She studied my face for a long second. Then, slowly, with what looked like physical effort, she slid off my lap and back onto the couch beside me. Not far. Close enough that her knee was still touching my leg.
Her blouse was half-untucked and the third undone button had become a fourth somewhere in the last minute, and the skirt was still hiked to upper-thigh, and she made absolutely no move to fix any of it.
I tried to point it out, "...You know your blouse is open."
"I know."
"Aunt."
She smiled, "What. You're allowed to look. You're going to look. Pretending I'm not asking you to look would be insulting to both of us." She reached for her coffee with the calm of a woman recovering her breath. "Talk, sweetheart. I'm listening."
I took a slow steadying breath, "Okay. So, about the gold."
"Mm."
"It didn't come from a vault on Earth."
She tilted her head, watching me. "Go on."
