“It’s going well, Your Honor.”
She nodded, looking pleased. “I’m glad to hear it, Soldier. Very glad.”
Her continued interest in his case made Cade wonder if his family had something to do with this. He needed to find out if they’d been involved. He hadn’t seen or talked to his mother since the day of his sentencing. He had no doubt she’d been quick to tell his father how low their son had sunk. How she’d even known he had a court date remained a mystery.
“You’re doing well, Soldier,” the judge continued. “I’ll schedule another ninety-day review with the clerk. Until then, keep up the good work.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
Cade left the courtroom and headed to Harry’s for his weekly session. He drove from the courthouse in Montesano to Aberdeen, where Harry Milton had his office. Harry was a vet himself and had served in the first Gulf War. Nearing fifty, he was starting to show his age, with salt-and-pepper hair and a beer gut. His deep blue eyes revealed his own battles with demons who’d followed him from the Middle East. What Cade appreciated most about Harry was the fact that he could read bull faster than anyone Cade knew. He facilitated the group sessions and confronted anyone looking to cover up their feelings with humor, distraction, or other evasion tactics. Harry always cut it off and called it what it was. Cade found the counselor’s ability to read into people’s psyche nothing short of astonishing. He didn’t let anyone, man or woman, lie to themselves or to others.
Harry stepped out of his office after Cade was announced by the receptionist who also served the three other counselors in the VA facility.
“Cade.” Harry greeted him with a welcoming smile, leading him into the small office, where a coffee machine rested on the counter. On his first visit, just as he’d predicted, the only two pieces of furniture in the room were a chair and a sofa. If not for the court order, Cade would have turned around and walked out. He didn’t look upon it the same way now as he had in the beginning. The overstuffed sofa was comfortable. Harry didn’t know much about interior decor, yet somehow the room felt welcoming and soothing, sterile as it was.
“Make yourself a cup of coffee,” Harry said.
Cade did, and Harry made another for himself.
They both got settled. Harry sat in a padded chair and Cade sat on the sofa, and without thinking, Cade crossed his legs. He felt the immediate pull of pain at the injured muscle and quickly uncrossed them. It had been an instinctual move, and he realized he hadn’t been able to do it ever since his injury. The judge was right; he was making progress. This was the first time he’d done it—not for any real length of time, true, but still, he’d been able to lift one leg over the other for the first time in recent memory.
“So,” Harry said, stirring his coffee after adding sugar, “how did your court appointment go?”
“Okay, I guess. Judge Walters wants to see me again in another ninety days.”
Harry nodded, as if to say that was what he’d expected.
“My attorney thinks she’s put her name on my case file. I have the feeling her interest might have something to do with my father and his law firm.” Cade hadn’t said a lot about his family situation. Sensing Cade’s reluctance, Harry hadn’t dug for details. Nevertheless, he seemed to read between the lines.
“As you might have guessed, my father and I are estranged.” Before she showed up in court, he would have said the same thing about his mother. He’d expected condemnation and disappointment in her face when their eyes met, and he’d seen neither. He didn’t have the ability to read people, not the way Harry did. The only thing he thought he might have detected in her look was regret, and even then, he wasn’t completely sure.
Harry uncrossed his legs, set his mug aside, and reached for a pen. “When was the last time you spoke with your family?”
Cade reached for one of the pillows that rested against the back of the sofa and then quickly set it back in place. “Six years…not that we talked much before I entered the military. To put it mildly, my father highly disapproved of that decision.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Yeah. He had other plans for me.”
“And you used the military to escape.”
“Probably not the wisest decision I’ve ever made, but the truth is, given the same options, I’d follow the same path.”
Harry nodded without judgment or pressure to continue. “For your peace of mind, I’ll tell you that you’re wrong when it comes to Judge Walters’s interest in your case.”