People vote for what they understand. Make sure they understand your version before they're handed someone else's.
Catherine stared at him. Where did you learn that?
She said insurance company, he said. For months, every form, every appeal.
He tightened the last bolt on the gate hinge. When the institution is bigger than you, you don't fight it from the outside.
You document, you organize, and you find the people inside who know what's right. She was quiet for a long moment.
I have six shareholders who originally funded the company before the institutional money came in, she said slowly. They believed in the mission.
They're not the largest, but they're not insignificant either. Start there, he said.
This morning. This morning, he said.
She took her phone out of her pocket, looked at it, looked at him. Why are you helping me with this?
She said, "This is not a fence." He opened the gate, tested the swing.
It moved smooth and clean. No drag, perfectly balanced.
"No," he said. But you needed someone to hold the post steady while you checked the angle.
He looked at her. That's all I'm doing.
She looked at the gate at the clean swing of it at the fence behind it straight and solid. It's good work, she said again.
He looked at her. I know, he said.
He was loading his tools when Richard came back. The black Mercedes came through the gate at 11:15 with the precise timing of a man who had calculated when the contractor would be nearly gone and the house would feel most unsettled.
Daniel had met men like this before. They didn't always announce their strategy, but it lived in their timing.
Richard got out and looked at the fence with the same measuring look as before. Then he looked at Daniel.
Then he looked at the house where Catherine had just appeared in the doorway. Nice work, Richard said to Daniel.
The way some men compliment the help to perform their own reasonleness. Daniel said, "Thanks."
Richard turned toward Catherine. "You have a minute.
I'm on my way out," Catherine said. He blinked.
You weren't going anywhere when I pulled in. "I am now," she said.
She had her bag over her shoulder keys in hand. She had moved very fast.
I just want to talk, Richard said, about Lily, about the arrangement, about being reasonable Catherine, which I think we both want to be. Your attorney's emails are not reasonable, Catherine said.
My attorney will respond to them. I'm not here as opposing counsel.
I'm here as Lily's father. Then be her father, Catherine said.
Call her, take her to dinner, help her with her homework. Don't send legal documents designed to destabilize her mother and call that fatherhood.
She walked toward her car, which was parked to the side. She stopped beside Daniel's truck.
"Lock the gate when you leave."