"Kathy," I said, and shook my head, feeling guilty that he felt a need to apologise at all. I was the one that had stood there and made the both of us uncomfortable, after all. I knew that the right thing to do would have been to ground myself with the reminder that Tommy was absolutely dead, absolutely not in Darrow, and walk away. But it turned out it was so much easier said than done.

"You've nothing to be sorry for. I'm... sorry that I reacted the way I did. I should have expected it to happen here eventually. I've met three men that look almost identical, but none... well, none like the person you look like."

Hearing him speak settled me, though, kept my chest from growing too tight. It was harder, though, to keep the visual of him and that last little wave out of my head. It hadn't been all that long ago.