Page 75 of A Dream for Daphne

He nodded his head. “Yeah, the same.”

It was so easy for her to say that now when she got everything she wanted from someone else.

But then he had to think—didn’t he find it too?

26

THINK POSITIVELY

“How are you feeling?” Daphne asked Aster a few weeks later. It was the end of July and he’d had surgery to remove the bone fragments pinching a nerve and causing him pain and nerve damage.

She went to the hospital to sit with Raine even though Raine told her she didn’t need to take the day off.

To her, it wasn’t up for debate.

Her brother had been there for her and she was going to be there for him.

His surgery went well and he’d been discharged, but she followed Raine home to Aster’s house. She’d made dinner for them too and brought it along so that Raine wouldn’t have to cook.

“Fine,” Aster said. “Just groggy, but those are the drugs.”

“You haven’t taken any pain pills yet,” Raine said.

“I doubt I’ll need much,” Aster said. “It was laser surgery. Not even that much of an incision.”

“Don’t try to be a hero,” Daphne said.

Aster snorted. “I might know a thing or two about that.”

“Ha ha,” she said. Her brother yawned. “Go lie down.”

“I’m not going to lie down and I’m not going to bed. This was nothing. I’ve had much worse things happen than this. They removed some bone fragments. Theo repaired a nerve that had been torn. Nothing more.”

“You’re going to be out of commission for a bit,” Raine said.

“Not long,” Aster said. “One week.”

She saw Raine growl. “Aster. You have to be out for two weeks and then you aren’t supposed to use your arm until you’ve gone through physical therapy. You don’t have an appointment for PT until after your check-up with Theo in ten days.”

Daphne was going to say the same things, but Raine beat her to it and it was better not coming from her.

“Yeah,” she said, standing behind Raine.

Aster shot them both an annoyed look. “I can go sit in the office and look things over,” he said. “My right arm works just fine, but I won’t be lifting or crawling under anything. I’ll wear the damn sling for the first week and be careful. I’m not an idiot.”

“If you argue with your future wife it might be considered idiotic,” she said.

“You tell him, Daphne,” Raine said, giggling.

“Sit down before you fall down,” she said, nudging her brother onto the couch. His eyes were a little glossed over.

“I’m not going to fall down,” Aster said. But he sat on the couch and put his feet up.

Raine went to get a few pillows for him to put under his arm and get comfortable.

“I’m going to put dinner in the fridge. When you’re ready to eat, just pull it out and put it in the oven for thirty minutes on three fifty.”

“What did you make?” Aster asked.