It does. He agreed. She reached over and took his hand without looking at him. He held it. The mayor said things.
A city council member said things. Rhonda said things that were slightly long but genuinely meant. Clare was introduced as the lead designer and spoke briefly and precisely out the intent behind the design choices. And she said, "The thing about people deserving to be in spaces that felt like someone had cared about them, and it landed in the room the way true things do." Ethan stood in the back and watched her speak and thought, "There she is.
That's who she is when the room can see it." Afterward, there was a reception. He found her near the food table talking to a woman from the neighborhood association who was asking detailed questions about the material choices for the children's play area. Clare was answering with complete specificity and genuine enthusiasm. And the woman was leaning forward the way people lean forward when they're actually learning something.
He waited. When the conversation ended, he brought her a glass of water because she'd been talking for 40 minutes and that was the kind of attention he'd learned to pay. She took it. You were watching me. You were worth watching.
She drank the water. How are you doing? Good. He looked around the room. Really good, actually.
This project, she said. Yeah, it started something. He looked at her. Multiple things. She held his gaze.
Multiple things. She agreed. Marcus appeared from somewhere with two drinks E hadn't asked for and the expression of a man who was very pleased with the general state of affairs. Look at this, he said. The two people who argued the most about this building standing in it on dedication day.
That's a story. It's a story, Ethan agreed. You two owe me. Marcus said, I've been watching this develop for 2 years and my patience deserves recognition. Your patience was not patient.
Clare said, "It was patient for me," Marcus said, which was fair. He left them to it, which was what Marcus always did. He arrived, he made his point, he departed. It was one of his more efficient qualities. The twist came 3 days later on a Sunday evening, while Ethan was sitting at the kitchen table helping Lily with a school project about Colorado history and thinking about nothing in particular except the proper arrangement of a glue stickbased timeline.
His phone buzzed with a call from a number he recognized as Hartwell's main office line, which was unusual. On a Sunday, he picked up. It was Tom Hartwell, the Tom Hartwell, not his direct supervisor, not a project manager, but the founder and CEO of Hartwell Development, who had started the company 30 years ago, and who Ethan had spoken to directly exactly four times in 5 years. Evening, Ethan, Tom said. Tom.