Page 47 of An Adventure For Aster

How pure she was at times too.

“I’m not sure anyone has thought of me as a great boyfriend,” he said.

“Because you don’t think it yourself,” she said. “You should. You have the fabulous qualities I am looking for. None of us is perfect and never will be. Life isn’t perfect.”

“No,” he said, “it’s not.”

When his phone rang he reached for it to see that Daphne was calling and was happy for the interruption.

He answered and heard his sister’s voice on the other end sounding tired. He hated that more than anything and couldn’t fault Brooks for how he was with Raine.

“How was your day?” Daphne asked. “Did you cook a turkey for yourself or not even bother? Or did Zane invite you to his house? I didn’t think about that until I was working and worried that you’d be there by yourself. I mean in the service you had other people around you.”

He waited for her to get her mouthful of words out.

“Can you take a breath now?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said, inhaling and letting it out. “What did you do today?”

“I had dinner with my girlfriend’s family.”

He turned to look at Raine and saw her soft smile.

“What?!” Daphne all but howled in his ear. “You’ve got a girlfriend and haven’t said a word to me? How long has this been going on?”

“Over a month or so,” he said. “Not sure the exact time.” Though he’d bet Raine was. He turned to see if she was frowning over him not knowing, but she still had the same smile on her face.

“Geez, Aster, I thought you’d tell me that, but then, it’s not as if we talked all that much when you were in the Army.”

He felt bad that he didn’t tell her before now, but they didn’t sit on the phone much. “We text all the time,” he said. “But not always talk. Or you’re running from one job to the next and we don’t have time to talk. Not a big deal. I’m telling you now and had planned on doing it when you called tonight.”

“Which is why you asked me to call you when I got home,” Daphne said. “I spent most of my shift worrying there was something wrong and didn’t know what when it was something good. Wish you’d told me that.”

It never occurred to him her mind would go that way. “Sorry. I should have said it earlier but didn’t want you to ask me a bunch of questions about Raine when you had to be at work.”

“So I can ask you a bunch of questions now?”

“You can,” he said. “Or you can ask her. She’s right here next to me.”

“Wow,” Daphne said. “It must be serious if you’re offering that. I’m hanging up and calling on video. I want to see her.”

He grinned. “I figured as much. Call me back.” He hung up and turned to Raine. “She wants to see you.” When the phone rang in his hand, he answered it. “We’re here.”

He held the phone between them on the couch.

“Hi,” Raine said. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“I haven’t heard anything about you, as you know,” Daphne said. “But you look tiny next to my brother.”

Raine laughed. “He is a lot bigger than me. You should see me trying to pull myself up in his truck, but I manage.”

“We take Raine’s car just as much,” he said. “I push the seat back and my knees don’t even touch the dashboard.”

His sister laughed as he expected. “Aster is good about those things. He’s an equal-opportunity man when he wants to be. Other times he just wants to take care of people and protect them.”

“I’ve seen that,” she said. “We have an understanding of things. We both do our fair share. Your brother helps me in the kitchen.”

“I baked muffins and an apple pie,” he said proudly.

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