He's been gone for four days when Maya arrives at the farmhouse with a garment bag over her shoulder and an expression that tells me she knows something I don't.
I've been managing. That's the honest word for it. Managing the girls and the company and the Gerald situation — he's been anxious since Damien left, patrolling the perimeter of the yard with extra vigilance, which Hope finds reassuring and which tells me more about dogs and attachment than I expected to learn this week.
Damien called Tuesday. Wednesday. Then Thursday his calls started going to voicemail and his texts came back short. Distracted. The Singapore portfolio situation again, he said. An emergency with the regional partnership that required his full attention. He was sorry. He'd call when he could.
I told him it was fine.
I said the word and meant most of it and managed the rest.
