"They were all right."
"Come on back."
They sat in Dan's glass-walled office with the blinds half drawn, and Wade asked his questions about the operating note, and Dan answered them, patiently and well, pulling up the numbers on his screen. The rate on the line would adjust in January. The ranch was carrying more debt than Dan liked to see going into a winter, but less than a lot of places, and the calf check would cover the November payment with room to spare if the market held. Wade listened to all of this and watched Dan's face and Dan's hands, and he felt like a fool, and he could not stop.
"How's Claire doing?" Dan said, near the end, leaning back. "I haven't seen her since summer."
"Summer," Wade said.
"She came in back in July. We got to visiting." Dan smiled. "She's always good to visit with. Tell her hi."
"What'd she come in for?"
Dan's smile hesitated, very slightly. It was a banker's hesitation, the half second of a man checking which door he was allowed to walk through. "Oh, just some business on her own account. That certificate her mom left her, I think. You'd have to ask her. I'm not supposed to—you know how it is."