Page 45 of Mountain Grump
Ethan slides his hand down my hip as he drops the arm that was hooked around my side and slowly turns around to face me.
I tip my head back so he can see me lift my brows. “What,pray tell, was that?”
“Fisher, I already told you.”
I snort. “You’re rude.”
I swear his lips twitch with the start of a smile, but instead, he rolls those fascinating eyes, then nods toward my truck. “Go feed your duck, Matilda.”
My feet stay planted for a second, not wanting to go.
The first time I met Ethan, I was embarrassed and mortified.
The second time I met him, I was embarrassed and irritated.
The third time… this time, I started out embarrassed. But then he touched my face and gripped my hair. And he…
Heat rolls in my stomach.
This time it feels different.
Hefeels different.
Ethan takes a step back. “Now, Starlight.”
I take my own step back, widening the distance between us. “Why do you call me that?”
Ethan lets his gaze lower slowly, trailing it down my body, then back up, until he meets my eyes again. “I’ll tell you later.”
Then, after dousing my dormant hormones with gasoline and lighting them on fire, Ethan turns, climbs into his truck, and drives away.
Chapter 24
Ethan
I’m filthy.
Clothes twice soaked in sweat and caked in dirt.
I’m not fit to be seen in public.
But as I slow to a stop, exiting the park, I flip on my blinker, and I turn the opposite way from home. Toward the craft store.
Chapter 25
Tilda
Peeling my dress off,I make a face over the fact that I can smell myself.
It took approximately fifteen minutes of struggling to get those stupid ratchet straps to release.
After that, I wrestled the pool out of the truck and into a spot I liked, right below the center living room window in front of the house, between the two bushes. So if Quackers decides to use his newpond,I’ll be able to watch him.
This was followed by me circling the house, searching for large rocks to weigh down the pool. Which meant carrying the large rocks. Which was then followed by accidentally spraying myself with the hose after I failed to connect it to the spigot properly.
By the time the pool was actually filled, I was tempted to just cut a slit in the duck food bag and drop it on the ground. But I resisted and instead filled an old Halloween candy bowl with duck food and set it a couple feet in front of the pool.
The bag with the remaining forty pounds of food sits just inside my door, ready for refills.
