She hummed. "It's a gift for both of us." The words held promise.

  "Now, now. You are definitely teasing me. My mind is wild with the possibilities." He made a strangled noise at the back of his throat and she chuckled, knowing how she affected him. "Ah! My mother is here. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

  Oh? She had come to talk to him? Katherine wondered how it would go. She was slightly nervous that they might talk about her but she also knew that Cage had missed a family meal because he went to her to make things better. Would his mother be discontent with her for that?

  Leave it. She couldn't think too much and scare herself even before a problem arose. Overthinking would kill romance before any real problem could. She would just wait and face any problems that might come their way.

  "Bye," she said cheerily and with that, he hung up.

  Cage was adorable. The way he spoke about his parents and still was scared of his mother? She loved it. Their bond seemed to be good, too. What girl didn't like a boy who loved and cherished their mother. It spoke volumes about their character. Not that she judged people too harshly for how they treated others.

  [Rinsten: Miss you.]

  "That cost me 900 dollars, if he rips them, I will cut his throat," Katherine heard Lily threaten. She turned to gawk at her friend. "What?" she commented, noticing Katherine's gaze. "I'm not lying. I would at least scream." She shrugged.

  "I bet you would," Angelina snickered——

  Cage made his way to the living room where his mother was busy looking around and fixing anything that was out of place. And a lot was out of place because he had not been in a stellar mood the last time he had been in this house and no one had cleaned up since.

  She looked mildly pissed off, but Cage didn't know what had caused that. Was it the state of the room or the fact that he hadn't updated her about the situation with Katherine when he had the time?

  "You can stop hiding now," Cage heard his mother call out and startled. Her spidey senses always worked when it was something to do with him. It was probably a mom thing that he would never understand.

  "Hi, mom," he said in a cheerful voice.

  "You could have at least given me an address to send lunch and dinner for that day. I could have at least fed your girlfriend some food." She was in formal clothing, glaring at him like he was the biggest criminal on the planet.

  "I know. I just needed time to explain everything. I didn't plan on letting you say hi so early either," he said. Bad move.

  "Ah, now that you have someone you love, you discard me, eh?" The older woman rolled her eyes. If Cage had it in him, he would roll into a ball and cry. Who said that he wasn't scared of his mom? She was a sweetheart and supported him in everything but she could be the devil's incarnate when she interrogated someone.

  "Mom," he whined. Her eyes softened a little, letting him know that she was simply joking. She crooked a singer at him and beckoned him forward. He moved forward without hesitation. Her hand closed around his chin, a comical image considering that he was a head taller than her. She eyed Cage for a minute before wrapping her arms around him.

  Quickly, she pulled away and pointed towards the couch. He quickly sat down and pulled her by her arm, making her take the seat beside him.

  "You're in trouble, young man," she said. "You didn't call me at all."

  Shit.

  "Yeah, everything was too much and I had back to back meetings today so……" She shook her head, stroking his back as if to comfort him.

  "My hair will grey if I keep worrying about you so much." She paused and beamed at him. "Now, tell me about your girlfriend."

  Cage lit up as he pulled out his phone pulled out his camera roll. While Katherine had been working around the house and gathering things, he had followed her and taken pictures of her that he could look at when he missed her. In some, she looked fierce with concentration in some and smiling happily in others. There were pictures of the indoor camp, as well.

  "She's so beautiful," his mother said with a smile. "Tell me about her."

  "Stephen probably sent you her pictures…… Her name is Katherine Austen. She is twenty-five, a freelance graphic designer and ill.u.s.trator. She's an amazing artist."

  "That sounds wonderful. All is well, I hope?" she asked. There was the concerned mother hen that he knew all his life.

  "I couldn't leave this morning. I didn't want to." He shrugged. "She had a close-knit family and well, it is highly possible that they are not going to approve of me," he snickered.

  "Well, I could persuade them," his mother said with a wink. Cage shook his head vehemently.

  "Anna Cavanaugh, please don't scare my girlfriend away. She is shy, to begin with. She'd flee if she saw you." She snickered at this.

  "Well, hopefully, I will meet her before you get engaged. You sound so in love. I am happy for you." A thought must have crossed her mind as she started to speak again. "So when are you seeing her again? When can I actually meet her?" Cage thought for a bit before answering. "I was joking about the engagement. Please don't tell me you actually got married without me."

  Like he could do that to his parents. More so because they would kill him. He shook his head. "No, we are going to spend 5 days together next week. Not married, I promise. I'll miss the family day again."

  "Oh, that was fast." She pulled out her phone and pressed it to her ear. "Honey, do you mind coming over to Cage's place? He'll miss family dinners for a while, so I want to make up the time."