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Adrian
David Riley stared me down with the same green eyes his daughter had from across the table at one of New York’s finest steakhouses, a pristinely cooked wagyu steak in front of him.
I felt like a monster.
“This steak just keeps getting better,” David said, slicing off a cut of it as his knife scraped against the polished china. “Had the same one earlier for lunch.”
“Dave, you can’t just keep eating steak and drinking whiskey for every meal.”
“I damn sure can,” he laughed. It wasn’t the same, but I could hear a reflection of Ava’s laughter in his, and for a second, the grave I’d dug for her in my mind became loose dirt. “How’s the planning for the kids-without-lungs ball going?”
“Kids-without-lungs?” I snorted, covering my mouth with my napkin. “Do you mean the Childhood Interstitial Lung Disease charity?”
“Yeah,” he said, his brows knitting as he sipped at his glass of whiskey.
I stared down my glass of Riesling, wondering just how much of it I’d need to consume to get through this fucking dinner.“They have lungs, David,” I said, forcing a laugh. “You can’t be born without lungs.”
“Well, I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Either way, how’s planning?”
I shook off the absurdity of the conversation and tried to do the same with the guilt that was eating me alive for sleeping with his fucking daughter, but it didn’t quite work. I’d figure out a way to get through life without that ever coming up. “It’s good. Everything’s on schedule.”
“You’re coming, right?” he added, one brow raising.
I sliced off a section of lobster tail and popped it in my mouth. “Maybe. I’ll probably be there for a bit to make sure it all kicks off without a hitch.”
“Good, good. We’ve got some good stocks lined up for the bidding already, but need to go through what else we can offer?—”
My phone lit up on the table, vibrating so much that the phone itself began to move along the polished wood. “Shit,” I said, grabbing for it. “One second, it’s Lucas’ school.”
David nodded as I slipped from my chair, grabbing my phone in one quick sweep before rounding the corner toward the restrooms. It was only slightly quieter, but I had nowhere else to go unless I wanted to ride on an elevator, and I didn’t want to risk that when it could be an emergency.
“Hello?”
“Hello, this is Katarina calling from Midtown Preparatory. Can I speak to Mr. Stone?” The crackling voice through the phone told me that at least one of us had a poor signal, and I moved a little closer to the window in case it was me.
“Speaking.”
“Great. Hi, Mr. Stone,” Katarina said, and her voice sounded a little clearer. “I’m just calling because Lucas’ basketball practice has been cut short due to the coach having a familyemergency come up, so Lucas will need to be collected as soon as possible.”
Shit.“Is there no other after-school activity he can join in on?”
“No, sir, not tonight, unfortunately.”
“Fuck. Okay, I’ll sort it. Tell him to hold tight.”
I hung up before they could insist that I magically teleport to the school right that minute. The temptation to stab myself in the eye with a steak knife as a waiter passed with a tray of dirty dishes almost overwhelmed me.
I reopened my contacts and pulled up Lucas’ nanny’s number, calling her immediately.
“Hello, Mr. Stone,” she answered, the phone not even getting to the second ring before she picked up.
“Hi, Grace,” I sighed. “Any chance you could grab Lucas from basketball practice?”
“Was I not scheduled to do that already? I could have sworn you asked me?—”
“No, no, I meannow. They’ve ended early and there’s nothing else he can jump in on,” I clarified. “Sorry, I’m a bit all over the place.”
“Oh! Sure, I can head down there. No problem,” she said. “I’ll just grab dinner for him while we’re out if that’s okay.”
