Page 164 of The Widower
I laughed.
“If you do anything to hurt my friend, I’ll castrate you! That’s a promise!”
“Whoa, calm down! Don’t worry—I’ll treat her like a princess… or maybe the opposite.” He winked and drifted back into her orbit.
He’s hopeless.
Other things in my life have changed these last few months.
My mother insisted on staying in our old house—at least on living there. Colin put a lot of effort into convincing her to keep working at the mansion, and in the end he managed to get her to stay on. I can tell it’s better for her, especially because of the paycheck.
You might be wondering: if our finances are fine, why does she keep working? Don’t try to figure her out. What I can say is that Mrs. Elisa hates being idle, and it looks like nobody’s going to convince her otherwise.
Apparently stubbornness runs in the family…
COLIN ADAMS
Back home, I gave the kids my full attention—they were bickering again. Hanna still had that trademark habit of refusing to take “no” for an answer, and Joshua… well, patience was never his strongest trait. And who ends up in the middle of it all?
Yeah. Me.
I’ve gotten used to being the “problem-solver” around here—and I’ll admit, I kind of like it.
Both of them have made a ton of friends at school. Joshua, who used to keep to himself, now brings his friends over to the mansion every so often. It sounds ridiculous, but Hanna hates it. She tells me she gets jealous of her brother.
Go figure…
Deep down, I know it’s not really jealousy. She’s just so used to having Joshua around that—Actually, yeah, it’s jealousy.
“Dad, Joshua doesn’t even like me anymore,” she complained, even though the two of them were sitting right next to each other.
“I just don’t like playing with those dolls. It’s boring!”
“See, Dad?! Now only you and Mom love me!”
“Kids… we all love each other.”
“Hmm. Still…” She pouted.
“I play with you every day,” Joshua tried to defend himself. “But fake tea parties are boring.”
I couldn’t help it—I laughed.It was wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“I don’t even like soccer, and I still go to your games to watch you—because I love you.”
Neither of us saw that coming. And I knew she meant it; she’d told me plenty of times she wasn’t a fan of soccer.
“Fine… we’ll play later.” He rolled his eyes, embarrassed.
Hanna laughed right away, thrilled with his surrender. That kid could charm anyone into anything.
I stayed with them for a few more minutes, and before long, they were chatting away like nothing had happened.
Then I headed to the kitchen—to grab my wife.
My wife.
I never thought I’d say that word again.
