Austin Inverness loves dogs and his wife, Erika. Erika was the only girlfriend Austin ever had who didn’t judge him for being bisexual, and dogs never judge, period. Unfortunately, Erika isn’t much of a dog person. Airman Neil Stafford has been deployed to Turkey for a six-month tour and he enrolls his schipper-poo, Bunny, in the Fosters for Fighters program that arranges fostering for soldiers' pets. There he meets Austin, who will foster Bunny while Neil is overseas. The two men keep in touch via Skype and Austin is delighted by how well they get along. Erika, on the other hand, is delighted by how little she has to do to take care of Bunny. That is, until Bunny needs an emergency trip to the vet. By the time Neil returns home, Austin has noticed key differences between his wife and the new friend he can’t stop thinking about. As for Neil, he knows for sure he wants Austin in his life, but not at the cost of his friend's marriage. When Austin realizes Erika questions his bisexuality, the cracks in their relationship quickly spread and Austin questions everything, including if he can make the right choice. Will Austin and Neil be able to overcome the bumps on the road to happiness?

Fostered Affections

The whole day while Erika was at work, Austin sat thinking. He didn’t want to tell her before she left because, not only would she have to process the news while she dealt with clients, he knew he needed to have all the answers before he talked to her, lest he be stuck stammering while she bombarded him with angry questions. However, time decided to do that thing where the more he wished it would move faster, the slower it dragged on. Finally, a week’s worth of eight hours passed. Austin had barely gotten any work done and despite how long the day had seemed he was surprised to hear Erika pulling in the driveway already.


Chapter 31