Finding Home by Ann Vaughn Page A

but
still casual.
    Taking a deep breath, she decided to
head out before she chickened out.  Meeting his sister was a big
deal.  She hoped Claire would approve; Claire’s opinion would mean a lot
to him since they were twins. 
    On the drive, she thought about her
text conversation with Colt before she went to bed last night.  He was
curious about her birth family and she could tell he didn’t understand why she
wasn’t.  As an adopted child, it wasn’t that she never had thought about
her birth family.  On the contrary, she’d thought of them a lot when she
was growing up.  The older she got, however, the more she decided, just as
she’d told Colt, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the story.  She could
imagine that her mother had been young; her father didn’t support her mother so
she was left with little choice in the matter.  Sarah was immensely
thankful that her mother hadn’t chosen abortion but she imagined that it had
been a hard enough decision for her mother to give her up,
    After their conversation, she went
into her mother’s closet and pulled down the box that contained all the
information she would need to find her birth family.  She’d placed it on
her bed and stared at it for nearly an hour before pushing it under her
bed.  What she told him was the truth: she just wasn’t ready to deal with
that yet.
    She’d barely pulled into his driveway
before he walked out of his front door.  He wore a charcoal colored short
sleeve henley with khaki shorts, his dark hair curling more today than she’d
seen it so far.  Just looking at him made her mouth water. 
    “You look stunning,” he told her when
she got out, leaning down to kiss her.
    She smiled up at him.  “And you
look handsome as ever.  I didn’t realize your hair was quite that curly.”
    He ran his hand over the top of his
head.  “Humidity.  Didn’t feel like fighting with it today.  I’m
tempted to shave it for the summer.  I usually do when it gets like this.”
    She rocked up on her toes and
threaded her fingers through his curls.  If he were to cut them, she’d
miss them, but she’d seen the pictures of him during his Army days and knew he
was just as sexy with a buzz cut as he was with his curls. 
    “I like your hair, but I can see how
it could be a pain for you.”
    He kissed her brow and looped his arm
around her neck, walking her inside.  They had an hour before needing to
go next door to Claire’s and he wanted to take full advantage of their time
alone.  As soon as they were through the door, he pushed her against the
wall and claimed her lips.  Her hands twisted in his shirt and the sounds
coming from her throat were driving him wild. 
    “Hi,” he said, smiling against her
lips.
    Sarah giggled and Colt decided,
again, that that was the best sound he’d ever heard.  He kissed her brow and
traced a finger down her cheek.  Her eyes were bright as she stared up at
him, making his pulse jump. 
    “So, I should warn you, my nieces are
chomping at the bit to meet you.  They are eight and six and they will
talk your ears off, I guarantee it.  Claire will be extremely gracious to
you.  She hasn’t actually met anyone I’ve gone out with in over ten
years.”
    “Why is that?”
    He rubbed the back of his neck,
leading her into the living room.  “Well, mainly because most of the girls
I dated didn’t last past the second or third date, mainly because I was
overseas more often than not.  Claire was here.  I was…not. 
She’s seen pictures of a girl or two with me.  People constantly take
pictures and tag people in them on Facebook and other type things like
that.   But, yeah, she’s never met anyone I’ve dated.”
    He watched a frown touch her
brow.  “You never cared for anyone enough to bring home to meet your
family?”
    “No.  Again, never really stuck
with anyone long enough.  And I refused to take anyone I was casually
seeing to meet her or my parents, because, you know,