I stopped adjusting my watch strap and looked up.

“They’re completely stable,” Evelyn said.

I took a careful breath and reached across the space between us.

“That’s the best news we’ve had all year,” I said.

At two o’clock, I sat at my oak desk in the Abernathy Capital office.

The quarterly property reports for the Crown Plaza Hotel lay open in front of me.

Under the new professional venue management team, daily operations were running smoothly.

The polished travertine floor in the lobby had been resealed, and the vendor accounts were strictly monitored.