“Is that actually your name? You seem to be taking it awfully badly.”
“Taking what awfully badly?”
“Me calling you a Karen.” His lips twitched.
“My name is not Karen. My name is Nellie.”
“Nellie rhymes with smelly,” the little boy standing next to him said. I looked down at him, at his messy brown hair, and saw that he was a dead ringer for his brother.
“Funny,” I said with a small laugh, trying not to roll my eyes. As if I hadn’t heard that one before.
“Well, Nellie, or as I like to call you, Karen,” the guy smirked at me, “I’ll make sure to watch my kids so that while you’re on the phone absentmindedly walking around and not paying attention to any of your surroundings—”
“Excuse me?” I interrupted him. “You’re not going to flip this on me.”
“Oh, my gosh. You are totally a gaslighter, Karen. I mean, smelly. I mean, Nellie.” He laughed, and the three little kids laughed as well.
I shook my head. This was absolutely ridiculous. Why was I wasting my time talking to this man?
“You know what, sir? I will bid you adieu. I have things to do. And it looks like maybe you shouldn’t bring your kids to the store. Maybe leave that up to your wife.”
“Maybe I don’t have a wife,” he said, his eyes boring into mine, a weird expression on his face. “Maybe I’m not married. Have you ever thought about that?”
“No.” And then, because I was an absolute idiot, I said, “But I can understand why your wife would have wanted a divorce if this is your attitude.”
The little girl suddenly spoke up. “My mommy isn’t here anymore.” Her lips started trembling, and my entire body felt cold.
I froze. I felt absolutely horrific. I was the worst, most horrible person in the world. I’d gone up to a man I didn’t know who had three kids and his wife was dead and I shouted at him and I’d have accused him of being a bad father, and I’d said his personality was the reason his wife had left them. I wanted to curl up and die. I was mortified.
“Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry,” I said to the little kids, and then looked back up to the man’s face. “Look, I’m sorry. I just …”
“It’s fine.” He shrugged. “You didn’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t have been on my phone so much. Sorry that my kid ran over your feet with the shopping cart.” He looked down at my sneaker-covered toes. “Hopefully it didn’t hurt too much?”
“It’s fine,” I said, mumbling. “Look, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He shrugged. “You weren’t to know their mom was gone.”
“Thanks.” I smiled awkwardly. “Well, I think I’m going to go back to getting my steaks now. Have a nice day.”
“You too,” he said.
Face flaming, I slipped away down the aisle.
I took a couple of deep breaths when I got back to my cart. I was absolutely horrible. I was so entitled and privileged to have gone up to him and complained. Maybe I could have approached him in a different manner. Maybe I could offer to help him look after the kids, maybe teach them some manners. Maybe I could be a free nanny to make up for it.
I laughed to myself.
Yeah, right. As if I wanted to teach those kids any manners. I wouldn’t mind teaching him how to kiss me, though.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Why did my mind always have to go into the gutter? Wasn’t that the worst thing to think at this moment? I just found out that the man’s wife had died, and here I was thinking about kissing him.
I mean, he was absolutely gorgeous. He was totally the best-looking guy I’d ever seen in my life, but he was older, with a shit ton of kids, and he was a widower. Not to mention his attitude problem. Why was I even thinking about him?
It had been too long since I dated anyone.
I really, really, really needed to get a life because if I was fantasizing in the grocery store about a single dad, then I had problems far bigger than a stranger calling me a Karen.
Chapter Two
“Oh my gosh, Shelby, you will not believe what just happened,” I whispered into the phone as I approached the stacks of meat. I looked around to make sure that no one was listening to me. “I literally just told a widower he sucked.”
“What are you talking about, Nellie?” Shelby sounded confused.
“Remember that little boy that hit me just now?”
“Um, no.”
“Oh, my gosh, Shelby, were you paying attention to me when I was speaking to you on the phone just now?”
“I mean, you asked me what steak I wanted, right?”
“Yeah. But remember I—never mind. Anyway, I’m picking up the steaks now. You’re going to come over around seven?”
“Yeah. I should be done with my homework by then.”
“Okay, sounds good. Oh, and I think I told you that Hunter will be there, right?”
“No, you didn’t say he was going to be there.”
“Oh, oops, well yes, he’s in town so he will be there.” Hunter was my older brother and he was currently letting me live in his gorgeous house, rent-free.
“Is Birdie going to be there as well?”
“No, she’s in San Francisco. He’s just come up for the weekend, I guess to get some stuff to take back with him.”
“Okay. That’s so cool that your parents are going to still let you live in the house even though he’s not there.”
I snorted. “It’s not that cool. They want me to get a roommate, and you can’t do it.”
“I can’t get out of my lease,” Shelby sighed. “I would’ve moved in with you if I could.”
“Yeah. Well, they’re saying that my older cousin might come down, and she’s even worse than Hunter. I think she’s like a born-again Christian or something.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she’s not interested in guys, and she certainly will not be happy if I have any guys coming over or any parties. I’m sure she’ll go and tell my parents right away if I have guys over. And that’s the last thing I need because—” I paused as I felt someone tugging my sleeve. “Hey, hold on, Shelby.”
I looked around, but there was no one there. I felt the tug again. This time, I looked down and there was the little boy who had hit me with the cart.
“Excuse me,” he said.
“Hi. Yeah, can I help you?”
“I just came to say sorry for hitting you with the cart earlier. I wasn’t paying attention and I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said, his eyes looking everywhere but into my own.
“Hey, that’s okay. I understand you made a mistake. What’s your name?”
“Joshua.”
“Well, thanks for apologizing, Joshua. I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.” He said as he went running away. “Okay, can I get ice cream now?” he yelled.
I laughed to myself, but I was happy. Douchebag though he was, it was nice that the guy had had his son apologize.
“What’s going on over there, Nellie?” Shelby asked me.