Trying to get his head back to business, Hugo pulled up the preliminary year-end sales figures one more time. As before, the Tokyo numbers were still coming in low. He wondered how much that had to do with the customs problems he’d been having. He wondered if Grace was back from her lunch yet. He should call and remind her that he needed someone to look into it, if not her, then Iain, the firm’s new international guy. But he didn’t know Iain and he trusted Grace.

He called her but got voice mail. Restless, he went in search of Bailey, but she was still closeted in with his father, no doubt pitching him her Cinderella Contest scheme. It was a good sign that his father was still in the office past three. Half the time these days, he would wander in, stay just long enough to create so...

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