Page 63 of Never Give Up

“Brian?”

I close my eyes, already afraid that she’s going to tell me that she regrets last night. “Yeah?”

“Is everything—are we good?”

I find a smile, then turn. “I’m hoping so.” A blush heats my cheeks as I make that admission. “I meant everything I said last night. But if you don’t—”

“From the sound of the noise, the boys want breakfast.” Maya pushes her hair out of her face as she offers a small smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “I can make something. If you want me to sneak out, it’s going to have to be by the back door. I don’t think I’m up to escaping through the window.”

My mother’s voice filters in, telling the boys to stop shouting. And I shake my head. “No escape. I—”

I stop, unsure how to say what I’m feeling. How to make sure she knows where she stands. The power she commands over my heart.

Her gaze flickers away from mine as she gets up. When she looks at me, a bright smile is there, one that hurts because I can’t shake the feeling I’m about to let her down.

Not gonna happen this time.

“I don’t want to hide us.” There. I said it. And there’s no taking it back. Now, I just have to wait and see what she says about it.

Maya nods. “I’ll make them cookies for breakfast.”

“Cookies?”

This time the smile is genuine. “They’ll get them from me anyway, so I might as well offer.”

“You get dressed. I’ll handle the heathens and let them know you’re here so they don’t freak out and destroy the place.”

And I leave the room, closing the door behind me. The entire time I’m smiling because I know for once I did the right thing. I said the right thing.

Ididn’tscrew it up.

“I hope you don’t mind I dropped them off.” My mother stands in the kitchen, smiling as she leans back against the sink, a cup of coffee in hand. “I can take them back to my house if you want some privacy.”

Her gaze goes pointedly to Maya’s bag on the table. When she turns back to me, she has an eyebrow arched and she’s waiting for an answer to her silent question.

“No, it’s fine. Maya stayed over.” Before Mom’s smile can fully bloom—she likes Maya—I rush on. “Her roommate was out of town and with the boys away, there’s plenty of room here.” No, I’m not keeping what I did with Maya a secret, but I’m not about to tell my mom before Maya and I can actually have a conversation about what we are.

Her smile falters slightly. “How’s she doing, Brian?” The question of the century, it seems.

“She seems to be moving along. Good days and bad.” I cross in front of her to pour a cup of coffee as the rising voices of the boys filter down the hall.

“And you two are…?”

“Friends.”

“Yes.” Maya speaks from behind me and I almost drop the coffee mug as I try to work out if there’s anything in the tone. If she was talking to me or interrupting our conversation or if she was talking to the boys who are already following her every step.

But she sounds like Maya.

“We’re gonna make cookies,” she says. “The boys—”

“Cookies!” Both of them start whooping loudly.

“Let her be,” says my mother. She sets down her cup on the sink and then brushes an invisible wrinkle off her pants. “I’m giving Maya permission to punish you if either one of you so much as takes one step out of line.”

Her words are met with uproars of laughter. Not just from the boys but from Maya, too.

“No way,” Jonathan says. “She wouldn’t.” He nudges her with his shoulder, and I chuckle at the fact that he’s just as tall as she is.

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