I chuckled. “He told me I should talk to my mom about a few things, and then invited him to stay for dinner.”
I’d probably never forget the sight of Keith standing in front of us, grill tongs in hand, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else.
“And they were ok with it?” Charlie asked quietly.
“More than ok with it. They’ve always loved me for who I am. After that, Mom found a church down the street that flew a rainbow flag in the parking lot.”
He looked a bit misty-eyed. “That’s really nice. I didn’t—I mean, I had girlfriends. I liked women. But I also liked men. I just never had a chance to act on it, or maybe it was easier to ignore it. I’ll never know what my family would’ve thought, but I’ll always wonder.”
He shrugged and peered through the binoculars again, as if he hadn’t just said something important. The clenched muscle in his jaw spoke differently.
“How old were you when you died?” I asked quietly.
“Twenty-nine.”
Fucking hell. Twenty-nine. He’d been on the cusp of settling into his life; enough experience to have an idea of what hewanted to do, who he wanted to be, only for it all to be snuffed out.
I reached out to pat his back. He was cooler this time, and while my hand didn’t fall through his body, it felt more like that just-barely-close-enough magnetic pull rightbeforetouching someone, than actually making contact. Like he was there, and not there. “I’m really sorry you never had the chance to find out.”
His light flared, and his back solidified beneath my palm. “It feels good that I got to tell you.”
I studied his profile. “Do you want me to look up your family for you? To reach out?” I doubted his parents were still alive, but hadn’t he mentioned a sister? Maybe he had cousins?
At the moment, I couldn’t imagine something I’d rather dolessthan cold call a stranger to tell them I was living with the ghost of their dead family member, whom everyone assumed was a serial killer, but I found myself offering anyway.
Who the hell am I?I regularly ordered delivery online so I wouldn’t have to speak to another person.
But if it helped ease the sadness in his eyes, I’d do it.
“No,” he responded quickly, shaking his head. “No. Not yet. I’m not in denial that Mom and Dad are probably… That they’ve probably passed away.” He cleared his throat. “But I don’t want to know about Frankie yet. Or what she thinks of me, if she’s still alive.”
I nodded. “Is Frankie your sister?”
“Yeah. My older sister. We lived together before I moved out here for the lookout job.”
I took a step back, dropping my hand. “Where are you from?”
“Iowa. I wanted a career in the Forest Service, so when I got this job, I jumped on it, hoping it’d be my way in. Mom and Dad were sad I was moving so far away, but Frankie knew it was where I wanted to be. She was so excited for me.”
Charlie smiled a little, like he could still feel how happy she’d been for him.
Was she still alive? Did she mourn him, or had she done her best to forget her brother-turned-serial-killer had ever existed at all?
“She gave me this for my birthday,” he continued, holding his arms out to indicate the flight jacket he always wore. “It was the last night I saw her. My birthday wasn’t for another month, but she knew we wouldn’t see each other again for a while, so…” Eyes far away, he drifted off in thought.
“When’s your birthday?” I asked softly, pulling him back.
He blinked out of his memories. “June twenty-seventh.”
My mouth popped open. “That’s only a few days away. We have to celebrate.”
“Celebrate?”
“Yes! I’ll get what we need on my supply run. You only turn thirty once,” I said with a sly grin.
He shot me a deadpan look. “I’m well over thirty by now.”
I waved it off. “We’ll celebrate anyway, yeah?”
