Page 46 of An Adventure For Aster

The increased size of his bank account.

Both of those things brought this massive fear it might change who he was inside.

And didn’t he just tell Raine everyone should be who they were?

Could be why he escaped from his hometown to start over and see if he even knew who he was himself.

It was as he’d just said to Raine—we have to be who we are and if we like it, then everyone else can go screw themselves.

“My family won’t say anything. I think Brooks did that on purpose.”

“That was my guess. Why do you think that? Do you think he thought you didn’t know? Could be why he said it quietly without you in the room. But I wouldn’t keep that from you. You’d see the scars on my chest unless he didn’t think you’d seen me naked.”

She giggled next to him. “Maybe wishful thinking on his part. I remember when we all found out about how he and Ivy had started out and I made some comment about the way he treated her and that he thinks it’s okay for men to have one-night stands but not women. He flipped out and said I’m not allowed to.”

Aster ran his hand on her thigh. “Have you ever had one?” he asked. He wasn’t sure why he asked that. He was guessing that was a big fat no. It didn’t seem to fit her personality.

“No,” she said. “I haven’t been with that many men. I’ve dated on and off but didn’t normally sleep with someone until I’d been with them for a few weeks. You know that. And even then, not everyone I dated for a few weeks I slept with. I could have gone on three dates over three weeks, but if I didn’t feel a connection and wasn’t sure I would, then I wouldn’t do that. I don’t even need to ask you if you’ve had a one-night stand. I’m pretty sure I know the answer.”

He kept silent. No reason to answer when she didn’t ask. “I think your brother wanted to know if you’d come to my defense,” he said. “Not that if you knew or not.”

She lifted her head and turned to look at him. “Why do you think that?”

He shrugged. “No clue. I’m only guessing. You know him better than me. If it were my sister, I’d do the same thing to see where her mind was at. Maybe defending me isn’t the right word.”

“No, it is,” she said. “I’ve dated men in the past that I didn’t always defend. Not sure if I should have or not.”

“Like Colton?” he asked.

She snorted. “No, I defended him all the time to my family. Even in the end, I started to do it. Everyone was hating him for what he’d done. I felt played for years. I seriously thought we’d just get back together and didn’t want my family to hate him. I thought he’d discover that he couldn’t live without me and wanted to return home too so I waited it out even behind the hurt. Stupid on my part.”

“So you took the blame for things?” he asked. He wasn’t sure he liked hearing that any more than he liked the fact she loved this guy so much she was waiting for him.

“Not the blame, just thought that maybe I missed things. That he never said he was coming back here after college. Like those words didn’t come out of his mouth and I just assumed it.”

“But he never corrected that assumption?” he asked.

She sighed. “No, he didn’t. And that falls on him. Once I got past the hurt, then I was pissed. I realized exactly what you were saying. He never corrected it. He knew what I thought and assumed. We were planning things. He even admitted it but then would argue that planning on getting married didn’t mean it’d be back home.”

“You actually talked about marriage?” he asked.

“We were young. We did. We’d been together since we were fifteen,” she said. “Then spent four years in the same college. I had friends and all, but most of my time was spent with him. We did everything together.”

Which made more sense about her wanting all these activities now. Did she feel as if she missed out on what all her friends were doing because she was spending it with the guy she’d thought she’d marry and have a family with by now?

“And the next logical step was marriage,” he said.

“I thought so. He did too. I was old fashioned that way, I guess. My family is my everything. It always has been. I wanted a marriage like my parents. Not their life. Not one of struggling financially and the stress of that. But what they have as a couple. As a team. I looked up to that my whole life.”

“You’re lucky to have that example in your life,” he said. “I never did.”

“Yet you turned out just fine,” she said.

“You think so?” he asked.

“I think you’re a great boyfriend,” she said. “Maybe you are living your life the way you are in spite of how your parents were. You don’t want to be like them or what you thought was wrong so you’re doing the opposite. In a way, that’s not any different than me wanting what my parents have. We learn from our parents either way, what to do better or what to follow.”

He never thought of it that way either and it went to show him again how smart she was.

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