Helen’s smile widened into something that was clearly trying very hard not to be a knowing one. Older woman, Auriga, attentive nephew who definitely wasn’t a nephew. She had a category for us, and we’d just landed in it.

I considered, for a second, defending my honor. Then I considered the way Mira’s eyes were sparkling, and I thought oh, she’s enjoying this, and then I thought honestly, fair, and I let it go.

’Sugar mommy in two worlds. Learn something from me, you losers.’

Helen showed us three houses. The first had a koi pond, which I want to mention because I had never, in my life, been in a private home with a koi pond. The second had a wine cellar I made polite noises at.

The third house had me at the front door.

It was a two story, soft white stone with dark wood trim, set back from the street behind a low hedge. The front opened into a long living room with floor-to-ceiling glass at the back, looking out onto a tiered lawn that ran down to the pool. Beyond the pool was the river, with the line of the woods behind it on the far side.

The kitchen was bigger than my entire apartment.

I walked through it slowly because I did not want to look like a kid in a candy store, even though that was what I was. A study with built-in shelves. Three bedrooms upstairs, plus a master with a tub I could lie down in fully. A small home gym room that Mira clocked appreciatively.

I stood at the back glass doors and looked at the pool and the river and tried to picture myself living here. Walking down those stairs in the morning with coffee. Sleeping in that bed.

It also felt good.

"How much?"

Helen smiled like she’d been waiting. "One point three."

I did some quiet math. One bar at eight hundred thousand. A second bar would clear it with cushion, plus the bonus. Roughly two of forty-three. I had not eaten a real meal a week ago. Now I was here.

I cleared my throat. "I want it."

"Sweetheart." Mira’s voice was gentle. "Let me get this for you. As a—"

I immediately refused. "No."

"It’s a gift."

"Aunt, please no." I turned toward her properly. "I appreciate it. I really do. But no, not this. I would just spend the rest of my life knowing I lived in a house you bought me, and that’s not... I want this to be mine."

She studied my face for a long moment. The gentle Aunt-Mira look slowly softened into something that I could tell was a tactical retreat. She knew me. She had always known me.

"Alright," she said, slowly. "How about this then, I lend it to you. The full one point three. No interest, no schedule. You pay me back with the bars, as they sell. Renner clears one, you write me a check from the account I’m setting up, until we’re even."

I thought about it and nodded. "...That works."

"Of course it works." She turned to Helen. "We’ll take it."

Helen clapped her hands together once, a small delighted sound, and got to work.

The paperwork happened on the kitchen island. I signed where Mira pointed. Helen mentioned the title office and the registration and I started to feel the panic of bureaucratic forms creeping in, and Mira put one hand flat on top of my pile of papers and said, calmly, "I’ll handle the rest. He doesn’t need to be at any of those offices."

Helen nodded like that was a normal sentence to hear.

Maybe in this colony, it was.

...

When Helen finally left, the front door closed and the house went quiet. It was a big house, so naturally it was quiet.

Mira stood in the middle of the living room with her hands on her hips and grinned at me. "So. Lucky young man."

"Don’t."

"My handsome companion. My boy toy. My—"

"I’m going to throw you in the pool." I threatened her, though even I knew I wouldn’t do that.

"You wouldn’t dare." She smiled wider. "Also, you couldn’t."

I shrugged. "I’d at least try."

"And I’d let you, just for the entertainment value."

"You enjoyed that way too much, by the way." I shook my head helplessly.

She nodded. "I did. Helen has two daughters. Tomorrow morning the entire Riverstone gossip line will know I have a sweet little kept man in a yellowed collar shirt. By next week three of those women will hate me for it. It’s going to be wonderful."

"Glad to be of service." I even gave a mock bow.

"You are. You really are." She reached out and patted my cheek lightly. "Such a good little decoration."

My lips twitched at her words. Seriously, she was really having fun with this. "Okay, I am genuinely going to try the pool thing."

She laughed, making me realise I hadn’t heard this genuine laugh from her since I was a kid sitting on her kitchen counter eating cookies she wasn’t supposed to be feeding me before dinner.

"Come on. Let’s see this lawn properly."

We went out the back doors.

The lawn was real. Damn real. The pool was real. Tiled in dark stone that drank the afternoon light, with a low stone lip and water so still it was a perfect mirror of the sky. There was a little walkway around it in pale flagstone, and Mira clicked along it in those expensive heels of hers, examining everything with the satisfied air of a general reviewing terrain.

"You’ll have parties here," she said.

"I will absolutely not have parties here." I quickly rejected the idea. Like hell I’m inviting people to disturb my peace.

"You’ll have one party. I’ll make you. I’ll bring the wine. You’ll meet nice young people my colleagues’ children will introduce you to, all of whom you will hate, and then you’ll go back to writing. It’ll be character buildi—"

Her heel skidded.

It was small. The flagstone right at the lip of the pool was a touch slicker than the rest, and her heel was too narrow, and her balance went the wrong way fast.