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My cheeks were on fire. I couldn’t have felt more cringe if I’d been dropped in a vat of lava. But under it, there was something else, a steady, quiet warmth that started in my chest and spread until I couldn’t feel the edges of it.

My mother studied him for a long moment.

“Well,” she said at last. “I believe you.”

Maksim inclined his head.

“But if you hurt him,” she added, “I will not go easy on you. I do not care if you are six-foot-four. I do not care if you have a bullet wound. I will find a wooden spoon, young man, and I will use it.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

“You are not an ordinary man, are you?” said my mother, eyes narrowing. “To make my son bend and stretch so for you.”

“ Mom! “

“I am merely observing.”

Jason made a strangled noise in the doorway. Jenny had turned crimson. Sabine, unexpectedly, was laughing so hard she had to sit down on the floor.

“I like her,” Sabine wheezed. “Maksim, I like her so much.”

“I am glad,” said Maksim, faintly.

“I’m going to get a coffee,” said my mother, with great dignity. She patted my cheek, the one she’d slapped. “You two talk. I’ll bring sandwiches. And Alexander?”

“Yes?”

“You are grounded.”

She swept out. Jenny followed, giggling. Jason gave me two thumbs up and a look of pure, fond, suffering pride, and closed the door behind them.

The room went quiet.

We looked at each other.

“She likes you,” I said.

“She threatened me with a spoon.”

“That means she likes you.”

“I see.” His mouth twitched. He pulled me down, gently, by the back of the neck, and put his forehead against mine, and we stayed like that for a long moment, breathing.

“You told her,” he said, softly.

“Yeah.”

“About us.”

“About us. All of it. Almost all of it.” I swallowed. “I said I loved you. Out loud. To my mother. I’ve never said that to anyone.”

“You said it to me in the warehouse.”

“I was panicking.”

“You said it well.”

“Shut up.”