Page 149 of No Headlines Please

"Smith."

"Right." She rolled her eyes. "Which was a huge help, by the way. Do you know, there's only a million Cal Smiths?"

"I know. You wanna hear something funny?"

"What?"

"That's not his last name."

"Seriously? So, what is it?"

I smiled. "Kowalski."

"But…why does the card say Smith?"

"For the reason you just mentioned. A name like Smith is harder to run down."

Her lips twitched. "I swear you have an answer for everything."

I shook my head. "Not everything."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, I've got questions, too." My gaze locked on hers. "But first, I owe you one hell of an apology."

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure you already did – and more than once, too. So maybe it's my turn to apologize – for flipping out, I mean."

"Nope."

"Sorry, what?"

"You were smart to flip out. And me? I was a dumbass for not realizing it."

When she started to object, I cut her off. "I'm serious. I wanna do this right." I reached out and took her hand in mine as I quietly said, "Listen. I am so sorry for giving you reason to worry – and for assuming the worst."

She shook her head. "The worst?"

"Yeah. When you came back so angry, I thought it was because of Sloane."

Her hand stiffened. "You mean Sloane Hayworth? Who you almost married? But…why would I be mad about her?"

I scoffed. "Only because half the country hated me for walking out of that wedding."

"Not my mom," Delaney said. "I bet she loved it. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I can definitely guess."

"Yeah, well…that would put your mom in the minority – even before Sloane went missing."

She glanced down. "If you want the truth, I feel a little guilty. It really is awful what happened to her."

I would've agreed, except I still didn't believe it. The whole thing was too convenient to be real. "Forget Sloane for a minute, okay? Let's talk about you."

"Me?"

I nodded. "You remember the last time we talked?"

With a shaky laugh, she asked, "You mean when I completely flipped out?"

"I wouldn't go that far." I gave her a wry smile. "Trust me, I've seen 'flipping out'. Considering what you believed, I'm surprised you didn't call the police."