Page 11 of An Adventure For Aster

“You’d think if they found the need to smoke, the least they could do was vape and not start a building with a bunch of kids in it on fire.”

“I thought the same thing,” he said.

“I’m glad it was nothing. I was worried and texted my future sister-in-law. She’s a teacher there. I haven’t heard anything, so I’m guessing she left her phone in the building and is too busy calming the kids.”

“Most likely,” he said.

“Raine is probably making a game out of it,” Ivy said. “She’s like that. I’ve never met someone so calm around kids before. She’s a riot out with the girls, but a different person with the kids.”

“Raine?” he asked. This had to be one of those small town things Carter was joking about.

“Yes,” Ivy said, smiling. “Raine Scarsdale. She’s a first grade teacher. My fiancé, Brooks, is her brother.”

The state trooper. He knew that now. He didn’t remember last names all that much but was positive if he’d heard Brooks's last name he would have remembered that. Which meant River had to be the doctor. Three kids with water names.

Guess it wasn’t that much different than his mother naming him and his sister after flowers. Thankfully most people didn’t realize that and just asked where Aster came from. His answer was always, “My mother.” What was he supposed to say?

“I saw her,” he said. “She’s fine.”

Ivy smiled. “She had a field trip to the firehouse last week. If you saw her today then you must have been volunteering that day. Were you?”

Guess Raine didn’t talk about him. She knew his last name and he was positive Ivy would have caught on. “I was,” he said. “I didn’t know you were related to her.”

“I feel like everyone is related to someone else at Blossoms. Don’t you know that by now?”

He snorted. He’d been given almost a cheat sheet on it all. He knew Luke’s wife, Heather, had met her multiple times between being friends with Luke and Heather working out at the greenhouses. He’d met Jasmine and Violet out there and knew Violet’s husband, Trace. Heather and Daisy were best friends, though he’d only met Daisy once at a summer picnic. Not everyone could attend and he was still trying to keep names and faces together.

“It seems that way,” he said.

“I’m glad everyone is okay,” Ivy said. “How do you like working here so far?”

“I’ve been here a few months,” he said.

He’d moved mid-July, so about three months now.

“Yes,” Ivy said. “But you were working for Zane up until recently. Now you’re working at Blossoms. It’s different.”

He hadn’t been part of the organization officially during the summer party in August. They’d kept that part quiet, but since Zane had his employees at the party too, no one thought anything of it.

“It’s not all that different,” he said. “At least I don’t think so.”

“You’re working around a bunch of women and not men,” Ivy said.

“But they don’t work for me,” he said. “I’m just taking care of the building and the machines.”

“I know,” Ivy said. “But it has to be different than the service.”

“There were women in the service too,” he said, smirking. He leaned in close. “Most times they are raunchier than the men.”

Ivy laughed. “That would be me.”

He squinted one eye at her. “I’m sure it would be. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get back to work.”

“Bye, Aster.”

He lifted his hand to wave over the construction going on.

“I see Ivy was chatting with you,” Zane said. “She’s a social one.”

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