Page 100 of An Adventure For Aster

“With any luck, we’ll be on the road Friday afternoon and home late Saturday or at least early on Sunday. I won’t drive straight through, but if we can leave tomorrow, that’d be better.”

“Be careful,” she said.

“I will,” he said.

“I love you. If you get a chance, can you call me tonight?”

“I’ll call you tonight,” he said. “I’ve got no plans.”

“You’re not going to your parents?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “Hey, I need to run. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye,” she said.

He ate his muffin quickly and then took his coffee with him and went to the courthouse.

No, he wasn’t going to his parents’ house tonight. It’s not as if they even offered to have him come to dinner. Daphne had told him that they’d been hinting about going out to eat, then joked he’d be the one picking up the bill.

But the offer never came to get together and he wasn’t making the first move.

He’d rather be alone tonight because he knew damn well sitting through this trial today was going to wear on him in more ways than one.

He hoped Raine wasn’t upset that he didn’t say he loved her back. He wasn’t one to do that in public. At least she still wasn’t pissed at him over the situation with Colton.

Was he jealous? Maybe he was a touch, but he knew she wouldn’t leave him for that asshole. Even if he did have a moment when her words replayed in his mind that she’d waited for her ex. That she thought they’d get back together and work it out.

But no one would be silly enough to hold on for almost ten years. And she’d said she’d never known he was married or divorced. She hadn’t talked to him since he moved away.

“Aster?”

He turned his head from where he was sitting in a conference room at the courthouse. The DA had just walked out to take a call and he was on his phone reading the news.

“Carrington?” he said, standing up. He knew he’d see her. He was glad she looked good. Like a teen should look. Strong and confident.

“It’s me,” Carrington said. “You look great. I mean, everything is okay, right? I heard you moved.”

“I did,” he said. She walked over and hugged him and he returned it. He was never one for hugging, but in this case, he was just so glad to see she was doing well. There was part of him that hoped he didn’t find out she was having nightmares and other issues from what happened but knew that might come up today too.

“I’m glad you could come back for this,” Tucker, Carrington’s father said.

Tucker might own the oil company his father worked at, but he knew his father and Tucker didn’t talk. Hell, it wasn’t even Tucker that his father gave Aster’s information to set up the account, but rather someone else that worked for Tucker.

Aster never even volunteered how much money it was, but his parents had just assumed it was a million or so and he never said one way or another. It’s not like he didn’t have to pay taxes on it and when it was done, he barely had over a million at that point.

Now, a lot of it was tied up anyway in investments or would be soon enough. What he had in his savings was a couple hundred thousand of his own money from never spending much of his salary in his military career.

“I wouldn’t miss it. With any luck, today won’t be too painful and they can give closing arguments.”

“That is the hope,” Tucker said. “I’ve been here every day this week.”

“Dad didn’t want me sitting through it,” Carrington said. “But I told him I’m not going to be anywhere else. It’s bad enough I’ve got drivers and bodyguards everywhere, but now they think they’ve got what they need.”

“Carrington,” Tucker said, pinning her with a look.

“It’s fine,” Aster said. “I don’t need or want to know. But if there is anything you need from me, know I’m just a flight away. I mean it.”

“I should be saying that to you,” Tucker said. “I can’t thank you enough. Day in and day out. Money will never be enough.”

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