My Husband Is Dead Or Is He? novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Voice

Marlo's POV

On Thursday night I went down to the bindery to be alone with the press.

I had a Bible to finish for a woman in Two Harbors, and my hands needed work to do.

I set the spine in the jaws and turned the screw.

Thump, and click.

I did it again.

At the door, a board creaked.

"Sixty-two," Orin said, softly. "On a good night."

I didn't turn around.

"You're counting."

"I can't help it."

He came in and stood by the cutting table, with his hands in his pockets, in the cedar-smelling cold of the studio.

He had been quiet all day.

He'd done the dishes and fixed the porch step and not asked me for a thing.

"What is it?" I said.

"Nothing."

"Orin."

It was the first time I'd said his name without anger in it, and I watched it land.

He took a breath.

"I keep thinking about what you said in the hall," he said. "About him. The grief."

"What did I say?"

"You said I let you say it to a dead man. And I've been trying to be the one you wanted, and I think I might just be the one who was there. The phone was a place to put it. I could be any voice."

I let go of the screw.

"You think I loved a man I never met?"

"I think you loved your husband. And I think you were so lonely that anybody who picked up..."

"Stop."

He stopped.

I wiped my hands on my apron, walked around the press, and stood in front of him.

"I'm going to say this once," I said, "and I'm going to say it loud, in case the lake hears it."

He didn't breathe.

"I loved Hamish. He was kind, and he was gone before I knew what we were. I married him, and I waited three years for him, and nobody ever called me at eleven at night and asked me about the ice."

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend