I watch him with amusement. “Are you allowed to read yours now?”

  He swallows and nods. Looking down at his paper, he frowns. “Your true fortune is in your next cookie.”

  He sputters, glancing from his paper to mine and back again. “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “I guess it means we need to get Chinese food again?”

  He growls and throws the paper on the table. “I’m not adding that stupid thing to my collection.”

  “You collect fortunes?” I wonder aloud.

  He nods. “I don’t want to jinx them by getting rid of them.”

  “Won’t you jinx yourself if you get rid of that one?” I point to the abandoned paper on the table.

  He waves off my question. “That was a fluke. My next one will be accurate.”

  “If you say so.” With a shrug, I lean back on the couch and turn toward the television, focusing on the movie again.

  Halfway through the movie the front door opens and Declan strolls in, his head down while he scrolls through his phone.

  “Holy fuck, this job is hell.” He tosses his keys on the table by the front door, still not looking up. “I’m beyond ready for the stupid fucking thing to be done.”

  “Same,” Talen mumbles. “It’s shitty.”

  “Yeah.” Declan nods distractedly. “Hey, do you want to head to the parents’ for dinner? I wanted to see Par-“ His words die out when he looks up and finds me sitting silently next to Talen.

  “Aw, you wanted to come see me?” I may poke fun at him, but the fact he’d want to come and hang out with me after a long, bad day at work warms my heart. He wanted to see me.

  Declan glares menacingly at Talen. “You didn’t say she was going to come with you.”

  “Did I not mention that?” Talen feigns surprise. “My bad, bro.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” Declan takes long strides, reaching me quickly. He pulls me up and into a tight hug. “Hey, sweetheart.”

  “Hey.” I breathe him in, loving how he smells like cedar and pine. “I hope it’s okay that I came over. Talen said I could, so if not then beat him up.”

  “It’s always okay for you to come over. Though, I might take you up on the offer to beat him up.” He kisses my cheek like it’s totally normal. I stand stock still, watching for Talen’s reaction. He just had his lips on me an hour ago. Okay, it was the top of my head, but that’s something, right?

  Talen only rolls his eyes at Declan. “You couldn’t win a fight against me.”

  Declan turns and heads down the only hallway in the apartment, I assume toward his room. “Keep talkin’, little brother,” he calls over his shoulder.

  Declan only stays away long enough to change his clothes. He walks to
the fridge, pulling a beer bottle out and popping the cap. “You want to go over those blueprints now or later?”

  Talen turns to me, lifting a brow. “Do you care if we talk shop?”

  “Nope, I’m going to change the channel to a chick flick, though.” I smile widely when Talen groans. “Maybe a musical would be better.”

  “You are pure evil, beautiful girl.” He sends me another wink before moving to the bar with Declan.

  I plop back onto the couch, grabbing the remote and flipping through channels until I find a decent movie. It’s not long before my eyes grow heavy and I decide to rest them for a few minutes while the guys talk about work.

  The next thing I remember after closing my eyes is being lifted into the air with strong arms under my knees and behind my back. “I’m just going to put her in Dominic’s room. I think he said he’d be gone overnight with work.” Declan’s whispered voice breaks through my sleep haze, but I drift off again before I feel him lay me back down.

  Something’s poking me in the back. I wiggle my body, trying to move the object. A throaty groan from behind me snaps me awake quicker than a bucket of ice water. It takes me a few seconds to remember where I am and how I got here. Talen brought me to the guys’ apartment and Declan put me in Dominic’s bed. I remember him saying something about Dominic being gone all night. So who the hell is lying in the bed with me? Still half asleep and more than a little panicked, I roll away from the person behind me, and directly onto the floor with a loud thud.

  Dominic pops up in his bed, squinting around the room and probably trying to find the source of the noise. Footsteps thunder through the apartment and I groan, flopping back on the floor and throwing my arm over my eyes. Of course I’m going to put on a show for everyone with my graceful ways.

  Dominic jumps from the bed and I peek under my arm as he kneels next to me wearing only a pair of boxers. I now know exactly what was poking me in the back. Before I can assess how I feel about it, the bedroom door swings open and Declan and Lochlan rush inside. Holy shit, could this get any more embarrassing?