Her Billionaire Toy Boy

“Basic but fantastic,” Mira said. She checked her watch. “Are we going to go ahead and get started with dinner soon, then?”

Sam smiled at her. “Why, you hungry?”

“Not yet.”

“Then we’ll wait.”

Mira grinned, but then gestured out into the living room. “What, we aren’t going to check with them? What if they’re starving?”

“Then they should have checked with the chef,” Sam said brusquely. A wrinkle appeared on Mira’s forehead. There was an odd crispness in Sam’s manner which Mira noticed but could not explain. She opened her mouth to ask—

“So,” said Sam, not noticing that he was almost interrupting Mira. “What would you like to do until then?”

“I have no idea,” said Mira demurely. “What are my options?”

“Right, yeah, sorry, I forgot,” said Sam, standing up straight, no longer leaning on the kitchen counter. “I should give you a tour—of course you have no idea what’s going on. Let’s get you grounded. Here, we have the kitchen,” Sam said, with a flourish and a slight bow.

“You’re such a great tour guide,” Mira said, grinning.

“I aim to please,” said Sam. “Through here, we have two idiots on a couch.”

“Art installation?”

“Of a sort,” said Sam. He looked down at Damien and Lisa, who were fully immersed in their phones, not acknowledging Mira or Sam’s presence at all. “Guys, dinner in maybe two hours?”

“Sounds good to me,” mumbled Damien. Sam rolled his eyes. Mystified at their relationship, Mira followed Sam as he wended his way further into the house.

“Dining room,” Sam glibly said of a room set two stairs down, through which they walked. The table could have seated twenty, and it had candles already lit standing upon its top between every set of chairs. “And through here we have the den, or the TV room, or, well, whatever this space is.”

Mira looked approvingly at the overstuffed chairs, poufs, and sofas. It looked like a grandmotherly version of a movie theater. A very large TV stood in one corner of the room.

“Going back out into the hall, we have the rec room,” Sam said. “It leads outside, so that’s where we keep most of our fishing gear and stuff. And, well, here’s the outside,” he said, a bit lamely. Mira was no longer listening to him, however. Her mouth had fallen open.

Seemingly abutting right up to Sam’s back door was a ridiculously gorgeous view featuring snow-capped mountains and a lake which rippled invitingly in the warm sun. It smelled almost cartoonishly fresh. Mira felt the weight and struggles of her bustling city life melt off of her, just by looking at it for only a few minutes.

“But we’ll be outside all of tomorrow,” said Sam. “Let’s see what the others are up to; maybe we’ll end the night with a glass of wine on the deck out here, once it’s cooled off enough so the mosquitoes aren’t quite so bad.” He beamed at Mira and led the way inside. After one last look at the gorgeousness with which they were surrounded, Mira followed suit.

“So, guys, want to play a board game or something?” Sam strode across the living room and opened up a large cabinet. Mira gasped and flew to his side. There seemed to be every version of every game imaginable sitting inside the cabinet, from Lord of the Rings Stratego to Star Wars Monopoly to Hungry Hungry Hippos to what seemed like the oldest edition of Twister imaginable.

“Yeah, my family does like their games,” said Sam fondly. Mira turned around and leaned on the cabinet to look up at him. “Family?” She said the word innocently.

“Yeah,” said Sam. “This is my place now, but it’s belonged to my family ever since I can remember.”

“So you grew up coming here?”

“Yeah,” said Sam. He looked around the place affectionately. “I literally don’t remember the first time I came here. It’s just always been … here.”

“How often do you come here?”

“I try to come up at least once a season,” said Sam.

“Even the winter?”

“Especially in the winter.” Sam grinned. “You wouldn’t believe how unimaginably cozy it gets in here when the snow’s insulating everything and basically your only choice is to huddle in a blanket with hot coffee….”

“That sounds wonderful,” Mira admitted. “Speaking of coffee, though.”

“You want some?” Sam checked his watch. “Now?”

“Not now,” said Mira. “I’m planning on getting up early tomorrow morning—I want to see the sunrise.”

“I’ll join you,” said Sam. “That’s something I always try to do on my first morning here.”

“Brilliant,” said Mira, and she meant it. Sam didn’t seem like the sort to try and ruin a good and beautiful, still and silent morning by chattering. She also wondered what he would be like, first thing in the morning. She giggled at the thought.

“Well, then,” Mira continued. “I was planning on asking—where’s the coffee, and how do I make it, and all of that.”

“I can make the coffee tomorrow morning,” said Sam automatically. Perhaps Mira’s demeanor caused him to reconsider this. “But, hey, if you wake up first…let me show you where the stuff is.”

She again followed him into the kitchen and watched as he knelt down to pull the coffee out from a drawer, along with a gleaming Chemex and a burnished French press.

“Your choice of a brew, really,” said Sam.

“I’ll see what I feel like tomorrow morning, I suppose,” said Mira.

“Not unless I get up first,” laughed Sam. “Hey, what say you that we open up a bottle of wine and challenge Damien and Lisa to a game of cards?”

Three rounds of gin rummy later, Mira had decided that she knew nothing about gin rummy and was indeed positively horrible at it. However, the wine was delicious and was helping to make her companions grow progressively funnier. After two glasses, she was positive that Damien was an extremely charming gentleman, and she thought it strange that Sam showed any reticence about their relationship at all.

“Right, you guys, it looks like Lisa’s taken it,” said Sam, throwing his cards down on the table. He looked around at the three of them, bemused, and said, “looks like I’m the designated chef tonight.”