Page 12 of An Adventure For Aster

“She is,” he said.

“It takes getting used to. Me, I just want to get to work, but I’ve learned they all want to talk.”

He snorted over the dry tone that Zane delivered that statement with.

“You’ve got those cute kids,” he said. “Chicks love kids.”

“They do,” Zane said. “And they don’t like to be called chicks.”

He laughed. “So noted, but it’s not like I’m out rounding anyone up.”

“Maybe you should,” Zane said, smirking.

Rather than address that, Aster picked up the nail gun and went to help a few other guys out. He tried to ignore Zane’s laughter. His buddy had gotten soft in the past few years, but he seemed much happier for it too.

4

GO WITH THE FLOW

Two days later, Raine was at the grocery store looking at the fruit and trying to figure out what she wanted for a few days.

Maybe it’d be easier if she only came once a week, but she did find she didn’t eat everything if that was the case.

She picked up two apples and put them in a bag, then snagged two bananas. Once they got past a certain ripeness she wouldn’t eat them anyway. Just another waste.

With her four pieces of fruit, she moved past that to the vegetables. No reason to be tempted into more.

By the time she got to the dairy section, her little basket was filled and that was her cue to get out of there.

She adjusted it on her arm and in the process it tipped and both of her containers of yogurt fell to the floor.

“I’ve got it,” she heard a voice say and turned to see a large male hand in front of her.

She’d been squatting down and stood up, then looked into Fireman Allen’s eyes. Aster, she’d thought he’d been called and then told herself she must have been hearing things. It had to have been Allen and her ears were mixing all the background noise around her.

“Thanks,” she said, reaching for it. Their fingers crossed and she put her yogurt back in the basket when he let go.

She’d noticed him looking at her left hand two days ago and she thought maybe he’d ask something personal. Then she realized that was silly to do in front of the kids. He was there looking to fight a fire that Mrs. Princeton set.

The sixth grade teacher should have retired fifteen years ago when she was eligible. But nope, she was still coming to work daily and, rather than go outside to sneak her cigarette, lit it up in the break room and tried to hold it out the open window.

She’d caught the older woman doing it in the bathroom once standing on the stall on the end.

“Do you always buy things in pairs?”

She looked into her basket and noticed everything happened to be in twos. She hadn’t even realized that.

“Not usually. I come here every few days to get things fresh so they don’t go to waste. Maybe it’s just this internal thing to never buy more than two because I know I’ll be back and might not want it in a few days.”

“Good way to keep your grocery bill down but not your gas one.”

She grinned. “I never looked at it that way, but I only live a half a mile from here. I could walk if I want, but then carrying the groceries is obviously heavy so I’d never make it a block.” She looked into the cart he was pushing. There were sports drinks and beer, sandwich meat, ground beef, bread, and snacks. He had a few apples too but nothing more. “Guess you buy for more than a few days.”

“That’s only a few days’ worth,” he said. “Not counting the beer.”

“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone else did it like me. I know in big cities that is more common, but in these small towns, most people go once or twice a week, if even that. I’ve got some friends that go every two weeks.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to be in the mood to eat in two weeks and I’ve spent enough time eating crappy food that I’m going to get what I want now.”

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