“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “Even if I were so inclined to make such an inquiry—which I’m not—no Moretti is going to marry an Orso. It would be a step down for them, and I wouldn’t risk the insult by asking.”
“Nate’s right,” Antony says. “They’re big time, and we’re not. We weren’t even asked to take part in their little game up north.”
“Be glad of that,” Threes says. “If we were, you’d probably be dead.”
“I would have nominated you,” Antony says with a grin.
“Can we get back to the actual topic?” Nora blurts out. “Cherry is coming to dinner. I, for one, am excited to meet her. And Kate, no one is doing arranged marriages anymore. You need to get into the twenty-first century.”
“That’s worked out so well thus far.” My aunt’s eyes are uncharacteristically dark.
“Really?” Nora glowers at her. “You’re going there?”
“It’s the way it was for generations,” Kate says, “and no one ever questioned it until now. Even Micha, God rest his soul, had his marriage arranged. If she weren’t already promised to someone else, we might have set her up with Nataniele, but we waited too long. Marriages and children are how we kept the peace between the families all the way back to—”
“Dear God, not another lesson about the old ways!” Nora sighs loudly.
“Stop it, all of you.” I lean back and run my fingers into my eye sockets. I’m starting to get a headache from all of this. “Aunt Kate, I’m not going to marry some woman in Seattle. Nora, stop being a pain in the ass. Everyone, remember what’s important here—Cherry is coming for dinner. We’re having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and you’re all going to love it. You’re going to do everything you can to make her feel at home. Clear?”
*****
Dinner goes remarkably well. Cherry is happy and comfortable with my family as the night goes on. Nora made far more effort than I thought she would, and she and Cherry seemed to bond a little. Even Twos got into the mix, and the three of them seemed to be making plans together.
Aunt Kate had been a little strange in the beginning, but then she’d been acting a little strange all day. If she suggests another arranged marriage to me, I am going to explode. Yeah, I know it was done that way in the past, and I’m not trying to be disrespectful to her generation, but I’m not having the family matriarch choose a wife for me. She needs to understand that times have changed, even here in Cascade Falls.
The whole evening had me feeling positively giddy. When I drive Cherry home, I throw all caution to the wind and nearly declare my intentions to her in the car.
My heart is still racing when I get back home, and I swear it starts beating even faster when I glance at her car still sitting in the driveway and know I’ll be seeing her first thing in the morning. The only thing that could possibly ruin my mood is my sister standing in the doorway when I head inside.
“Nataniele, what are you doing?” Nora leans against the wall with a robe wrapped around her. She shivers before I manage to shut the door.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Are you really going to propose to that girl you’ve known for what, a month now?”
“That’s the plan.” I’m a little annoyed that Nora’s actually going to give me crap about this. At least she isn’t the one who has to get married.
“She’s barely more than a child.”
“Oh, please, Nora!” I groan as I hang up my jacket and turn back to her. The whole night had been spectacular, and I don’t need my sister screwing up my good mood. “If you have a better idea, please inform me. If you bring up an arranged marriage, I’ll have Kate pick out a line of suitors for you.”
“Last time this family had a marriage arranged, Micha ended up dead in the woods.”
Mood officially ruined. I can’t believe she actually brought that up. My hands clench into fists. I grit my teeth as I stomp off to my office, but Nora follows me.
“Are you going to tell me you didn’t see the connection? I know Pops refused to, but I thought you had more sense!”
“What do you expect from me, Nora?” I violently grab a bottle of bourbon from the cabinet and manage to slosh liquid all over my desk as I fill a glass. “You want me to declare war on Franks? How long do you think the family would last, huh? We can’t even keep up with the fucking Ramsays!”
“Who says we’re not keeping up?”
“That bitch showed up at the fucking funeral!” I yell at her, wondering just who all we were going to wake up with our racket. “She just walked right up to me like she owns the whole fucking town, not just the west side. No respect. No fear. And whose fault is that?”
“I don’t know, Nataniele. Whose fault is it?”
“Mine!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not supposed to be doing this! I’m not supposed to be the head of the family, and she knows it! Pops never should have turned the seat over to me!”
“Turned it over? You’re not making any sense. Who else would be there if not you?”
“Pops should still be there. Or Antony. You. Kate. Anyone but me.”
Nora presses her lips together and huffs a breath out through her nose. She moves closer, pours her own glass of bourbon, and then pulls me over to sit next to her on the couch.
“I know this isn’t what you expected, dear brother,” she says in a soft voice. “None of us expected this.
