Page 34 of Carter

That tidbit of information has my chest warming.

“I’ve been told it’s endearing.”

Carter smiles, a lost look in his eye. “Yeah,” he agrees. “Yeah, I think it is.”

We work together to get the food out and onto plates, plenty of napkins between us so we don’t make a mess. I keep my drink in my bottle with the cap on when I’m not drinking it, so I don’t spill it.

“How long have you worked at the library?” I ask.

“As if you don’t know.”

I hold his gaze. “Pretend I’m not a cop.”

“Kind of difficult when you’re all…” He gestures to me.

“All what?” I ask, sitting back to wipe my hands on the napkin.

“You know. Cop-looking.”

“Cop-looking?” That almost makes me laugh.

“Yes. You’ve just got the look.”

I huff a sound to let him know I’ve heard him. “It’s come in handy, yet it can also be inconvenient.”

“Like now?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry.” He takes a bite of his sandwich, actually looking like he’s sorry.

“It’s fine. Hasn’t really made a difference to me, other than making my job a little more difficult at times, but it’s not meant to be easy.”

“Why did you want to become a cop?” He swipes his hands together to get the crumbs off over the plate, then picks up his napkin as he chews the last bite of his sandwich.

“After I lost my parents, I just… felt like I needed to do something to stop other people from going through what they did.”

My chest gets tight, the same way it always does when I talk about this stuff.

“And you said your brother is a firefighter… same reason?”

“Probably. We don’t talk about it.”

He smiles, but it’s not a happy one. “Yeah, I know that feeling.” It falls silent for a moment, before he adds, “So, what now?”

“I’m going to take everything you’ve told me today and do some good old detective work.”

Carter gets up and starts to clean up our mess.

“You don’t have to do that,” I say.

“It’s the least I can do since you paid for it.”

“I’m not into that back-and-forth stuff. I did it because I wanted to.”

“Well, I’m doing this because I want to.”

He gets all the trash into the plastic bag, ties it off, then drops it into the trash can by the door.