Page 33 of Protection for Asher (Safeguarded By The SEAL #4)
Asher was surprised when Squat came home on Wednesday night with her documents she needed to finish the application for college. “Wow, Thario really got them for me.”
Squat nodded. “He said he was careful. It was mailed to four different locations. The packages changed each time, and they made sure to mail from different cities than they received it. If anyone was tracking it, it would have been nearly impossible to keep up with where the documents went or who had them.”
“Wow, that’s intricate.”
“He said his network has done it for other women leaving abusive relationships.”
“That’s the kind of thing I’m interested in doing. Maybe doing social work isn’t the right thing.”
“You know, you could go spend time with Thario and learn what he’s doing.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t really know computers.”
“Nichole, Rowan, and Danika have all helped out from time to time. Thario is patient and good. Oh, but right now, he's in the middle of something you can't help with.”
“That’s why you all are over there, right?”
“It is.”
“You can’t talk about it, can you?”
He shook his head. “No, I can’t.”
She moved to him and put her hand on his chest. “I'll help you however I can. If that means preparing dinner that you can eat later or preparing meals for you to take over to Thario's that you all can eat when you're over there searching, then that's what I'll do.”
He brushed his lips over hers, kissing her gently. “Thank you.”
“Thank you. How was today at work?”
He shrugged. “Loads of physical therapy. I’m working on it, but it’s going to take time.”
“I’m here if you need anything. What about a massage?”
He grunted. “Thank you for offering. They poked and prodded me so much today that I just need rest.”
“Okay, we’ll rest.”
After dinner, she logged on to the college's site and uploaded her documents. She felt better about what she'd accomplished. There were a lot of classes she had to take before she decided what to focus on, so she had time. Everything was moving forward, and she felt good about it.
“Hey, looks like you got it uploaded,” Squat said as he stepped into the room.
“Yes. I feel good about this. It will take a while. I applied for a grant and some financial aid. Hopefully, I’ll get a grant.”
“That would be great.”
“Now that I have documents, I can maybe get a job. I need to earn money to pay for things.”
Squat took her hand. “You know you don’t have to.”
She pulled in her lower lip and worried it. “I know. I can’t sit still and do nothing. At first, I was okay, but now I’m starting to feel…not trapped, but I need to fill my time with something other than worry.”
“I get that. There are a couple of stores close by, a restaurant not too far from here, some places like veterinarian clinics, and other places that need workers.”
“I should go see what’s in walking distance.”
He nodded. “There are buses, too. But the stop is about a half mile away.”
She sighed. “I wonder what happened with my car?”
“I think it was impounded. I can see if Thario can sell it. We should have thought about that earlier.”
“It’s okay. I know there was a lot to me coming here. I wish I could have just gone back there and got all of my things.”
“Have you gotten access to your bank account?”
She blew out a breath. “I didn’t know where to change my address to. I was afraid to log into my bank’s website. I just didn’t know what to do.”
“I think Thario can help with that. You could use one of his computers and see how much money you have in there.”
She nodded. “I need to log in and take care of things. I feel like I need to bake him something. He’s been so good to me.”
Squat chuckled. “I know he would appreciate it. He skips meals when he’s working on something.”
“And he’s busy now.”
“Exactly.”
“I'm going to bake him some bread, and I'll take it to him tomorrow.”
“He’d like that. And thank you for being nice to my friends.”
“Of course. They’re good people.”
He chuckled. “I think they are. But there are some terrorists who don’t.”
“Well, terrorists are stupid.”
Laughter spilled from his lips. “Yeah, they are stupid.”
She had a plan now and a way to make things happen. Squat and his friends had helped her so much and she wanted to help them.
She would make the bread for Thario and take it to him before lunch.
While she was there, she would ask him if she could learn how to help.
She knew he was busy with something to do with Squat getting shot, but surely, he had other things going on that she could help with.
She liked the idea of being helpful. Feeling productive would go a long way to helping her heal.