4. Go With The Flow
4
GO WITH THE FLOW
T wo days later, Raine was at the grocery store looking at the fruit and trying to figure out what she wanted for a few days.
Maybe it'd be easier if she only came once a week, but she did find she didn't eat everything if that was the case.
She picked up two apples and put them in a bag, then snagged two bananas. Once they got past a certain ripeness she wouldn't eat them anyway. Just another waste.
With her four pieces of fruit, she moved past that to the vegetables. No reason to be tempted into more.
By the time she got to the dairy section, her little basket was filled and that was her cue to get out of there.
She adjusted it on her arm and in the process it tipped and both of her containers of yogurt fell to the floor.
"I've got it," she heard a voice say and turned to see a large male hand in front of her.
She'd been squatting down and stood up, then looked into Fireman Allen's eyes. Aster, she'd thought he'd been called and then told herself she must have been hearing things. It had to have been Allen and her ears were mixing all the background noise around her.
"Thanks," she said, reaching for it. Their fingers crossed and she put her yogurt back in the basket when he let go.
She'd noticed him looking at her left hand two days ago and she thought maybe he'd ask something personal. Then she realized that was silly to do in front of the kids. He was there looking to fight a fire that Mrs. Princeton set.
The sixth grade teacher should have retired fifteen years ago when she was eligible. But nope, she was still coming to work daily and, rather than go outside to sneak her cigarette, lit it up in the break room and tried to hold it out the open window.
She'd caught the older woman doing it in the bathroom once standing on the stall on the end.
"Do you always buy things in pairs?"
She looked into her basket and noticed everything happened to be in twos. She hadn't even realized that.
"Not usually. I come here every few days to get things fresh so they don't go to waste. Maybe it's just this internal thing to never buy more than two because I know I'll be back and might not want it in a few days."
"Good way to keep your grocery bill down but not your gas one."
She grinned. "I never looked at it that way, but I only live a half a mile from here. I could walk if I want, but then carrying the groceries is obviously heavy so I'd never make it a block." She looked into the cart he was pushing. There were sports drinks and beer, sandwich meat, ground beef, bread, and snacks. He had a few apples too but nothing more. "Guess you buy for more than a few days."
"That's only a few days' worth," he said. "Not counting the beer."
"Oh," she said. "I didn't think anyone else did it like me. I know in big cities that is more common, but in these small towns, most people go once or twice a week, if even that. I've got some friends that go every two weeks."
"I don't know what I'm going to be in the mood to eat in two weeks and I've spent enough time eating crappy food that I'm going to get what I want now."
She frowned. "Crappy food?"
"Sorry," he said. "Talking too much. I suppose all the women are wearing off on me."
Hmm. That didn't sound good. "Oh," she said. "Guess I'll let you go."
"That came out wrong," he said.
"How was it supposed to come out?" she asked. If he wanted to stand here and talk she wasn't going to rush him along. Maybe she'd get enough information out of him to see if he was single or not.
But the comment on women made her think that wasn't the case.
"I work around a bunch of women. Even Zane told me it takes getting used to."
"Zane?" she asked. "I only know one Zane and that is Zane Wolfe. He's married to my future sister-in-law's boss."
"So I found out the other day," he said.
She lifted her eyebrow. Was he talking about her?
"How is that?"
"Ivy," he said. "I work for Blossoms. She came over to talk to me after the fire call and said you worked at the school. Well, that her sister-in-law did and she was trying to find out what happened."
Raine smiled. "Ahh, and one thing led to another. Ivy is one of those women who talks a lot. Is she rubbing off on you?"
"Not likely," he said. "She's nice and friendly. A big change of pace from what I'm used to."
"You know I'm going to want to know what that is," she said. "I'm curious like my kids are."
"Kids?" he asked.
"Students," she said. "No kids for me. I thought I'd be married and have them by now but thinking and hoping doesn't make it happen." She learned that the hard way.
"Looks like you keep your students active," he said. "I walked through your room."
"I love my job. It makes it easier when you love what you do. Can I ask what you do for Blossoms?"
"I run the facility. Right now I'm helping Zane build the expansion. I was working for him and now for Lily, but still for him. I just go with the flow."
"The guy from the service?" she asked. Ivy had talked about it. She couldn't remember his name now, but it was something different.
"That would be me," he said.
"I have to ask. Is your first or last name Allen?"
"Last name," he said. "First name is Aster." He held his hand out. "You're Raine. Though we met, not quite formally."
So that was what she'd heard. What a unique name.
She tried to switch the basket to her left hand to shake with him and it tipped again because she'd been trying to balance it all in there rather than getting a cart and overloading it thinking she had enough room.
"Raine," she said and dropped down to pick up the few things that spilled out again.
He did the same, then shook her hand as they were both picking up her groceries.
Hadn't she had this silly idea in her head that maybe she'd run into a sexy stranger in the grocery store?
She started to laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"Never mind," she said. "Something that just popped into my head. Thanks again."
She stood up with everything and he moved back to his cart. "Maybe we should go check out so you don't drop anything else."
"Yeah," she said. Only she didn't want to end this conversation.
They walked to the checkout aisles. Both of them stood in the self-checkout and she found that funny. Many didn't like doing that when they had more than a few items, but she'd rather package up her own things.
They moved up and were side by side checking out when he said, "Does Tyler really want to be a fireman now?"
It took a second for her to realize he was asking about her student. "He says he does. But every kid wants that or policeman or doctor," she said. "Then they change their minds. Superhero or athletes are normally at the top of the list too."
"A superhero isn't all it's cracked up to be," he said quietly.
She frowned. "I suppose not. I know some real heroes who served. You'd be one of them, as I know you did with Zane. I've met Luke. You two know each other, right?"
"We do," he said. His head was down and he was scanning his food. She was sure she was losing him and maybe this chance and wasn't sure what she said that caused that.
Then they both paid and walked out together.
"Would you like to get a drink sometime? I could say something lame about telling you about this area, but you can get that from Zane."
He angled his head; his eyes were dark and drilling into hers. His hair was short and the light breeze was blowing it around some.
She'd never noticed a man who had a strong face before, but Aster did. Almost chiseled in a way. Bet he was headstrong too.
"Why do you want to get a drink then?"
She shrugged. She'd come this far and might as well continue. "I haven't asked a guy on a date in a long time so I think I'm dropping the ball here. Or should I say the yogurt and half the other things in my basket?"
He cracked the barest of grins. He'd been nice, but he hadn't smiled much. She wondered if it was his personality or not when she was normally so bubbly.
"So like a date?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, lifting her chin. "Unless I scare or intimidate you."
He coughed out a laugh. "I could pick you up as easily as your basket of groceries."
"True," she said. "If that is a comment about my size."
"It is," he said. "And a drink sounds good."
"Awesome," she said. "Can I get your number?"
"Oh, you didn't want to do it now?"
Her smile dropped. She was still dressed for work, as she'd stayed late to get things done and came right here. Her hair was in a ponytail, her black pants were wrinkled from crawling on the floor with the kids, and she might have even had paint somewhere on her arm if she pushed a sleeve back.
"We can," she said. "But I'd like to go home and change so you don't think I'm a frumpy teacher."
"I don't think you're frumpy in the least." He pulled his phone out. "Give me your number."
Which meant she'd have to wait for him to contact her. Not ideal, but it was better than nothing.
She read her number off, then felt her phone vibrate in her purse. "Was that you?"
"If you mean your phone going off, then yes. Now you've got mine. Text me what works for you. I don't have any plans anytime soon if that helps."
"Thanks," she said. "It does."
He started to walk away from her and then turned his head. "Talk to you soon. Hopefully."
She smiled and had to stop herself from jumping in place like one of her students did in excitement. "You will."