Page 82 of An Adventure For Aster

Raine frowned. “What do you mean?” she asked. “They sent Aster gifts. I’d seen it.”

“I mailed them,” Daphne said. “This is horrible. I bought them too. I mean, that’s wrong. My mother gave me money to order something. She didn’t know what to get, so I picked it out and wrapped and had it shipped to him. My parents would have just ordered something online and had it shipped from the store not even wrapped. That used to drive me nuts.”

“It’s convenient for people. And it costs a lot to ship things too.”

“I know,” Daphne said, putting the ornaments back. No reason for her to buy them because they wouldn’t be practical by the sounds of it. Nothing she’d use anytime soon either. “When Aster was in the service, my mother and I would put together care packages, but I’d spend more time and wrap everything nice. He was there fighting and missing all the holidays. Not that we did much for them. I’m sure he’s told you that. But I still wanted him to know there was some care put into it. Some thought.”

She rubbed her hand on Daphne’s arm. “That is what I’d do too. I agree with you. The thought is always more important than the value.”

“And Aster does so much for me and my parents. But they expect it.”

She turned and looked at Daphne. “Expect it? Why? Because he never had many expenses in the service and probably put all his money away? I get mad when he wants to pay for everything, but he always argues that he hardly spent any money for years. That Zane’s cabin is the first place he’s lived in that he had to pay for.”

Daphne hesitated. “Yeah. They’ve been like that for years. My parents aren’t rich, but they aren’t hurting for money. I’d say we are middle class. Working middle class. But they’ve always been the type of people who spend the minimum on living costs for the family and the most on just having fun. They shouldn’t be paycheck to paycheck, but they pretty much are by their own choices.”

“Some people are like that. I see it with my students. Maybe their sneakers are worn out or the car they drive is falling apart but they’d come back from spring break at Disney. It’s everyone’s choice how they spend their money.”

“It is,” Daphne said. “My parents spend it on themselves. We never had any big family vacations or anything. They’ve got friends and do adult vacations all the time. They wanted Aster to give them a cruise for Christmas. I just about died when my mother told me she asked for that.”

Her jaw dropped. “That’s crazy, but it’s not my business either. I mean, last year we bought my parents a new couch and recliner. But my brothers paid more of it. It was frustrating. Brooks threw his credit card at me on Thanksgiving to take my mother shopping. I knew how much it all cost, but when it came time to give him my third he wouldn’t take it.”

It still annoyed her that Brooks and River paid the chunk of it.

Sure, they had a lot more money than her, but it wasn’t fair and she argued that.

She’d learned a long time ago there was no arguing with Brooks so she gave up and then bought her parents a few more gifts to personalize things.

“That sounds like something Aster would do.”

“I find that at first Aster was more like my brother Brooks, but the more we are together, he’s turning out to be like River.”

Raine felt she got the best of both worlds and couldn’t ask for anything more.

“I’m happy to hear that,” Daphne said. “I know Aster would hate me saying this.”

“You don’t have to tell me something that makes you uncomfortable. I don’t want that. We are just chatting and I want you to know that Aster seems to be doing well and not to worry if you are.”

“I appreciate that,” Daphne said. “What I was going to say was that Aster never really had a serious relationship that I knew of. He knew he was going into the service when he was a junior in high school so he didn’t want to get attached to anyone. I knew it. And then in the service, he said he was never anywhere long enough. I know he dated some women in the service now and again, but then they’d be deployed in different places and it’d end.”

“Oh,” she said. “That has never come up.”

“It’s nothing to think about. I’d hear a name now and again and ask who it was and then never hear it again. I’m only saying that he’s not someone to just pick up a random woman that I know of on leave or out on the town at night. But he’s never been committed to anyone before. Not like he is with you. And maybe it’s the best thing in the world that he needed in his life.”

Raine felt her eyes start to fill. “That might be the nicest thing anyone could have said to me.”

27

NO BIG DEAL

“Sounds like you had a great time with Raine yesterday,” Aster said to Daphne at breakfast on Monday morning.

“I did,” Daphne said. “I like her. She’s a sweetheart.”

“She is,” he said. He turned to break the eggs into a bowl. Daphne wanted to make breakfast and he’d told her no. She was on vacation and she never got to take a day off and relax, always waiting on people or kids. She wasn’t allowed to do it for a few days.

“I can tell she loves you,” his sister said.

“She does,” he said. “I’m a loveable guy.”

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