Page 78 of What We May Be

Chapter Twenty-Two

Charlie glanced away from the crowd gathering at Julian Hirsch’s gravesite to the man beside her in the squad car’s driver’s seat who was rooting around in a yellow Taqueria Perez bag. “I’m sorry to drag you back to the cemetery. I’m sure this wasn’t how you planned to spend your afternoon.”

Marsh produced two burritos from the bag, handed one to Charlie, then slid back in his seat with the other, tearing away the foil. “Worth it for good Mexican food.”

“I also realize this is you distracting me from the events of this morning.”

“Is it working?”

Smiling, Charlie peeled back the wrapper around her own burrito and took a bite. She hummed in approval.

Marsh chuckled. “I can’t remember the last time I staked out something other than browser histories or network servers.” He paused to take a bite of his burrito. “And this food is damn good.”

“Burritos and college towns seem to go hand in hand.”

“Good cheap eats,” Marsh said. “Taqueria Perez is run by Diego’s family?”

Charlie drank from her bottle of Cheerwine, then set it back in the cup holder. “Yep. His parents and aunt relocated from Corpus Christi when he and Maggie had their first kid.”

“They have more?”

“Restaurants?” she replied, looking back out the windshield. The groundskeeper had let them take the maintenance road into the cemetery, and from their shadowed spot next to one of the utility sheds, they had a bird’s-eye view of the funeral. And of a mournful Tracy approaching the gravesite. She looked worse than when they’d last seen her. Her somber black suit hung loosely on her frame, and her face appeared pinched and drawn. Seeing her so frail, Charlie seriously doubted Tracy was the one who’d dragged Craig into the HU natatorium last night and questioned him with the force and morbid glee their killer had exhibited on that video.

“Kids,” Marsh said, snapping Charlie back inside the cruiser.

“Three in all.”

“And they manage okay with their schedules?”

“They do. It helps having family around. You thinking about kids?”

Dark eyes lifted to hers, a little winsome, a little wary. “I hadn’t really thought about it until recently. A friend in San Francisco has an almost three-year-old, and she’s so stinkin’ cute it makes me wonder, though I’m pretty sure she threw her daddy’s chess game the other day.”

She jutted her chin at his phone on the dash. “Is that what you’re always doing on there?”

“A lot of the time,” he said as he tore away more foil. “When things went sideways at work a while back, I went radio silent on him. Promised not to do that again.”

Charlie took another bite before getting back to Marsh’s earlier question. “I think kids and a career in law enforcement is doable if you want both. Plenty of folks do it, my father and grandfather included.”

“You?”

She smiled, remembering similar conversations from a decade ago. “Sean, Trevor, and I used to talk about adopting. If they still want to, I’d be down.” She took another bite, then shot a smile the cyber agent’s direction. “I’m sure they’d appreciate some cousins.”

“Gotta stop falling for unavailable guys first.”

Charlie nearly dropped her burrito. She caught it at the last second but not her gasp. “Sean said—”

“I’m over it now,” he said with a dismissive wave. “Same way I’m over my friend in San Francisco. I see how happy he is with his husband, how happy Sean is with you and Trevor, and that’s all I want for them.” He took another huge bite of burrito. “But I do seem to be cursed.”

Charlie set her burrito on the dash and took a swig of soda. “I thought the same for a while. When Sean left and it didn’t work out with Trevor, I never connected with anyone else. It felt like a curse.”

“You broke it somehow.”

She smiled. “I hope so.”

He bumped her shoulder. “Me too.”

They finished their burritos in comfortable silence while keeping an eye on each new arrival at the funeral. No unexpected visitors so far. No sign of her sister yet either. She’d just picked up her phone to text Annie when a call from the station lit up the screen. “Talk to me.”

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