Each place was marked with a card, but the staff brought four additional chairs, four smaller plates, and a stack of cushions.

At the other end of the table sat Tristan’s aunt Beatrice, who peered over her glasses at the newcomers and whispered to her husband.

I recognized the words “look just like” before she realized I was watching.

“Would the boys like to sit with you?” Robert asked me.

“Please.”

I seated them in a row, with Mason closest to me.

Liam insisted on being beside Asher because they had developed a complicated private system of trading the vegetables they disliked.