“Yeah, for a half-point cut.” Jeff grinned at him.

“Well . . .” Keith shrugged, feeling like a schoolboy who’d been called to the principal’s office. “Yes, but I hope you feel we’ve given you excellent service for your fees. Like I said, you’re a very important client.”

“Absolutely, Keith, absolutely. And I appreciate everything you’ve done.” Jeff stood up, Keith’s cue to do the same, not even forty-five minutes after he’d arrived. “Let’s definitely keep in touch.”

“Yes, will do,” Keith said. “Next time, I’ll take you to my club for a real lunch. Get you out of this office for a break.”

Jeff smiled, they shook hands, and Keith headed for the door. As he passed her desk, Rachel called out, “Bye, Mr. Olander.”

Keith stopped. “Call me Keith.”

“Okay. Keith,” she said, tilting her head and smiling at him.

Keith leaned in a little closer. “So, Rachel, since I didn’t manage to eat any lunch, would you like to grab some dinner tonight?”

* * *

Rachel didn’t hesitate to drink three strong cosmos on a weeknight, prompting Keith to wonder how long she would last as Jeff’s second assistant. By the time they ended up at his place, she had told him about the international flights she’d booked for the executives from Seoul and the teams of attorneys that had taken up residence in their conference room over the previous weeks. A deal was going down, no question. Keith was annoyed with himself for not thinking of it, irate that his firm had been cut out.

He fumed about it all week, his mind rattling with the news and its repercussions. When his colleagues learned he’d missed out on the deal, it would look like he was losing his edge, not to mention the big payday. Keith did what he often did in times of stress: he spent many hours late each night reviewing his investment portfolio, assessing his returns and making a few key stock purchases to rebalance his asset mix. The only thing that kept him from decompensating entirely was having Karina there with him for the week. She talked endlessly about her classes, her dorm and her new friends at the Botany Lab. She divulged that she had a boyfriend at school, and Keith had a cocktail of emotional reactions to this news. He was pleased that she’d confided in him. There were some things he’d just relinquished to the mother-daughter domain, types of conversations he assumed he would never get to have after losing his son. Still, he warned Karina not to get too serious about James, who was probably, at some level, like all guys his age. “Just be careful, honey. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I know, Dad. Don’t worry.” She smiled, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

Keith couldn’t remember when he’d seen his daughter so light and happy. It was heartening for him to know that after everything she’d been through, Karina seemed to have landed on her feet.