Nicola's face gave away that she'd noticed the ring long before this had been mentioned. Her grip on her husband's hand tightened minutely. "Hello, Yukio. I'm Nicola. The man about to yell, though I pray he'll remember that we're in public, is Demitri. It's good to meet you." She offered a dainty hand to Yukio, already interposing her presence between the boy and the man.

She only kissed her daughter on her forehead, murmuring for a moment. "It's not hard to catch her mutter words like, "My babygirl's grown up. When did that happen?" She sounds just on the verge of crying.