Delaney watched the doors close behind him. Something about that calm bothered Prescott more than an argument would have. "You know him?" he asked her.
"We shared a table at a diner." Prescott stared. "You shared a table with the maintenance technician?"
"I shared a table with a father and his daughter." "That is not what I asked." Delaney turned toward him.
"Then perhaps ask a better question." The tour continued, but Merritt appeared everywhere without trying to. A nurse thanked him for fixing a thermostat in the neonatal waiting room before her shift began. A janitor waved from across the hall.
An elderly volunteer called him by name and asked about Tamsin's science fair. He seemed rooted in the building in a way Delaney's engraved donor plaque never could be. Her money had helped renovate the wing. Merritt had helped make it livable.
Near the elevator, Delaney caught up with him while the others moved ahead. "You knew I was coming." Merritt pressed the button for the basement.
"Your name is on a six-foot banner outside." "That is not what I meant." He looked at her.
"No, I did not know." Delaney folded her arms. "You always this calm around people who insult you?"
"No."
"What happens when you are not calm?" "I go home and do the dishes badly." She laughed despite herself. The elevator arrived, but neither stepped inside.
Delaney studied him. "Prescott thinks everybody wants something." "People who have a lot sometimes worry a lot about losing it." "And people who do not?"
Merritt looked down at the worn handle of his toolbox. "We worry about different things." Before she could ask what those things were, a little girl in hospital pajamas appeared down the hallway holding her mother's hand. She waved at Merritt.
"Mr. Caldwell, the heater works now." Merritt smiled.
"Good. You keeping those socks on?"
The girl lifted one foot. Bright purple socks covered her ankles. "Both of them."
"Then we are winning." She walked away. Delaney watched his face soften, then close again. Wealth had taught her how people behaved when they wanted access to power.
Merritt did not lean toward it. He did not flatter it. He did not resent it. He simply seemed free of it.
That made him difficult to understand and difficult to ignore. "Dinner sometime?" Delaney asked before she could reconsider. Merritt looked at her for a long second.