“Busy pretending he doesn’t have a daughter, that’s for sure,” I replied. It was rather odd how I had gotten so used to it that I could even joke about it. Sure, at first it had been a pain to grow up feeling alone most of the time, but slowly I became numb to it. I buried myself in books, reading crime novels to escape real life and pretending that I was the characters in the stories, whether it was Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot or even Dr. Watson.

“You know, Montgomery,” he said, placing his now half-empty cup back on the table, “I’m here, too, if you need anything.”

The moment passed and he delicately shifted to a lighter subject. “Kris told me she was staying at Domenico’s. I was out partying last night . . . if I knew you were feeling lonely, I would have asked you to go with me.” He leaned forward. “Whenever there is a damsel in distress, Lord Ambrosia to the rescue.”

“I don’t do damsel in distress. I look after myself, thanks.”

Adrian shrugged and lifted his cup to his lips and emptied the remaining contents. “What did you do? Pull a movie night?”

“I went to dinner with Vlad.” I reached for my drink and looked at the children at the next table. Adrian’s silence made me channel my attention back to him. He was frowning.

“How was that? Where did you two go?”

“It was nice. We went to No. 5, and I got to meet Lilly and Jake. They’re lovely people, and the food there was great.”

His eyes lit up. “Jake!” There were affection and fondness in the way he said the boy’s name. “How is he? Is he still reluctant to help out his mom?”

“No. He seemed to enjoy it.”

“Then it must’ve grown on him. He used to complain about helping out at the restaurant.” Adrian paused. “Vlad told him that a real man helps his mother, especially since his dad has passed away.”

“His talk seemed to have done the trick then.” I turned the spotlight back on him. “What about you? How was your night of partying?”

Adrian gave me a sheepish smile. “I wasn’t really partying. I spent the night playing poker with Jet, the bartender at Royal Bar. Instead of winning five glasses of whiskey, apparently I now owe him two hundred bucks.”

“We all know you suck at poker, Adrian.”

“Damn, Montgomery. I’ve told you—I let you win that time so you could experience beginner’s luck.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” It felt like such a long time ago even though it was really only four years ago.