Page 18 of With Spite

By the time I finished, Harvey and his girlfriend—fiancée?—arrived, Heidi fresh on their heels.

I was halfway to the door when Hampton and his wife, Candice, arrived with my one and only niece.

Polly looked miserable, so I pulled her from her mother’s arms and snuggled her close. “How’s my Polly?”

Polly, two years old going on forty, wrapped her arms around my neck and snuggled in deep.

Her not talking had me more worried than ever.

Polly was a chatterbox and always had been.

She may not be understandable, but she never let that stop her.

“Her fever’s down,” Candice said. “Thanks for hosting dinner this week. I’m exhausted.”

“You have the flu, too?”

Candice shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m just exhausted from having to take care of her while Hampton was on shift, or if it’s because I was sick, too. Today was the first day that we both felt somewhat normal in forty-eight hours. That cough, though…”

Speaking of her cough, it was hot and wet against my neck.

I patted Polly’s back.

“Pizza should be here in a minute.”

Just as I said that, the pizza man pulled up.

There were only four restaurants in Sawtooth.

Toot Toot’s—which was more of a bar.

Hopps.

Harvest, which required a reservation to get in.

And then there was Papa’s.

Papa’s was really good, and I was really looking forward to the pizza.

Polly sat with me and picked at the cheese on her pizza while the rest of us devoured our food.

“So your brother tells me that the new girl got put through the wringer today,” Romina said, eyes alight with anger.

Romina and my mother didn’t get along.

Neither did Candice and my mom.

Heidi barely tolerated my mom.

But poor Candice and Romina? They were screwed.

My mother didn’t like women. Especially not women who took her baby boys away from her.

Or, at least, that was the way she saw it.

Anything that took her children’s time away from her was a bad thing.

I was sure that Mom would hate Heidi’s man, too, if Heidi ever shared that she was dating someone seriously.