Austin chuckled and tugged me back to the sofa, pulling me down beside him. He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me back against his chest as he leaned back and settled his feet on the coffee table again. I liked this position almost as much as I did his lap. Almost.
“I have the typical rough childhood sob story,” he began. “Mom died of an OD when I was six, Dad was an abusive alcoholic, so me and my sister came to live with an aunt out here...”
“Where are you from?”
“Originally? Tennessee.”
I smiled. “I thought I detected a southern accent.”
“Yeah, I’m surprised I haven’t lost it considering how long I’ve been here,” he said.
“I like it. It’s kind of sexy.”
He grinned. “Not stupid, baby. Take that in, yeah?”
“I’m not stupid because I think you’re sexy?”
“Damn straight.”
“Good to know,” I said. “So, what happened after you went to live with your aunt?”
“All hell broke loose. My aunt was a bitch and she broke my sister’s arm, so we were put into the system.”
I craned my neck to look up at him again. “You have a sister?”
He nodded. “She’s two years younger than me.”
“Did you stay together?”
“No. She was sent to live with a couple who adopted her. They felt I was a bad influence, so they wouldn’t let her see me.”
“They did?” I linked my fingers with his and squeezed his hand. “Austin, I’m so sorry.”
“Not your fault,” he said.
“I know, but still, that must have been really hard.”
“Not gonna lie. It sucked.”
I looked up at him and smiled. “I bet it did.”
He kissed me quickly and then pulled me close again. “Over the next ten years or so, I was shuffled around from one shithole to another and then when I was eighteen, I aged out.”
“That’s awful.”
He shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“Where’s your sister now?”
“She married a doctor I think.”
“You don’t keep in touch?” I asked.
“No.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He kissed my temple and gave me another gentle squeeze. “When I was nineteen, my foster sister Annie called me... she’d been in the last place before I aged out and she was in trouble. She was drunk and some guy was smackin’ her around, so I got her out and took her home. What I found out later was that our foster father had been molesting her and child protective services did nothing about it.”
