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cancelled.”
    “Oh.”
    Another awkward silence.
    “I’m sorry,” Marcus finally said, surprised at the emotion in his voice. “It was my fault we lost track of each other, and I really appreciate your helping me out now, even though I don’t deserve it.”
    “It wasn’t your fault!” She glanced over at him again, this time incredulous. “I mean, there are two of us here and we’re both capable of making a phone call or writing a note.”
    “Sure, but—”
    “There’s no point in assigning blame. I’m so glad you’re safe and back in the U.S., I don’t care what happened, you know?”
    Her voice sounded so much like the old Ginger he’d known back in school that he laughed. “I do. There’s nothing like a near-death experience to remind you what’s important.”
    “And Isabel,” she said carefully. “Do you think she’s angry with you?”
    “For what?”
    “For not being around.”
    “But how could I have been?”
    “That’s how an adult would think about things, but a child might see things differently. She might feel betrayed anyway.”
    Marcus hadn’t considered this, and it gave his stomach something new to cramp up over. “I don’t know what Lisette told her about me. I guess some of it might not be so great.”
    “Perhaps. Or even if she didn’t say anything negative, Isabel might have read between the lines in an unfavorable way. Who knows?”
    “Yeah,” he said weakly.
    “I don’t mean to be pessimistic,” Ginger added. “I only want you to be prepared for possible difficulties. Probably things will be fine.”
    She guided the conversation toward more neutral topics, filling him in on the classes she taught at the community college, the writing she’d been doing, the whereabouts of their college classmates, sprinkling in interesting gossip whenever she had any to share. But Marcus was barely paying attention. He knew she was trying to distract him, to get his mind off more troubling matters, and he appreciated her effort, yet he couldn’t keep his thoughts from dwelling on the daughter he was about to meet.
    As the minutes ticked by and they made their way through the city toward Isabel, Marcus found himself paralyzed with anticipation and dread the likes of which he’d never experienced before.
    Not even the price on his head had scared him like this, because of course, the death threat affected only him. But this—this fatherhood thing—meant that his actions from this point on really mattered, that whatever he did affected not only him, but a child who needed him. A child who’d just lost her mother.
    The ride passed too quickly, and when Ginger pulled into the driveway of the address Isabel had given him, he shuddered. A three-story Edwardian row house loomed before them, inside of which his child was waiting.
    Okay, deep breaths. In, out, in, out.
    He could do this. He could meet her. He wouldn’t run away this time.
    It was too late now, anyway.



CHAPTER FOUR
    I ZZY WATCHED THE CAR pull into the driveway, and her stomach did that thing where it felt like it was turning inside out. Then she watched him get out of the car. He looked nothing like she’d imagined.
    Which was weird, since she’d seen some pictures of him on the Internet. His author publicity photo showed only his face, though, and now, seeing him strolling up Nina’s driveway, she realized he was much bigger than she’d thought.
    Her mom’s last few boyfriends had been small men who talked about wine too much and worried a lot about keeping their shoes neat and their clothes lint free. She’d started thinking that kind of guy was her mom’s type or something. She’d started thinking her mom had bad taste in boyfriends.
    But this guy…this guy who was supposed to be her dad, Marcus Kastanos—would she want to change her name from Grayson to Kastanos, even though it sounded weird?—he looked like the opposite of a guy who talked about wine and worried about his clothes.
    She heard the