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“That’s tourist price,” he says.

The vendor smiles. “No, no. For you, special price.”

“That was the special price?”

“Very special.”

Clint huffs a laugh, but his shoulders have already changed. He asks a lower number. The vendor counters. Clint counters again, sharper this time, and I watch him work the exchange with more skill and less hope.

Eventually the number comes down. But not enough.

Clint taps the edge of the board, then steps back. “Too rich for my blood.”

“I can get it,” I say.

The words are out before I can stop them.

Clint looks at me. “No.”

“I just meant—”

“I know what you meant.”

“It’s your first-date chessboard.”

His mouth tightens. “Don’t do that.”

The vendor looks between us, suddenly pretending not to understand English.

I lower my voice. “Clint, it’s just a chessboard. I can—”

“No.” He gives the board one last look, then turns away. “I don’t need it.”

He wants it. I could give it to him. He doesn’t want it like that.

The rich daddies and their boys comment is following us through the market.

Clint picks up a wooden spoon from the next table and examines it like he’s fascinated by utensils.

“Nice spoon,” I say quietly.

“Shut up, Paul.”

I walk beside him through the next aisle and feel the shape of my own money again. It’s usually a comfort. Stability. Right now, it’s just volume. A thing taking up too much space between us.

Renny’s money bought houses, businesses, traditions, this entire impossible month in Mexico. Clint got a letter twenty-nine years too late and an inheritance fight that makes him calculate whether a chessboard might break the bank.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I don’t want to look at it yet. Nothing good happens there.

I look anyway.

Reggie’s name sits on the screen, followed by a preview I can read before I unlock it.

Movement on PV. Need to discuss today.

I stop beside a rack of hanging hammocks while Clint continues three steps ahead.

The chessboard is behind us. The house is ahead of us. If one doesn’t shatter this fragile thing between us, the other almost certainly will.