You rescued my backpack.”

I laughed without quite making a sound.

I had approved properties worth hundreds of millions and negotiated with people who tried to unsettle me for sport.

Yet the possibility of seeing one woman after five years had left me unable to pick up a paper folder.

The seat-belt sign illuminated.

Willa carefully fastened her belt, then held Captain Buttons against the buckle as though he needed protection too.

I kept my eyes forward until a flight attendant passed, then asked whether she could discreetly check that the child’s mother knew where her daughter was sitting.