She sighed and gathered him in her arms. “She loves you?”

“She does.” She hadn’t said it yet, but he knew she did. He hoped she did.

“You’ll marry her.”

The non-question made him smile. “Yes, I’ll marry her.”

“In the church?” she said hopefully.

“Let’s not get carried away,” he said, and she eased back with a sigh.

“I’m happy for you.” She kissed his cheeks. “Bring her to dinner soon, yes?”

He nodded. “Yes. Te amo, Mãe.”

Her eyes filled again. “Te amo, meu filho,” she said, and, blowing him a last kiss, slipped out of the door.

He walked back into the living room, his hands in the pockets of his sweats, unsurprised to find Olivia waiting with worried eyes. “She’s fine,” he said, before she could ask. “She just got a little emotional.”

“Why?”

He sat beside her. “I think it’s a mom thing,” he said vaguely.

“Oh. She seemed nice.”

“She is. She’s also pushy, overbearing, and a pain in my ass.”

“You love her,” she said, her eyes softening.

“Yeah, I love her. She wants me to bring you over for dinner.”

Her face lit with cautious joy. “Like, a family dinner?”

“You up for that?”

“Sure. I’d like to meet your family.”

“Then you will,” he said easily. “But in the meantime…”

“In the meantime?”

“I was in the middle of something before my mother interrupted.”

“Oh, were you,” she said, squealing when he pushed his face into her neck to nuzzle. “Remind me what that was again? I forgot.”

“With pleasure,” he murmured, and set about reminding her very thoroughly indeed.

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

“And the next day, he took me to dinner at his mother’s.”

“Whoa. Meeting the mom, big step.” Sadie pulled a chair from the stack and set it against the wall. “How’d that go?”

“It was nice. A little nerve-wracking,” Olivia admitted. She set a chair next to Sadie’s and reached for another. “I don’t have a lot of experience with big families, and I was still feeling sort of fragile from the scene the day before.”

“I’ll bet.” Sadie frowned at the circle of chairs they were creating. “What kind of a demo is this again?”

“Wax play. Why?”

“Just wondering if we need to leave a splash zone.”

Olivia pursed her lips. “No splash zone, but Simon said he’d be opening it up for audience participation, so we should leave some extra room.”

“Maybe one more row then,” Sadie decided, and grabbed another chair. “Anyway, you were fragile?”

Olivia placed her chair to start the next row. “I always am after a big scene.”

“Me, too. It takes me a while to recalibrate.”

“But dinner was nice—excellent food—and no one got in my face too badly. Oh, and get this. His whole family calls him ‘Cage’.”

“Really? Why?”