Page 116 of An Adventure For Aster

“I didn’t want to worry you,” he said. “It’s not my heart.”

“The fact you are here tells me you’re worried it might be your heart,” she said. “You should have told me.”

He saw the tears gathering in her eyes and realized that he made a huge misstep here.

“I’m not used to people worrying about me.”

“But you knew enough to make sure your sister didn’t find out but not the woman you love.”

“I’m sorry, Raine. I didn’t even think about Daphne. It wasn’t until Zane brought it up when we were here that I asked if he could make sure Poppy didn’t say anything if she knew. It could have been too late at that point. I’m not used to having people around worrying about me, but I did think of you right away and knew I’d tell you tonight when I got home. If it was my heart and serious, I swear to you, I would have made sure you were called. But once they said that was all fine, I felt the worst had passed.”

She was staring at him, trying to determine if he was telling the truth, he could see.

“You’re not lying to me?”

“I haven’t lied to you about anything,” he said.

The fact he hadn’t told her about the money he had in the bank hadn’t been a lie. It was just something he didn’t share.

Maybe it was wrong on his part, but he wasn’t going to think about that right now.

“I want to be so mad at you,” she said.

“I know. I see it. I’m sorry I worried you. That is what I was trying to prevent.”

“Tell me what is going on since your heart is fine,” she said, sitting down. “There has to be something wrong. Can they figure it out?”

“He’s got two pieces of bone and some scar tissue,” River said, coming back into the room. “Scar tissue around your heart and upper chest, you know about that. It happens and not this problem.”

“No,” he said. “Where are the bone fragments?”

River put his laptop down. “Guess you told Raine.”

“Ivy did,” she said.

“Don’t get her worked up again,” Aster said. “I just calmed her down.”

“Raine doesn’t get worked up much, but you can deal with that,” River said, grinning. “Here and here are the pieces of bone. My guess is the bullet caused it and they were moving around and not noticed at the time.”

“I’m pretty sure they were more worried about repairing everything else,” he said drily.

“Exactly. But now, this one right here, it’s pressing against your radial nerve.”

“So if it’s removed this all goes away?” he asked.

“That’s not for me to say,” River said. “For now, it’s not life or death. I’m sure the attending physician will be in to talk about that. Nothing that absolutely needs to be done today.”

Aster nodded, relieved it appeared to be something as simple as a stupid piece of bone floating in his body and pressing against something.

“Then let’s get you out of here,” Raine said. “Because we’ve got some talking to do.”

Guess he wasn’t going to get let off the hook as he’d hoped.

39

ADVENTURE DATING YOU

Raine wasn’t sure her heart was going to slow down at all, but once they were out of the hospital and she was driving Aster back to the plant to get his truck, then waiting for him to leave, she finally felt as if she could breathe some more.

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