When There Is Nothing Left But Love (Ashton And Scarlett)

Michael was an introvert. He gripped his father’s hand tightly as he stared at Summer and nodded. “Mhm. Thank you, Ms. Stovall!”

“Let’s go, then!”

At home, Summer and Michael busied themselves with picking produce in the backyard while Colin left to purchase fish.

Meanwhile, I started washing vegetables in the kitchen.

For the past four years, I had made a habit of personally cooking for Summer so as to ensure she had a balanced diet. As a result, my cooking skills had improved greatly.

After I’d washed the vegetables, the two kids came stumbling into the kitchen, each carrying a small basket.

Michael’s basket was filled to the brim—some of the vegetables inside threatening to spill over.

Summer’s basket only had several miscellaneous vegetables. It looked like she had been walking behind Michael and carefully picking up anything that had actually fallen out of his basket.

“We’re back, Mommy!” Summer proudly held her basket high up in the air, her face streaked with dirt.

I took the basket from Michael, hurriedly wiping away the sweat on his face. “You should share some with Summer next time. It’s too heavy for you to carry yourself!”

The boy grinned, his eyes soft and full of affection as he looked at Summer. “She’s too small to carry this!”

“That’s right, Mommy! I asked Michael to help me carry these because I’m not strong enough!” Summer giggled. I couldn’t help but wonder if she had learned this shamelessness from Jackson.

Furrowing my eyebrows, I scolded, “If you bully Michael like this again, I’ll make you water all the vegetables in the backyard by yourself.”

don’t care. I won’t be by myself,

This little…

receiving punishment. It would seem that she

back, having bought some carp

up one of the shrimp and started chasing poor Michael

basket of produce from me, Colin said, “I’ll wash these. The fish have

I nodded.

around the stove,

little wolves!” Colin ordered them, putting down the clean

out the plates and utensils while Summer didn’t budge an

setting her aside. “Be a good girl and take the fruits by the

my direction,

I plated up the dishes

spotted the kids were already waiting eagerly in their seats.

suggested, grinning in anticipation at me even though she was

Colin and Michael washed the dishes while Summer and I went to the yard to pick

had scattered lots of watermelon seeds in the garden last spring and bought several peach trees when I first moved to R Province. Now, the yard would bless us with an abundance of fresh fruits every

picked up some peaches from the ground, asking, “Mommy, do you like Mr.

with laughter, pinching her tiny nose. “What are you trying

was thinking if you could

you want a Daddy that