She also watched him make mistakes. Once he ordered the wrong hardware and had to drive across town to replace it. Another time he underestimated how long a warped door would take to repair and apologized to the customer for the delay. He could be stubborn when interrupted in the middle of an intricate joint, and he sometimes forgot to eat while working. His decency did not make him infallible, which was a relief to Victoria. She had no need for another flawless image to admire from a distance.
One Saturday morning, a storm swept through the neighborhood with heavy rain and strong winds. A branch fell across the narrow alley behind the houses, damaging Alice's fence and knocking out power on part of the block. Daniel spent the first hour checking that the older residents were safe and helping neighbors move debris away from driveways. Victoria had stayed over late at his workshop the previous evening and returned early with coffee, dry gloves, and a battery-powered work light from a nearby store. Nobody asked why she was there; they simply gave her a task.
She found herself carrying small branches to a collection point while Daniel and two neighbors used proper equipment to clear the larger pieces. Alice supervised from beneath a porch awning, offering advice that Daniel mostly pretended not to hear. By noon, Victoria was wet, muddy, and laughing at the discovery that her expensive boots offered almost no traction on damp leaves. Mrs. Alvarez handed her a towel and called her a good neighbor. The words made her unexpectedly proud.
Later, as the power returned and everyone drifted home, Victoria stood beside Daniel looking at the repaired section of fence. "If something like this happened at my house, I'd call somebody to handle it," she said. Daniel nodded. "That's sensible when you need professionals.
There's nothing wrong with hiring help. The difference is that here everyone knows whose fence it is and who might need a hand before the help arrives." She looked down the street at the houses tucked beneath dripping trees. "I don't even know who lives two doors down from me."
"You could find out," Daniel said. He did not say it accusingly. That evening, Victoria wrote a note to the neighbors on either side of her estate, introducing herself without mentioning the company or inviting them to a lavish event. One replied with a brief message about her grandchildren. The other invited Victoria to a small garden fundraiser the following month. She attended without photographers and found herself learning more about the street in two hours than she had in the years she lived there.
Daniel watched these changes with quiet affection, but he was careful not to mistake them for proof that Victoria needed him to become a different person. He liked the woman who understood manufacturing costs as well as anyone he had met, who could challenge an entire board