I hear footsteps as he walks across the hallway upstairs and takes the stairs two at a time. Blake’s not stupid. He’ll know something is up when he sees me down here, especially with his mom. And I don’t have time to come up with a good-enough lie by the time he’s at the bottom of the steps.

“What’s going on?” he asks. “Andre? What are you… Why are you and my mother together?”

My heart rate speeds up. My blood pumps so loudly, I swear it’s all I can hear. But Claire’s words, as she turns to me, break through the noise.

“Do you want to tell him, or should I?”

“He doesn’t need to know,” I answer.

“It involves him, since you were doing it for him, Andre. Plus, you can’t move forward with him while you’re keeping this secret.”

“Someone tell me what’s going on!”

The ball’s in my court. Claire isn’t going to save me.

This isn’t how I wanted this to go down.

Part of me was hoping that this, as Claire called it, brave kindness would fix everything between us. I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore.

“I was trying to fix it.”

“Fix…what?”

“This. Everything. Dave. Your family. I was—”

But Blake cuts me off, the anger and confusion in his face shifting to understanding. “You did not.”

“Oh, he did,” says Claire. “He broke rule number two in the process too.”

“I thought it was the right thing!”

“Why in the world did you think… Did you think I wanted this? Is that what you thought would… What? Make up for what happened on our date?”

Claire feigns disinterest, but I can tell, judging by how her eyebrow quirks, that she’s interested—like any parent would be. But she interjects herself, raising her hand like she can control things with a single motion.

But Blake does fall quiet, and I don’t speak either.

“What he did was foolish, rash, shortsighted…” she says, looking at Blake, speaking to him. “But his intentions were good.”

“I’m furious.”

“But he did this for you. Remember that. And in the end, everything will be okay. Nothing was broken. Or rather, nothing will be for long.

“Now, I need to go back in time and make sure that Andre didn’t make any…unexpected changes. Can I trust that neither of you will kill each other or try to travel back in time and change something else?”

I want to say yes. No, I want to say, Yes, ma’am. But the words won’t leave my throat. Blake keeps his gaze firmly fixed on a spot of warped wood on the floor.

“That wasn’t a rhetorical question, boys.”

“Yes,” I say.

“Sure,” he replies.

“Good.” Claire walks over to me, cupping my cheek again, forcing me to look into her now kind eyes.