Page 9 of A Love Most Fatal

He looks to his own mother like she might defend him, but after one look at me, she doesn’t push it, just shrugs and gives her agreement.

Artie groans.

“You’re doing it, Arthur Donovann-Morelli, and tell your posse to knock it off,” I say with finality. I’m using my sternvoice, which is different from what Leo calls my scary voice. That one is saved for the people who’ve wronged me. “Make it right.”

He sighs, but eventually nods. I give him a hug and mess up his mousy brown hair which he tries to put back in place.

“I love you,” I tell him, and he says it back. “Now go get to work.”

He scatters to the front room to do homework, and his sister follows him with her sketch book. They’re far past the age of it being deemed “cool” to do everything together, but they still do. I adore them.

Willa and I are on dish duty since Mom cooked. I wash, and she dries.

“Did you try to pay him off?” Willa asks quietly.

“Yeah,” I admit. “He was so pissed, he yelled at me.” I can’t help but laugh about it and she follows suit while I tell her exactly what he said, special emphasis on the spoiled, entitled socialite of it all. I can barely remember the last time someone talked to me like that.

“He’s got balls,” she says. “You scareme.”

I splash her with some of the sudsy water. “Just what the hell did you mean when you said todo anything? Did you want me to give him a blow job so your son can play basketball next week?”

Willa splashes me back and cackles. “Don’t pretend you didn’t want to!” She lowers her voice. “All the moms are into him. He’s not, like, traditionally hot, but he’s got something about him, no? I’m in a walking group with a few of them, and I swear he’s all they talk about sometimes.”

“How do you have time to be in a walking group?”

“I don’t, but those moms gossip nearly as much as the rest of the legal department and I like to be in the loop.” She twirls her finger next to her head. “For the kids.”

Willa, a nosy person first, mother second.

“But be honest, it was hot when he was yelling at you, right?”

“Willa!”

“Like, just a little? Come on, you can tell me,” she teases.

“We’re done here.” I pull the plug on the sink and try not to smile too wide. Willa is my older sister, but she’s always been my closest friend. She can get me into the biggest of headaches, but I suppose it’s the job of family to give you headaches and help when you have your own.

I am about to retire to my room for a much-needed hot shower when Leo’s phone starts ringing. He takes it in the other room, and I am almost certain that it won’t ruin my night, but the look on his face when he returns says that was wishful thinking.

“What?” I ask when he’s hung up.

“Shipment is missing at the boat yard,” he reports. I try not to sigh too loudly as I change course and head toward my office with Leo, Mary, and Sean trailing behind me. It’s going to be a long night.

4

NATE

As much asI tried to ignore the problem of needing a date for my cousin’s upcoming nuptials, my parents will not let me forget. Dad just had a procedure on his knee this month, so they will not be able to make it for the wedding, which means it’s extra important that I go and show all my extended family that I am doing well, or better yet,great.

I answered a call from my mom on a whim at the start of my prep period and now have been listening for ten minutes about things I should and shouldn’t say about my current life. My cousin Rex is rich, he works some job in stocks, and his sister is a travel influencer, so there’s a bit of insecurity on my parents’ part that their only son is, you know, just shaping the minds of the next generation and teaching the valuable skills of mathematics that they will take into their lives.

“Tell them about how you are working at a private school now,” my dad says in the background of my mom’s phone.

“Good idea, Grant. And who are you bringing again?”

“Ma, I have to go,” I say. “More on this later, I love you.”

I disconnect the call before she can say more and beeline for Jenna’s classroom. She’s my closest friend, both at this school and in general. She teaches seventh to ninth grade English andwhen I get to her classroom, she’s in the midst of taping paper chains to her wall. Her countdown to the end of the school year.