“Let it go,” he told her. “They’ll call back.”

But she shook her head and hurried out. “Don’t forget to call Shelley.”

That went well, he thought in disgust. Opening his briefcase, he pulled out the file on the personal injury case he’d just won. Win some, lose some, Fox decided.

As he figured it was the way she wanted it, he stayed out of her way for the rest of the afternoon. It was simple enough to instruct her through interoffice e-mail to generate the standard power-of-attorney document with the specific names his client required. Or to ask her to prepare and send out a bill or pay one. He made what calls he needed to make himself rather than asking Layla to place them first. That kind of thing had always struck him as stupid in any case.

He knew how to use the damn phone.

He managed to calm Shelley down, catch up on paperwork, and win a game of online chess. But when he considered sending Layla another e-mail to tell her to go ahead and knock off for the day, he realized that came under the heading of avoidance, not just keeping the peace.

When he walked out to reception, Mrs. Hawbaker was manning the desk. “I didn’t know you were back,” he began.

“I’ve been back awhile. I’ve just finished proofing the papers Layla took care of for you. Need your signature on these letters.”

“Okay.” He took the pen she handed him, signed. “Where is she? Layla?”

“Gone for the day. She did fine on her own.”

Understanding it was a question as much as an opinion, Fox nodded. “Yeah, she did fine.”

In her brisk way, Mrs. Hawbaker folded the letters Fox had signed. “You don’t need both of us here full-time and can’t afford to be paying double either.”

“Mrs. H-”

“I’m going to come in half days the rest of the week.” She spoke quickly now, tucking letters into envelopes, sealing them. “Just to make sure everything runs smoothly for you, and for her. Any problems, I can come in, help handle them. But I don’t expect there to be. If there aren’t problems, I won’t be coming in after Friday next. We’ve got a lot of packing and sorting to do. Shipping things up to Minneapolis, showing the house.”