“And you calmly evaluated her state of sobriety with your equally sober and unclouded judgment?"

“We had it covered," I said defensively.

“You mean a bunch of teenagers THOUGHT they had it covered. I can understand your impulse to handle your own messes, but it wasn't the mature thing to do. You knew I'd come home eventually, and even if I didn't, Belle's father was right next door!"

I blinked and my mouth dropped open a little. The thought of asking

Belle's father to drive had never even crossed my mind.

“Zofia is under 21," she continued, “and did it ever occur to you to consider what a DUI would mean to her future? Or worse: What if she wasn't quite as sober as you thought, and something actually happened to the girls?" Mother huffed. "I don't claim to have been a very maternal parent, but I thought I had drilled into your head the need to be a responsible young man.”

“I know, I know.”

“Clearly, you didn’t know. Not tonight."

“I'm SORRY, Mom."

That brought her up short. With a bit of a smile, she looked at me and asked, "Did you just call me ‘Mom'?"

I blinked, honestly not able to remember. My brain was still a bit mushy. I didn't think I'd said it, as it was so out of character for me, but I simply shrugged and replied, “I have no idea what you're talking about. But that said, I do need to say ‘thank you’ for coming home and saving the day, as it were. You didn't have to drive the girls back home, but you did, and I'm grateful for that."

Mother smiled, and for half a second I thought she might actually step forward and hug me. But that was a ridiculous thought, and she ultimately waved me off dismissively.

“It's what any adult would have done, parent or not."

“Still. Thank you."

Mother nodded and turned to leave the room, but stopped short and looked back at me sternly. "Be better next time," she admonished. And then she finally walked out, closing the door behind her.

With a sigh, I rubbed my forehead and mentally went over all the steps

I'd need to make in the morning in order to arrange pick-ups to bring the girls back here so they could collect their cars. But that didn't take very long, and once I was done, I found myself alone in my room, staring at the ceiling, wondering what the hell was going to happen

And I'd been doing this for close to two hours.

That's when I heard the doorbell ring. I jerked upright and practically

FLEW down the stairs. Mother was home, reading in the Living room and she frowned at me, asking in a bit of an exasperated tone, “Now what?”

I didn't respond, too intent on getting to the door. Without even looking through the peephole, I jerked the door open, and my heart leaped at the sight of Belle standing before me, a rather shy smile on her face. Without hesitation, I reached across the threshold and yanked her up into my arms while she wrapped her legs around my waist. And without even asking her a single thing, I grabbed her head and pulled her to me for a fierce, intense kiss.

For half a second Belle kissed me back, but then she pressed on my shoulders, pulled her face off mine, and hissed from inches away.

“Matty! He's watching us!"

I blinked, jerked my head around, and saw that Mr. K was indeed watching us from the sidewalk. And my heart sank down just as suddenly as it had leapt up moments earlier, as I started to panic that I'd just made the situation even worse.

But Belle giggled and rubbed my cheek. "Relax, he just wanted to make sure I made it safely inside. It's not every day Daddy lets me walk outside in the middle of the night."