Page 70 of An Adventure For Aster

“That’s different,” he said.

“I do wash my shirts daily though. Just the thought of sweating in them grosses me out.”

“It’s the germ thing like me,” he said. “Daphne is the same way. My parents not so much. But then, their clothes smell like smoke half the time anyway.”

“To each their own,” she said.

“That’s my feeling,” he said. “Anyway, thanks for letting me talk about this. We don’t see each other much and I shouldn’t be filling you with my family drama.”

She reached her hand over and laid it on his. “I want you to talk to me about these things. That is what people in love do. You don’t always open up and it’s nice you are.”

Sometimes she wondered what went through his head and the fact he was talking more made her feel like he listened to what she’d said months ago.

He was silent for a few minutes while they ate and she let him go. Then he said, “Do you want kids?”

“What?” she asked. “Where did that come from?”

He told her about the conversation with Poppy and what Ivy had said to Poppy. She laughed. “Yes, I want kids. I do love them. I know I’m getting up there in age but not to the point where I’ve got to feel the pressure. I love more what we’ve got, and where it takes us, it does. I should find out if you want them.”

“If I don’t, is that a problem for us?”

She frowned. She hadn’t thought much of it and should have. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’d need to know if you didn’t want them, why? Just because people want something doesn’t mean it’s going to happen for a number of reasons.”

“I do want them,” he said. “At some point. I know I can be a better parent than mine were and I turned out somewhat normal.”

She laughed at his dry tone. “You’re more than normal,” she said. “You turned out just great. And if you want them then why say what you did?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know.”

“You do know,” she said. “Tell me.”

“I didn’t know how you’d be if things didn’t go the way you planned.”

She let out a sigh. “Because of Colton?”

“It’s been brought up a few times,” he said.

“I was hurt at what he did. I felt deeply about returning to my hometown. Did that mean I was going to live the rest of my life here? Who knows? But family is my everything and I want to be here. Maybe if I’d felt strongly enough for him, I would have chosen differently. I decided that was a big part of it too. I wasn’t willing to follow him somewhere.”

“I’m not asking you if you’re willing to do that with me, just trying to figure things out. If having my sister here is going to be an issue?—”

“No,” she said firmly. “I told you that. That is silly and I’m not sure why you feel that way. Do you know how many people have to help care for a family member at some point in their lives? I’m almost insulted that you’d think I’d be that selfish just because I spent years with someone that I thought shared the same vision as me and then up and decided he didn’t want it anymore. It’s completely different. Colton never talked to me about anything. We had a plan and then he just got a job hours away. I didn’t even know he was looking.”

“Oh,” he said. “I don’t think I knew that.”

“Because you didn’t ask. You just assume,” she said and went back to eating. Then she lifted her head again. “And, if you think I’d be upset that you were putting your family first when I just said family was my everything, then we don’t have as good of an understanding of each other as I thought.”

She was quiet for a minute and it appeared he was done talking.

“Is this going to be our first fight?”

“It looks it,” she said. “But I’m mature enough to talk it out and not hold a grudge. Are you?”

He laughed and she looked up from her food. She’d been clinking her fork hard on the plate, breaking the silence in the room.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know you had it in you to get mad. I wasn’t sure you even yelled at your students.”

“What did I tell you about assumptions and me? Or judging me for what I did for a living?”

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