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

Otherwise Erika was doing fine. She took the free time that had been planned for their vacation to Yosemite and treated herself to a spa day and a new haircut. “If I’m going to learn to embrace change, I thought I’d start small,” she said. She sent Austin a picture of her new ‘do, which did look good on her. Seeing how happy she looked in the photo helped Austin cope with how well he was coping.


Neil pointed out that not feeling so brokenhearted over the whole thing wasn’t a sign that Austin didn’t care, it meant deep down he knew this was the right thing to do. When he didn’t want to listen to Neil reminding him this was for the best, Austin turned to Bunny, whose only concern was that he hadn’t pet her enough or given her as many treats as she wanted. Having a dog around the house again lifted Austin’s spirits. He attributed his willingness to accept his feelings to the sense of content he got from being around her.


Chapter 39