Page 103 of Bless This Hot Mess

“And the… cash?” Japheth asked, thinking of the body bags of money, the weird circular financial arrangements. “The… rotating donations in body bags?”

“Body bags!?” Eva startled, pushing back from the table in surprise.

“Not body bags. They’re hockey bags! It’s just a couple of old equipment bags I use to carry stuff around in. Japheth and his friends had such a scared look on their face when they saw them, I thought it was funny. They made someassumptions. I thought it was funny to pull their leg. Maybe I pulled too hard and too long,” Rino explained, shaking his head.

“Rino! Youmostriciattolo! And you wonder why people make up stories about us?” Alma threw crostini at her son.

Leo sighed, “We had made unusual arrangements, yes. Emma-Lou’s parents, they were not good with money. They borrowed from everyone. They were drowning in debt. We threw them a rope. And then another rope. WWJD has been struggling for years. No one was advertising. So, we advertised. And we donated. And then when that still wasn’t enough, a few loans. They gave us IOU drafts. It was messy. But we did not wash money for the devil, eh? We tried to keep a small, strange but important thing alive. For the town, for our friends. And now, for you and your friends.”

“Emma-Lou’s parents,” Alma added softly, “they were good people. When they disappeared on that cruise, we were as shocked as anyone. We wept. We sent flowers. We lit candles. We did not push them into the Bermuda Triangle or pull strings to vanish them like some kind of puppet masters.”

Rino looked at his hands and then up at Japheth, searching his face, begging to be believed, “If we were such monsters, would my family be coaxing you to test drive me? Wouldn’t it be easier to make sure you just crashed?”

“That’s… a fair point,” Japheth admitted faintly, again feeling ashamed for being so emboldened to make the accusations, even if they had been offered up as kindly as he could manage. “I’m sorry. I just had to know for sure.”

“So, people,” Eva said, swirling her wine, “they see an Italian family with money and think, ah, must be mafia. Theydon’t think about the long hours, hard work, or an over-caffeinated mother, and father and brothers who cannot sit down. It’s easier to say, ‘they’re dangerous’ than to say, ‘they are trying.’”

“But then, and I’m sorry, I’m just trying to learn the truth, who burned WWJD and why?” Japheth whispered to himself as much as to all of them as he looked around the table, “Where’s Emma-Lou? If it wasn’t…”

Leonardo’s face closed slightly. “That is for the police to find out. And perhaps,” his gaze flicked to Rino, then back to Japheth, “for brave young men who are not afraid to ask hard questions. But if you are staying in this house, under our roof, you must know this–we do not hurt people we love.”

Alma reached across the table and put her hand over Japheth’s. Her palm was warm, her grip strong from a lifetime of hard work. “You are safe here, Japheth,” she said. “With us. With Rino. We are loud, we are nosy, we make too much food. We will serve you too much wine. But we are not dangerous.Dio mio. Look at this face.” She squeezed his chin lightly, “You think I would let anyone hurt you?”

Japheth’s eyes stung unexpectedly. He swallowed hard, fighting the urge to get so emotional on a first date. He’d coasted into the evening expecting either romance or danger, maybe a little of both. Instead, he’d found a family who were somehow both softer and sharper than the rumours suggested. The sand under his feet hadn’t stopped shifting but it had formed into something that felt more like firm ground. He looked over at Rino who met his gaze steadily, a muscle ticking in his jaw.

“You don’t have to believe me,” he said. “But I hope you will. Because despite you toeing over the line of good manners with my family, and despite you unwittingly or wittingly coaxing them on in never ending innuendo,and despite you professing to prefer public transit to my Maserati, I would like…” He hesitated, as if the words were heavier than he was used to lifting. “I would very much like to keep seeing you. To take you on more dates that do not involve arson, or missing people, or lawyers or my parents. Maybe just gelato, next time.”

Japheth sat back in his seat and looked around the table. Trust, he realized, wasn’t always as clear as a lightning bolt or a choir of angels singing. It was more like stepping onto a rowboat that might or might not have a hole in it and saying,Okay. Let’s see how far we get.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “I believe you. Or I want to. Which is… something.”

Rino’s shoulders dropped, just a fraction. “It’s enough for tonight,” he said and his eyes were smiling but his forehead held tight to a frown.

Eva raised her glass. “To enough! For tonight,” she toasted.

Glasses lifted. They clinked softly, candlelight catching and releasing in the curved goblets. Japheth took a sip, feeling the warmth slide through him, pooling low in his chest. He was still a little scared. He was still slightly suspicious. He was still not entirely sure whether the Ferraris were misunderstood saints or very charming small-town monsters. But he was also, undeniably, already in too deep.

As Alma brought out the panna cotta and coffee, Leo launched into a story about Rino playing hide-and-go-seek at the dealership as a kid, and Japheth let himself lean, very slightly, against his date’s shoulder. Rino’s hand found his knee under the table, resting there, heavy and comforting.

Japheth took a big breath and leaned over to whisper in his ear, “About that test drive…”

Rino nearly face-planted into his dessert.

Outside, the night settled over Greater Napanee, quiet andwatchful. And under a sky that reflected the constellations that danced in a pair of young lovers’ eyes, the river kept moving under the bridge, pushing down secrets and whispering what-ifs.

The question that had plagued Japheth at the start of the evening emerged again in his mind.The man who asked me out is…?Had Japheth just found the love he’d been praying for? Or had he just curled up happily inside hisLupo’s den, trusting the wolf when he said he was trying very hard to be vegetarian?

Rino didn’t start the engine right away. Japheth stood just outside the car, one hand resting on the open window, like neither of them quite believed the night was over. The bridge loomed above them, old steel and forgotten history, the river moving beneath like it knew something they didn’t yet.

“You’re sure you’re okay riding home?” Rino asked, though his voice had softened into something that clearly meantI don’t want you to go.

Japheth smiled, slow and dangerous in a way that had already undone him once tonight. “I’ll survive.”

Rino grinned and then pushed his door open, making Japheth scoot out of the way. He grabbed Japheth’s hand and leaned in first this time. The kiss landed softer than the one before. Less surprise. More intention. It deepened quickly anyway, because apparently neither of them had any real discipline where the other was concerned. Japheth’s hand slid along Rino’s jaw, then down his chest, then thumping over the ridges of his abs and then paused on his belt, hovering at the line between boldand reckless.

Rino let out a bated breath against his mouth. “Careful,” he murmured. “You’re playing with matches.”

Japheth grinned against him. “Just rubbing sticks… There’s no smoke yet.”