She came home with strict instructions about screen time and a temporary ban on ice and an enormous stuffed bear from the gift shop that she'd negotiated Riley into buying, and that immediately displaced Gerald from his position of honor on the bed, a demotion Gerald appeared to accept with equanimity. "You can put your stuff in the second closet," Sophie told Riley with the casual certainty of a child who has decided a thing and sees no reason to discuss it. "The one with the blue hangers. I moved my old art supplies. " Riley looked at Daniel. Daniel looked at his daughter.
"Sophie. " "What? " "There's room. " Sophie arranged the bear against her pillow. "And Riley's been sleeping on the hotel couch, which is dumb. "The Jerome is a hotel. "" "It doesn't have couches," Riley said. "I know. I was being" Sophie thought metaphorical.
"You've been reading Dad's books. " "Some of them. " Sophie gave this approximately 1 more second of consideration before moving on to something that interested her more, namely, whether Gerald would accept the new bear as an ally or consider him a rival. The verdict appeared to be ally. Riley stayed, not in the second closet, not yet. But she stayed in Aspen. She had conversations with Noah and her board that were, in their own way, harder than anything she'd done in the Chicago conference room.
She restructured her role, not leaving, not abandoning what she'd built, but repositioning herself in a way that let the company function at full capacity without requiring her constant, consuming presence. She hired a COO she'd been putting off hiring for two years because she hadn't trusted anyone enough. She found that she trusted him. She found a small house three streets from the garage, with a porch that looked at the mountains and a kitchen with enough space to actually cook. She bought it in February.
Sophie helped her unpack. Sophie had opinions about where the mugs should go. Daniel came by the second evening she was in the house after he'd closed the garage and picked Sophie up from her aunt's, and he stood in her kitchen and looked at it for a moment at the mugs Sophie had arranged and the small fire she'd managed in the wood stove, and the view through the window where the last light was going gold over the prize mountains. "Nice place," he said. "Good neighborhood? " she said.
"I've heard the mechanic nearby is excellent. " "I've heard he's adequate. " "I've heard he charges $60 for work that would cost three times that anywhere else. " "Which in some circles is considered excellent. " He came the rest of the way into the kitchen, and she handed him a mug, and they stood side by side at the window and watched the light change. "Sophie told me she's already picked out where she wants to build the snow fort," he said. "The flat part near the porch. " "I know. " She drew a diagram with labeled sections. "There's a note about the south wall. " Riley looked at him. "She's going to be an architect or an engineer," Daniel said.
"She's been taking apart the radio. " "Did you stop her? " "No. " A pause. "I showed her how the tuner worked. " Riley looked at the mountain. The light was almost gone now. The sky, the particular deep blue of a winter evening in high altitude, the first stars starting to appear. "I want to tell you something," she said.
"Okay. I've spent 10 years being very good at knowing what things are worth. Assets, companies, people in the transactional sense. I'm genuinely good at it. She turned to look at him, and I've never once, not in any boardroom, not in any negotiation, not in front of any number, felt as certain about anything as I have felt since that first night about you.