Page 45 of Love & Rockets

“Darlington,” Grace murmured, almost under her breath. She blinked in confusion as she lifted her head. “Why?”

“Just curious.”

Tilting her head, she eyed him owlishly. “Did you know having access to a person’s middle name makes it easier for identity thieves to access a person’s accounts?”

His mouth dropped open and his mind reeled. Was she imparting random bits of wisdom or accusing him of something? “I’m not going to steal your mom’s identity. I was only curious.”

Grace flashed an impish smile and shrugged. “I know. They ran a story on identity theft on the news the other night. It was interesting.” Her smile faded and her forehead puckered. “Did you know they have a thing they can attach to gas pumps and things where you swipe your card?” She backed the information up with a small, solemn nod. “You have to check them carefully, and sometimes it’s hard to tell. You’re better off using a credit card if you have one. Most of those offer fraud protection.”

He stared at her, at once bemused and beguiled. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She tossed his gratitude and the topic off with a casual shrug and turned back to her paper.

The pencil scratched its way across two more lines before he broke. “Her parents really named her Darlington?”

She nodded but didn’t look up. “Darlington Arnell Kennet. I guess since she was an only child, they thought they’d better use all the family names.” Her pencil stopped moving as she paused to wrinkle her nose. “I don’t really like Grace Mary, but I guess it could have been a lot worse, huh?”

“Yeah,” he agreed.

A long beat passed before she started to write again. Once she regained her momentum, he cocked his head and read as she wrote.

“I think Grace Mary is a pretty name.”

“What’s yours?”

“Hm?” He frowned at the last line she’d written, but it didn’t make sense.

“What’s your middle name?” Grace asked with exaggerated patience, bouncing the tip of her pencil off the wire binding of the notebook. “She’ll pump me for information later, and it would be so much faster if you give me a quick rundown.”

Jake sat up straight in his chair. Now he understood why she’d written, “People in love don’t make good spies,” in the middle of her essay. Turning his stunned gaze on her, he found her wearing a smirk that was her mother’s made over.

“Andrew. Jacob Andrew Dalton,” he said slowly. “Remind me to thank my parents.”

She nodded. “You probably should. It’s a nice, easy name.” Heaving a sigh, Grace erased the bit about spies, then flipped to a fresh page of lined paper. “Favorite color?”

“Blue,” he answered automatically.

“Movie?”

“The Right Stuff.”

“Of course,” she said as she noted the title.

“Book?”

“Cosmos.”

She sighed as if his admiration of Carl Sagan’s seminal work was somehow a personal disappointment to her.

“What?”

“Nothing.” But Gracie’s pitying little head shake spoke volumes. “A little obvious.”

“I’m not an overly complicated guy.”

She turned to look him square in the eye. “Bands or musical groups?”

He scowled at her in return. “I’d like to invoke the protection of my Fifth Amendment rights.”

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