6. Adrian

Chapter 6

Adrian

D avid 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 family emergency 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 mean now . 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."

"Always is, Grace. You don't have to ask to put money on the credit card," I explained for what had to be the hundredth time. My patience was waning. "Thank you."

"Of course. Have a nice evening!"

I hung up the call and pressed my forehead to the glass of the window, needing a quick second to recalibrate and cool down. It was such a minor thing, and I knew that—knew it far too well. But it was times like this that I fucking hated being the only parent.

"Everything okay?" David asked through another mouthful of steak as I slipped back into my chair.

"Lucas' practice ended early," I explained. "They wanted me to pick him up."

"Ah, got Grace to do it?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I just wish I could put her on the call list sometimes so I didn't have to always be the one that deals with this shit," I grumbled, turning my phone face down on the table and stabbing my lobster with my fork. "Sometimes I wish Jan had just fucking divorced me so that Lucas still had another parent that could handle things when I'm busy. It's like every goddamn day they call me with something new, and it's never actually to do with Lucas, but to do with teachers or practice or scheduling conflicts, and I just don't have the capacity, you know?"

"So what you're saying is your son needs a mother," David offered, and I shot him a look.

"What I'm saying is that in an ideal world, I could marry someone that I didn't need to love , because fuck that. I'm not doing that shit again. And then I could add her to the call list, and she could handle half of the calls," I explained, eyeing him warily as he swirled his whiskey in its glass.

"You know," he started, and I could have sworn I could physically see the gears turning in his head, "my kid, Ava, you remember her?"

Absolutely not. No. Nope. Do not bring her into this, for the love of God, please. "Yeah, of course," I said, keeping my voice as level as I could manage.

"She's starting up a company. Elite Matchmaking, or something she called it. I think it's got a catchier name than that," he said. Oh, thank god , I could breathe again. "She just moved to town a couple of months ago, so it's all in the beginning phases right now, but I'll set you up for a meeting with her. Apparently, she's like some fuckin' guru when it comes to this shit, except, shockingly, for herself. Maybe she can find you someone."

And my breath was lost again. A meeting with Ava was my worst fucking nightmare right now. "Dave, I don't think?—"

"Hey," he interrupted, pointing his steak knife directly at me. "Unless you want to marry that nanny of yours, it's worth a shot. I mean, how many dates have you been on in the last year? Twenty? Thirty? And none of them have stuck."

The idea of marrying Lucas' nearly sixty-five-year-old nanny wasn't exactly appealing to me, especially when the possibility of her needing retirement soon was on the cards. "I appreciate the offer, genuinely," I lied, shoving a piece of lobster in my too-dry mouth and swallowing. "I just don't know if Ava would be of much use when I don't want a relationship . I just want convenience."

His stare turned harder, and I knew that look. That was his do it or I'll make your life a living hell look. For a split second, I felt bad for Ava having to deal with that look her entire life, but then remembered that I was the one on the receiving end this time—and I was the one going to have either come clean that I'd recognized her well before I'd slept with her, or play pretend that I had no idea.

I was fucked either way.

"You got any meetings tomorrow?" he asked.

"No," I answered, and it was far too late that I realized he wasn't changing the topic of discussion. He was checking my fucking availability to meet with his daughter. "David, please."

"This is good for you," he insisted. "It's worth a shot. And it would really help Ava out with gettin' her business off the ground."

I watched in horror as he took his phone out, lifting it to his ear as he chewed on his piece of steak.

"Ava, kiddo, great news," he said, and I could actually feel my last bite of lobster rising in my esophagus. "Adrian's gonna meet you tomorrow. How's eleven work for ‘ya?"

For a split second, I wished I could hear what was being said on the other end of that phone call.

"No, no, he's thrilled!" David insisted, winking at me. "I can book you two in for a reservation at that Japanese place across from SkyLine since your office isn't ready yet."

He scooped up a bit of his baked potato with his fork and shoved it into his mouth.

"Honestly, kiddo, it'll be great. Don't worry about it," he continued, and fuck , I felt bad for her. She had to be panicking as much as I was. "Nah, eleven's the only time that works."

"David—"

He held up his fork to shush me. If it wasn't for all the good times I'd shared with this man, I would have called our friendship off there and then. "Great! There you go, Aves, gotcha a client. Ain't that hard."