Page 8 of An Adventure For Aster

“Maybe it’s a girl thing,” she said. “And I’m sure I’d feel the same way. You know, if you and River want a date night, I’ll stay with Drew and then can get up with him in the middle of the night. Or I can take him overnight because I know you or River would get up anyway.”

Emma’s eyes filled again. “That’s so sweet. Your mother offered too, but I didn’t want her to do that and think ill of me. That I can’t handle this.”

She got up and hugged Emma. This was not like her funny witty sister-in-law and she was thrilled she stopped over for the visit.

“You can handle this. Next Friday or Saturday that River has off, I want the baby overnight. Please.”

“He’s off this Friday. I’ll talk to him about it.”

“You do that,” she said.

And when she left two hours later after playing with the baby and seeing that Emma was back to her normal self, she texted her brother at work to call her if he got a minute.

It was twenty minutes later when her phone rang. She was in sweats and a cotton shirt sitting on the couch channel surfing with her papers to grade in front of her.

“How much did Emma cry?” River asked when she answered the phone.

“More than I thought she would,” she said. “You warned me.”

“Did she agree to a night out and you taking Drew?”

Raine smiled. She thought it was super sweet River came up with the idea and then went behind his wife’s back to not make her feel bad asking their mom to do it.

“She actually did. I told her I needed to spend some quality time with someone who has testosterone, even if it was only a little. She thought it was funny.”

“Good,” River said. “Then our plan worked. She’ll talk to you in a few days about it once I convince her it will be fine. She needs a full night’s sleep. I know it. She won’t let me get up with Drew at night and says for me to go back to sleep. This way, she won’t have to worry.”

“She’ll worry, River,” she said. “But she won’t have a baby’s crying to wake her up either.”

3

THE CUTE TEACHER

Exactly two weeks later, Aster found himself racing to the firehouse with the lights flashing in his truck to get his gear on and hop on the fire truck to get to the elementary school.

Most of the calls he’d gotten while he was volunteering were minor things and under control when he got there. Just smoke more than anything.

This time with the school and all those kids, he felt a panic like never before.

No way a couple of volunteers could contain it and he knew. Since smoke had been spotted this was a real concern.

He got to the firehouse the same time as three other people. They changed into their gear and were pulling out in the two trucks and racing the mile to the school.

The kids were outside all shivering and huddled together, teachers trying to calm them.

He saw someone rushing toward them and assumed it was the principal with some maintenance men next to him.

“There was a fire in the break room. We put it out,” one of the maintenance staff said. “But the smoke still set off the alarms. Obviously, we can’t let anyone else in until it’s been cleared.”

“Show us,” the captain on duty said. Aster stayed back while the captain and another volunteer went in and they’d be ready if they had to rush in with the hoses.

He was looking around the building for any smoke or anything that could have been missed.

“Someone was smoking when they shouldn’t have been.”

He turned to see another woman standing there.

“Excuse me?” he said.

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