Page 7 of The Widower
I didn’t wait long before walking over to read the note, and there it was—a sweet, loving little message, just for me.
I see intelligence isn’t your strong suit, so I’m leaving another rule here: talk to me when there’s a problem. Was I clear, or should I draw you a picture?
Yeah… living with this man was going to be even harder than I thought.
The workday had been brutal, to say the least. After my little fridge fiasco, I did everything I could to make up for it—and by the end of the day, the driver finally decided to do me the favor of coming back.
The man was fuming. But honestly?I was even angrier. Oh, I definitely was.
“You made me late for my last delivery, and—”
“I don’t care!” I snapped, cutting him off. “Next time, have the decency to wait while I check everything instead of rushing me. If you’d done your job properly, you wouldn’t have had to drive all the way back here because of your own incompetence.”
He went pale, his eyes widening at me.
Yeah, I can lose my temper when I want to.
“F-fine, ma’am.” He backed away quickly, and guilt hit me right after. I’d clearly intimidated him.
When I turned around, Colin was standing barely a foot behind me. The shock made me jump back.
“Jesus, you scared me!” I blurted out. He just stood there—expressionless, unreadable.
“Funny time to suddenly grow a spine, don’t you think? If you’d done that earlier, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“I didn’t mean to talk to him like that…I could tell he went pale and uncomfortable.”
“Of course. He saw me standing behind you.”
Well, that explained it.
Apparently, the poor guy wasn’t scared of me—he was terrified of Colin lurking behind me like some silent executioner.
“I’m sorry again for—”
“Instead of apologizing every other minute, why don’t you focus on your work? I think you’ve noticed by now that I don’t enjoy talking to you—and I’m pretty sure the feeling’s mutual. So how about you just do your job and forget about everything else, huh?”
“I…”
“Good night, Isabelle.”
He turned and walked off again, but of course, the idiot in me couldn’t just let it go.
“Wait!”
My voice came out louder—and a bit more desperate—than I intended. He stopped and turned back, eyebrow slightly raised.
“You told me good night, so… good night to you too, Colin!”
For the first time, I caught a hint of a smile on his face. But don’t be fooled—it wasn’t a good one.
“You’re unbelievable. Helena really outdid herself this time.”
“What did I do?”
“Among other things, you’re not very bright.”
He walked away, and I just stood there, dumbfounded that the man was actually annoyed because I’d had the audacity to say good night.
