Ew.
“So, who’s watching your kid tonight?” Adam asked after he started back into his tacos.
I forked up a bit of my arroz con pescado, wishing I had more of an appetite. I still couldn’t believe I’d ordered fish of all things—on Xavier’s insistence, of course. “Ah, that would be her dad.”
“Her dad? I didn’t realize he was in the picture.”
I froze, realizing what I’d just done. Lord, I hadn’t told my family about Xavier yet. I hadn’t even told Sofia who he was. And now I’d just let the cat out of the bag with someone completely random.
“Er, they’re sort of getting to know each other,” I said. “Adam, I’d appreciate if you could keep that to yourself, please.”
Adam smiled kindly like I hadn’t said a thing wrong. “Is he from here?”
I shook my head. “No, he’s from London, actually. But he’s back in New York on business, so I’m giving him a chance to get to know Sofia.”
“Makes sense. What kind of business is he in?”
I swallowed a tasteless bit of rice. “Restaurants, actually.”
“No kidding. That’s cool. I’m a bit of a foodie myself.”
I looked down at his plain chicken tacos, ordered without hot sauce or really any interesting condiment, and back up at him. He didn’t seem to notice the irony.
“You know, he looked familiar when I met him,” he prodded through a mouthful of poultry. “I kept trying to figure out where I’d seen him before. He said his name was Xavier. What’s his last name? Maybe I’ve heard of him.”
“I doubt it,” I replied. “Xavier Parker?”
Adam froze mid bite, revealing a mouthful of chewed chicken. He swallowed. “Ah, of the Parker Group?”
So he had recognized the name.
“Yes,” I said slowly. “Everything okay?”
He coughed slightly, then offered a wry smile. “I—holy crap. Small world, I guess. I went to school with the guy. Christ, he’s changed a lot.”
I frowned. “Really? He didn’t attend college for more than a year.”
Adam just shook his head, shoved another bit of taco into his mouth, then continued talking through his food. “Actually, it was in high school. Or secondary, in England. He looked a lot different back then. Tall still, but really skinny. And his hair was down to here.” He gestured about six inches below his shoulder.
I blinked, trying to imagine Xavier like that. The man I’d met five years ago had been somewhere in between. That muscle had obviously grown in between his teen years and twenty-seven, but the hair had been the same. Now, though, I could imagine someone who probably looked like a rock star wannabe in his teens was almost unrecognizable as the suave, besuited CEO Adam had met.
“England…” I mumbled for want of something else. I realized guiltily that I hadn’t actually asked Adam a question about himself the entire night. I’d been too busy wondering about Xavier. “Are you from there originally?”
Adam shook his head. “No, I kind of grew up all over the place. My dad was sort of a diplomat. We spent some time in London, so I went to Eton for a bit, if you remember.”
My jaw dropped. I did remember. Xavier had mentioned being carted off to prep school after his mother died, but I didn’t realize it was the most famous boarding school in the world. Good lord, he was probably there at the same time as Prince Harry. Or maybe even William.
It was, to say the least, a strange coincidence.
“That is a small world,” I agreed after another unsteady bite of my rice. “That must have been amazing, growing up abroad.”
Adam just shrugged and didn’t quite meet my eyes.
“So, when did you move back to the States?” I wondered.
He swallowed his food. “After about a year. My parents split up, so my mom and I moved home to Connecticut. I liked it a lot better there.”
It was an interesting story. It really was. But I couldn’t make myself ask anything more. Or at least, I didn't want to ask him the rest of the story.