Fostering Hope (Silver Lining Book 1)

by Amanda Perry

  “What the fuck happened?” Lochlan hollers, coming over to kneel next to Dominic. Declan stands behind the two of them and I realize all three are shirtless.

  I groan again, covering my face with both hands. “Please, just kill me now.”

  “She fell out of bed, though I’m not sure how. I was asleep.” Dominic chuckles and pulls my hands from my face. “Are you alright?”

  “If you didn’t want to be near Dom all you had to do was say so,” Declan jokes.

  “I’m fine.” I sigh, rolling to my side and pushing to a sitting position. “I didn’t know where I was when I woke up and I didn’t know who the hell was next to me. It startled me.”

  “What the fuck was she doing in your bed?” Lochlan turns his body to Dominic. “And where the hell are your clothes?”

  “I have no idea why she was in my bed.” Dominic holds his hands up in front of him. “I came home and she was there. I wasn’t going to wake her up just to ask her.”

  “And the clothes?” Lochlan asks again.

  Dominic wiggles his eyebrows up and down earning a smack upside the head from Declan. “Ow, hey! I’m just joking. You guys know I don’t sleep well in clothes. I kept the damned boxers on, isn’t that enough?”

  A choking sound comes from me, drawing the guys’ attention. “I think I’ll sleep on the couch. I’ve humiliated myself enough for one night.”

  “Parker, wait.” Dominic grabs my hand before I can take more than a few steps. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I didn’t mean to.”

  “You didn’t,” I tell him truthfully. “Falling out of the bed and waking the household did.”

  Declan chuckles, but it’s cut off by a big yawn. “Just sleep where you’re comfortable, sweetheart. My bed, his bed, Lochlan’s bed, the bathtub… We don’t mind where you pick.”

  “I don’t want to make things awkward.” My thumb goes to my mouth and I nibble on my nail.

  “You won’t.”

  Glancing longingly at Dominic’s bed, I relent and tell them the truth. “I’d rather sleep in a bed than on a couch or in a bathtub.”

  “Sold.” Declan yawns again. “Pick a bed, any bed. And speaking of beds, I’m going back to mine. If you decide to play Goldilocks, my room is at the end of the hall and my bed is just right.”

  Lochlan elbows Declan as the two of them leave Dominic’s room. He pauses and looks at me over his shoulder. “My room is across the hall, babe. Come on in if you need me.”

  “Thanks, guys.”

  “Okay, climb in.” Dominic walks around the bed as soon as Lochlan closes his door. He pulls the covers back down and lies on the left side. I slowly crawl onto the right side, sinking down under the covers. “Goodnight, Muñeca.”

  “Night.” I thought it would take me a while to relax, but the second I turn onto my side, Dominic wraps an arm around me and pulls me into his warm body. I snuggle up against him, completely content and drift off to sleep quickly.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “Babe, are you trying to kill me?” Lochlan growls deeply with narrowed eyes.

  I giggle and adjust myself in my seat. “You asked for this. You didn’t have to participate, remember?”

  Lochlan drops his head back and blows out a dramatic breath. “Remind me of this torture the next time I offer to do something this fucking stupid.”

  “Will do.” I grin, standing up and grabbing Lochlan’s hand. “Ready for round two?”

  “No,” he grumbles, though he allows me to pull him to his feet. “Let’s get this shit over with.”

  The two of us make our way from the mall’s food court to the shops located on the east wing of the massive building. Lochlan can’t remind me enough how deeply he regrets agreeing to go shopping with me. About a week after I spent the night at their apartment, Lochlan invited me over again. While we were relaxing he suggested we head to the mall and use some of the gift certificate he gave me for my birthday. Originally, it was going to be the two of us, but Dominic and Austyn showed up and decided to tag along. If I believed Austyn was a serious shopper, I was wrong. Dominic hasn’t stopped moving since we arrived two hours ago. He and Austyn refuse to skip any store. They have to look at everything and try on anything they hope might look good on them.

  Lochlan and I got hungry after a while, so the four of us decided to split up. Austyn and Dominic grabbed pretzels to eat on the go, but Lochlan and I actually sat down for our meal. Dominic sent Lochlan a text with the store they’re currently browsing and for us to meet them there because they found things for me to try on.

  “Bet you can’t wait for our shooting date.” I snicker, lightly elbowing Lochlan as we make our way through the hordes of people.

  His head snaps up, and he eyes me for a moment. At first, I wonder if I’ve said something wrong, but when he gives me a sexy half grin, I relax and subtly check my mouth for drool. “Yeah, I can’t wait for our shooting date.” he puts his arm around my waist and rests his hand on my hip. “It’s going to be fun, I think.”

  “As long as you aren’t scared I’ll accidentally shoot your foot off or something.” I’m only half joking. “Though, I’m sure you’d be fine with only one foot.”

  “You’ll do fine,” he assures me as we reach our destination. “If we survive today.”

  When we spot them, one of Austyn’s arms is full of different articles of clothing. Excited to see them, even though I saw them only half an hour ago, I quicken my pace. Reaching them, I frown when I notice how stressed Dominic seems. His eyes are glued to his phone, and Austyn has his free hand on Dominic’s shoulder as if trying to calm him.

  Before they notice us approaching, I hear Dominic’s quiet murmur. “This case is going to be the death of me.”

  My eyes dart between them both before giving each a hug. “What happened?”

  “Nothing for you to worry about, Muñeca.” Dominic pulls me back in for a second hug and kisses the top of my head.

  My body reacts without permission, and I lean myself against him. He presses his lips to the top of my head for a moment longer. I wrap my arms around him and hold him tighter, hoping to comfort him from whatever may be wrong.

  When my mind catches up, I realize Lochlan has been standing behind me the whole time I’ve been crawling all over Dominic. I inhale sharply and pull away from Dominic, spinning and staring wide-eyed at Lochlan. I expect to find him glaring or at the least appearing unhappy in some way, but he doesn’t appear phased at all by my show of affection toward Dominic. He’s simply scrolling on his phone and mumbling quietly with Austyn. His lack of reaction is further proof Lochlan can be checked off as one of the guys not interested in me. His disinterest hurts more than I’d ever admit aloud.

  “Ready to try this shit on?” Dominic asks, interrupting my internal pity party.

  Forcing a smile, I turn back to him and nod. “Let’s do it.”

  “By the way, Mom’s got some errands to run. She said we can just order pizza for dinner,” Austyn calls out to us as he strolls toward the dressing room.

  I pause, bringing my thumb nail to my mouth and chewing a little. “Shouldn’t we do something different?”

  “What do you mean, babe?” Lochlan asks, only half paying attention. He still has his phone in his hand, and he seems to be getting more upset at whatever he’s looking at. “Do you not want pizza?”

  “Well”—I draw out around my thumb—“Maggie always cooks us dinner. She’s been teaching me to cook for a long time now Maybe we could make her something instead of just ordering pizza.”

  Austyn strides back to us and chuckles. “You’re too nice, Starshine.”

  “I just think it would be a good surprise for her to have someone else cook a meal for her for once.” I shrug, glancing at each of them.

  Dominic huffs, and Lochlan curses. “You just have to make sense and shit, don’t you?” Dominic mutters.

  “We’ll make something good for her,” Lochlan agrees, putting a hand on the small of my
back. “Her favorite is fajitas. I can help you make them.”

  “You cook?” I ask as I’m ushered toward the dressing room.

  Lochlan barks out a laugh and mock-glares down at me. “You don’t think I can cook well?”

  “No,” I admit, shaking my head. “I didn’t think you could cook at all, actually. Are you sure you can, or is this a clever ploy to poison me?”

  “He’s actually the best cook out of us all,” Dominic tells me with a grin. “Mom made us all learn to cook as kids. She didn’t want us to starve when we left home.”

  “That’s smart,” I muse aloud as we reach the dressing room.

  “Yep,” Austyn chirps, pushing me into a room. “Except it didn’t work on me. Pop taught me how to use a can opener and a microwave and I never looked back. Now, start trying shit on.”

  I laugh as he throws me a big pile of clothes. It’s going to be a long day.

  Arriving home four hours later, the guys and I get to work making a fajita dinner. Austyn texted the whole family, minus Maggie, to inform them of the dinner plans. Lochlan needs to make some work calls, so he heads for the home office. He promised to be back in time to help with the final touches. Duncan, Declan, and Talen ask if Dominic, Austyn, and I need help. There isn’t a lot to do, so they head off to play a video game. Even with us in the kitchen, they’re laughing loud enough for us to hear. It’s clear Talen is winning because he taunts Declan and Duncan relentlessly.

  “Five bucks says Duncan is going to get him back good in the next round.” Dominic chuckles, obviously having overheard the taunting as well.

  Austyn snorts. “You’re fuckin’ on! There’s no way Dec will let either of them win another round.”

  Dominic and Austyn shake hands on their bet and go back to cooking. I glance between the two of them and decide to play, too. “I don’t have money, but I want to bet Talen wins again.” I grin, sure I’ll win the bet.

  “Fuck yea, let’s get her in on this!” Austyn smirks, giving a grinning Dominic a fist bump. “If you win we owe you five bucks each, but if one of us wins, you owe something to the winner. It can be whatever we come up with later on, but it’ll be legal and moral, probably. Sound good?”

  “Deal.” I nod, shaking their hands. “Be prepared to pay up.”

  Dominic and Austyn share a look before Austyn turns back to me. “You’re going down, Starshine.”

  Austyn chops up the peppers, or at least he attempts to. They’re all different shapes and sizes by the time he finishes. Dominic cuts the beef and chicken, leaving me with nothing to do. Not wanting to be useless, I go to the pantry and search around for something else to make. I find a big jar of peanut butter and a few other ingredients needed to make peanut butter and chocolate brownies. With a smile, I pull out everything and mix it up. Peanut butter and chocolate brownies is the first thing I didn’t mess up when baking with Maggie. She’d told me how proud she was and I wanted to cry from the tightness in my chest of having her say those words to me.

  “I smell something amazing,” Jack calls from the front door. Jack, Greyson, and Collin walk into the kitchen sniffing the air. Their faces light up as soon as they find us standing over the stove.

  “I could help,” Greyson offers, eyeing the brownie batter.

  Collin shakes his head and chuckles. “Nice try, buddy. You need a bath before dinner.”

  “Aw, Daddy,” Greyson whines, turning around to pout at Collin. “I wanna help Pawker.”

  “Sorry, dude.” Collin shrugs, ruffling Greyson’s hair. “You need to be clean more.”

  Greyson turns his pouty face toward Jack. “Papa, please can I help cook?”

  “Not a chance.” Jack snorts. “Daddy and I are on the same team, kid.”

  “Fine,” Greyson cries, stomping up the stairs with Collin for his bath.

  “What are you all up to?” Jack asks, plopping down onto a stool. “Who did something wrong?”

  “Huh?” I frown, watching him over my mixing bowl. “Why would anyone have done something wrong?”

  “Because the last time the boys cooked dinner without being asked was when Declan decided to superman dive off the roof and into the pool,” Jack tells me. “It wouldn’t have been so bad if his brothers hadn’t egged him on and talked him into trying a flip.”

  “We panicked when they took him into the ER,” Dominic admits sheepishly. “He broke his leg, and we knew we were in for a world of trouble. We figured cooking them dinner would ease our punishment a little.”

  “If only we hadn’t burned the lasagna to a crisp.” Lochlan strolls into the room. “I think it pissed them off more to have come home to the smoke alarms going off. I’m pretty sure that was our longest group grounding to date.”

  “Ah, the good old days.” Jack sighs jokingly. “So, who did what this time?”

  “No one did anything,” Austyn insists. “Parker suggested making Mom dinner, so that’s what we’re doing.”

  “That’s very sweet of you,” Jack tells me with a wide smile. “Maggie’s going to be really excited. She should be home soon.”

  Hooting and hollering starts up again in the living room, and Austyn drops his vegetable chopping knife on the cutting board. He races from the kitchen yelling, “Which one of you assholes is the loser?”

  Dominic walks up to me, chuckling at Austyn’s retreating form. I hold a batter covered hand away from our bodies, not wanting to get Dominic dirty. Instead of stepping away from the mess, he grabs my hand and pops my chocolate covered finger into his mouth. My mouth drops open, and I gape at Dominic’s mouth around my finger in shock.

  He gently bites down on my finger before taking it out of his mouth and grinning at me. “Yum. Tastes like peanut butter.” My eyes widen and my mouth hangs open when Lochlan growls and Jack chuckles behind me.

  I jump away from Dominic with a surprised yelp. He simply laughs, trailing after Austyn who can be heard cursing in the other room. I hear him shouting something about owing me money and I want to be happy about winning the bet, but I’m too shocked by what just happened with Dominic.

  My eyes shoot to Jack and Lochlan, wondering what they think right now. Jack continues chuckling as he moves to the stove to stir the fajitas. Lochlan glares toward the hallway Dominic disappeared down, and I cringe.

  Shuffling up next to him, I clasp my hands together in front of me, hiding their nervous shaking. I have no idea what just happened, and as much as I liked what Dominic did, I don’t like Lochlan upset.

  “I feel like I did something wrong,” I mumble, startling Lochlan out of his angry glaring. “I’m sorry, Lochlan. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  Lochlan blinks at me a few times before groaning and rolling his head back to let out a huff. “Fuck, babe.” He pulls me into a hug before continuing to speak. “You didn’t do shit wrong. I just have a lot on my mind, and I’m being a dickhead. Ignore me, I’m not mad at anyone, okay?”

  “Okay, if you’re sure,” I murmur against his chest, relaxing when he promises again everything is fine. Being in his arms soothes me and gives me a sense the world can’t touch me. He’s my protector. He’s my safe place.

  “Don’t worry, Parker,” Jack calls over his shoulder. “Lochlan has always been a grouch.”

  My eyes dart between Jack and Lochlan in confusion. “How long have you been part of the family?”

  “Since I was thirteen.” Lochlan stiffens around me.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, gazing up at him with concern.

  His eyes dart around the room nervously as if trying to find some inspiration into something to say. “Babe, this story doesn’t make me look very good.”

  “You don’t have to tell me. I understand,” I insist with sincerity. It’s his story to tell, and I need him to understand I can wait as long as he wants.

  Lochlan glances behind my shoulder at Jack, and then lets out a long breath. “Come talk with me, Babe. Pop, keep an eye on dinner, yeah?”

  Jack makes a noise in the aff
irmative, and Lochlan leads me out the back door. He sits in one of the loungers and pulls me down with him, my back to his front. His arms wrap around my waist, and he tucks me closer to his chest. I relax back into him and gaze out at the moonlight reflecting off the pool water.

  “I wasn’t a nice kid, Parker,” Lochlan murmurs in my ear after a long stretch of silence. “My father was the only influence I had for a long time. My mom was never around when I was small, and when I turned five, she took off with our neighbor to start a better life for herself. My dad was physically harsh, and he was verbally an ass. When I turned twelve, he took off. He told me he was over dealing with a little shit like me, and I was old enough to be on my own. He wasn’t going to bother with me anymore.”

  “Oh, Lochlan,” I whisper, grabbing his arms resting on my waist and squeezing him tight in an awkward backwards hug.

  “I was pissed,” he continues, holding me tight. “I didn’t deal well. There were a lot of fights that I got into. I considered joining a gang and even started the initiation process. Jack had been with Maggie and Collin for a few years already when he found me on the streets. I’m really lucky I had him. I would probably be in jail right now if he didn’t kick my ass one day.”

  “He what?” I choke out, trying to turn in my seat to see Lochlan’s face.

  “Babe”—Lochlan chuckles, holding me still—“I needed it at the time. He only did it to get me to pull my head out of my ass. It sort of worked, too. He showed me what could happen to me if I went head-to-head with someone stronger than me. I stopped fighting people, I stopped looking for trouble. Jack and I met up every day for lunch at a fast food place for six months. I refused to go to a shelter or get caught by social services. I liked my freedom. I distanced myself from the people I’d started to hang around, though.”

  Lochlan sighs and lays his head back in the lounge chair, taking in the night air. “I don’t know how he did it, but Jack managed to get me into the system and under the care of him and Maggie and Collin without me having to get put into a group home or go through a long process.