Page 51 of I’ll Be Watching You

Lu came out dressed in jeans and a faded USMC T-shirt, her wet hair braided efficiently down her back. She wore no makeup and was still gorgeous with unblemished light brown skin and the same hazel eyes I had, though hers looked more amber than my muddy green.

Cal put the food out and Lu and I both grabbed for the bacon. We each came away with five pieces. Cal put two on his plate.

He’d made scrambled eggs with cheese and mushrooms, wheat toast, and cut up fresh fruit. I rarely had fresh fruit except bananas. They weren’t my favorite, but they were the easiest to eat on the go.

I went to the fridge to grab a bottle of Abuela’s hot sauce and liberally poured it over the eggs. Cal said, “Is that hot?”

Lu and I looked at each other and laughed.

“Try it,” I said mischievously.

“That’s okay, I like my taste buds to actually work.”

Lu poured some on her eggs and we ate. “You must have gone to the store,” I said with my mouth full. “I never have this much food in my house.”

“That’s true, on both counts. I like cooking. It relaxes me.”

“The gun range relaxes me,” I said.

“What about you?” Cal asked Lu. “What do you do to relax?”

She shrugged. “Puzzles.”

“Like jigsaw?”

“No, like a computer coding problem that needs to be solved.”

“That’s work.”

“But it relaxes me.” She chased down some eggs with water. “I guess swimming.”

“Lu was on the swim team in high school,” I said. “She broke a lot of records.”

We chatted a bit, then Cal said as we were finishing, “I have to go in today, but if you need me I can take tomorrow off. And I’m not on call this weekend, so I’m all yours.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” I said, though I didn’t really want to drag Cal into this. Especially if I had to bend—or break—a couple laws. I glanced at my watch. “Shit, we have to be at Mom’s in fifteen minutes to call Nadine Pierce.” Lu and I decided on the drive back that Mom needed to be the one to talk to Dad’s ex-girlfriend who seemed to know more about what was going on than any of us did.

Lu and I simultaneously got up and cleared the table.

“I’ll do the dishes,” Cal said as he shoveled food into his mouth. “Damn, you girls eat fast.”

“I have time,” I said. I rinsed, Lu loaded the dishwasher and wiped the counter, and I put the rest of the food away. By the time Cal came in with his plate, the kitchen was spotless. I put his plate in the dishwasher, slammed it closed.

“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone clean so fast.”

“I hate cleaning,” I said, “but I like a clean house, so I learned to do it quickly.”

“Ditto,” Lu said and we fist-bumped.

I kissed Cal goodbye, but as I was heading out, I turned back and asked, “Do you know anything about Honor House?”

He nodded. “Rehab for veterans, among other things.”

“Good rep?”

“I haven’t heard anything bad about them. Why?”

“It’s where Georgia and Liz used to volunteer, and my dad used to donate to their charity. I’m just trying to put together pieces. It might not be important, but I want to check it out.”