PART 2

Cole knocked softly on the door to his mother’s room and peeked inside. Inara sat at her vanity arranging her hair into an elaborate twist with glittering pins and barrettes, and she frowned when she saw him in the mirror.

“Are you here as a Guild representative?” she asked coolly, setting her styling tools aside and sitting up straight.

“Maybe in another five minutes,” Cole said gently. “For now, I’ll just be your son. How’s your foot?”

“What?”

“Baba, said –”

“Right,” Inara said congenially. “I just need to stay off it for a few hours and get some rest. I’ll be fine by this evening. How do you like field work?”

She accepted Cole’s hand as she moved from the vanity chair to her red couch, and she propped her injured foot on a pillow.

“I miss my world,” Cole said honestly. He loved being on his ship with Genny and he loved being able to help Zoë with her work and he loved seeing the Companions he helped face-to-face, but it didn’t stop him from missing his world. They circled back to Sihnon every few weeks to check in with the Guild and take on a new batch of work, but it wasn’t enough for Cole. He got homesick all the time. He liked talking to Mama about Sihnon, because she’d grown up there and it was something they could share, even if they couldn’t walk the streets together.

They made small talk for a few minutes until the white elephant in the room became too obvious to ignore. Inara pressed her lips together in frustration and Cole stopped talking.

“I can’t believe they sent you,” she said bitterly.

Recognizing the transition to business, Cole stood and closed the door for privacy.

“The Guild isn’t reputed as a family business,” he said apologetically. “They expect we can maintain professional distance.”

Inara took a deep breath and folded her hands in her lap, sitting as properly as she could with her foot elevated. The low arm on the couch didn’t offer her much support. “I’m sure we can.”

Cole clasped his hands behind his back and then decid