Page 92 of An Adventure For Aster

A clean bill of health was what he got, but like anything in life, there were side effects. He had scar tissue, not just from the surgery but also the bullet blasting into him.

When she thought of it, she realized he was right. River had told her that too. It’s not like she had many scars on her body to know that.

Aster had some all over his body but nothing like his chest. If she asked what the scars were, he’d tell her. Most were cuts or a broken bone from during his military career.

Boy, was she ever glad that was over with.

She could handle the volunteer fireman with no problem. She knew Daphne wasn’t thrilled over that, but she’d lived here her whole life and knew that anything big or major, the paid fire departments came in. Volunteers didn’t get a ton of calls a year and when they did, they were nothing more than the fire in the garbage can. Sort of.

“I thought I should tell you this. I haven’t told anyone else.”

Her mother set the coffee down in front of her and she added the creamer. “What? I don’t like the look on your face.”

Patty sat after mixing her coffee. Raine hated that patience when her mother was thinking of the right way to say something.

“Colton came into the diner yesterday.”

“What?! He doesn’t live around here. Why was he in the diner? Did he talk to you?”

“He’s around here now,” her mother said. “And yes, he did talk to me. Sat at a table I was waiting on. It’s like he knew he’d get me trapped that way.”

Her shoulders drooped. “What did he say? I mean, he can come and go and eat where he wants. I’m assuming he’s visiting and will be gone soon.”

“That’s the thing,” her mother said. “I don’t think he’s visiting. He was talking all nice and everything like he didn’t break my daughter’s heart and I wouldn’t want to ram a fork in his hand on the table.”

Raine laughed over the image of her mother doing that. Patty was the least violent person she knew. Not even raising her voice much, other than when Brooks and River were wrestling and broke something.

“What did he say then?” she asked.

Not that she cared all that much, but if her mother was concerned there had to be more to this.

“He said he’s divorced.”

“I hadn’t known Colton was married. I don’t keep tabs on him and don’t follow him on social media. I’m only on social media lightly. I don’t have time for those things.”

She’d signed up for it so that she could keep track of her high school and college friends, but the busier she got, the less she looked. Not to mention it was getting depressing to see everyone posting pictures with their boyfriends and she didn’t have much to add about anything in her life.

“No kids,” her mother said. “He talked like he’d only been married a few years and it didn’t work out. He’d moved a few times. I lost track of where he was last, as I was working and trying to avoid the conversation.”

“I’m surprised he’d said that much,” she said. “Or that you stood around listening.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” her mother said. “He was talking before he gave me his order. Twice I said I could come back and he just grinned.”

She remembered that charming grin of Colton’s. The one where he acted like you were the center of his attention and you wanted to be around him.

Patty never fell for anyone’s charm. Her father was the least charming person she knew, and Brooks came in second.

In her mother’s eyes, if someone was charming, they were hiding something.

Guess her mother had been right.

“So he’s divorced and eating at the diner,” she said. “Big deal. Lots of people get divorced.”

“They do,” her mother said. “But he said he got a job in New Haven. He was living with his parents right now while he found a place.”

New Haven was less than an hour away. Not a horrible commute and one many made. “The sooner he gets out of town the better,” she said.

“He asked about you,” her mother said. “Wanted to know what you were doing. He knew you were teaching. Guess he’s talked to others since he’s been in town.”

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