(23) I am what I am

~ Quinn ~

Blair smiled and shook his head. “They’re both…My father died when I was a kid and then my mother remarried and died. I mean…she didn’t die because she remarried, she died when I was fourteen.”

“Which was how many years ago? And you’d better say at least…” I did a quick calculation in my head, “at least seven years ago.”

“Or you’ll arrest me for being here when I’m underage?” He grinned and it lit up his eyes so that they were almost silver rather than the dark gray of storm clouds.

“No, since you’re drinking water you’re safe. But how old are you actually, just out of curiosity?”

“Almost twenty-three, and you?”

“Thirty-four and counting,” I admitted.

He studied my face for a long moment. “You don’t look it, not really. Maybe here,” his fingertip brushed lightly over the corner of my eye, “but those are laugh lines so they don’t really count.”

“And you surmised that how?”

“Instinct?” he said with a small shrug.

“Well I like the idea.”

“Why? You do laugh don’t you? I mean sometimes, when you’re not working. That wouldn’t make you even smile, I guess. And I’m babbling.”

“No you’re not, you’re just talking and there’s nothing wrong with that. Yeah there’s not too much to smile about in what I do, until a case gets solved. That’s what makes the whole thing worth it though.”

Blair nodded slowly as he listened. “I don’t think I could handle having to see someone who’d been killed, murdered.” He shuddered and his brow creased with a frown. “Is that why… No, never mind.”

“Why what, Blair?”

“Why you come here. To try to…to find someone to help you relieve the stress of the job,” he replied, his words tumbling out as he blushed and looked away.