No More Waiting, She Chooses Love

Chapter 40



Upon hearing Ethel's voice, I casually tossed my phone aside, "Yeah."

After saying that, I slipped off my shoes, shuffled into my slippers, and opened the door, immediately spotting Ernest in the yard, filling several white buckets with water. The buckets lined up neatly, and as they quickly filled, he hoisted them up, his shoulder muscles visibly defined even through his shirt.

Man, the guy was a perfect blend of muscle and raw strength.

"Why are you hoarding so much water? Is there a water shutdown coming?" I strolled over to ask.

Ethel looked at my slippers disapprovingly and rolled her eyes at me silently.

Ernest didn't answer, but Ethel did, "Just in case of a shutdown."

She then patted Ernest on the back. "I'm making clam chowder tonight. You two head out and grab some clams. Ensure they're fresh. And pick up some potatoes, hams, and onions, will you?"

It wasn't about fetching groceries but sending us off to chat. But here I was, in those big and floppy slippers, hardly appropriate, yet returning inside to change seemed even more so.

your shoes,"

would embarrass me more, so I

winked at me, signaling to hurry up and follow him.

slippers, I stepped out, feeling

when Ernest suddenly stopped. "Heard you

that? But, direct as ever, he just put

at him, really seeing him

features were sharp,

lips were neither

too thick.

heartthrob a run for their money,

wasn't that the first thing we all did? We couldn't start by inspecting someone's

thirty-one," he began, introducing himself, "Served eight years in the

seventeen or eighteen, whistled

the kid had left, picking up where we

friend's," he replied, clearing he was sharing the

been with a widow?" My question was

His gaze deepened. "No."