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But my fingers graze something furry, and my hand jerks back. Bending down, I peer inside.
Then a scream tears from my chest.
Halfway to her house, Val spins around. “Lenny, what’s wrong?”
“It’s in my mailbox.” I back away and point. “There’s a tarantula in my mailbox.”
“Cool!” Jake runs toward me. “Can I see?”
“Don’t touch it, Jake.” Val trails behind him. “We’re in Jersey. How the hell did a tarantula get in your mailbox?”
Jake scrunches his face and looks at his mother like she’s a fool. “Lots of different kinds of spiders live in New Jersey.”
I drop my bags on the sidewalk and run my fingernails over my arms. “Oh god. I’m getting itchy. What if she laid eggs in there? I’ll have to move. Where’s a place that doesn’t have tarantulas, Jake?”
“It’s probably not a tarantula. The wolf spider lives here, and it’s furry like a tarantula. It’s an easy mistake to make.”
“Stop scratching. You’re making me itchy.” Val nudges me with her elbow. “Don’t get too close, Jake. I know you’re curious, but you don’t know what this thing might do to you.”
“It won’t bite me.” Jake sighs like he’s irritated that he has to explain this. “It’s not an aggressive kind of spider, and it doesn’t like people.”
“The feeling is mutual.” I groan. “How am I going to get it out of there?”
Jake peers inside the mailbox, squinting to see. “Wow. That’s pretty big.”
Val lowers her voice. “This is one of those times you don’t want to hear a sentence like that.”
I clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. “This is not the time for dick jokes.”
“Wait a second.” Jake reaches into the mailbox.
Val screeches. “Stop, don’t touch it!”
But the little shit lifts the spider out by its leg and flings it at us.
Val shields her head with her hands and drops to the ground, and I take off, clawing out of my jacket and tossing it behind me—both of us screaming like lunatics.
“It’s not real, you guys.” Jake plants his hands on his knees, hunched over as he laughs. “It’s a fake spider.”
“A fake spider?” I slow down and make my way back to my mailbox. “Are you sure?”
“See for yourself.” He kicks it over with his shoe, revealing a barcode sticker stuck to the spider’s underbelly.
Val slaps her palm against her chest. “Jesus Christ, Jake. Are you trying to kill your mother?”
He grins and reaches out his hand to help her up. “Miss Lenny, who put a fake spider in your mailbox?”
My eyes flick to the house across the street, and the curtain covering one of the windows sways back and forth.
I grit my teeth, anger swelling inside my chest like a wave. “Oh, I think I might have an idea.”
Val arches a brow as she follows my line of sight. “You don’t think it was Grant Harper’s daughter, do you?”
Grant Harper. “Tall, dark, and doesn’t talk to anyone?”
“Yes, and his daughter is Noah.” She covers Jake’s ears. “I heard from Lucy’s daughter down the block that she’s been hanging out with the wrong crowd at school. Poor thing doesn’t have a mother. What do you expect?”
“I don’t think it was Noah who put the tarantula in my mailbox. I think it was her father.”
