Chapter 16

“Ta ta,” Craig said.

“Goodbye, Craig.”

Arriving home around one, Julian remembered he hadn’t taken the lease agreement to Mrs. Butler. He retrieved the paper from his desk, signed it, and walked up toward the front door of the main house.

He met Mary coming out. After saying ‘hi,’ he asked, “How’s Tate doing?”

“I’m not sure,” she said, wrinkling her brow.

“Oh?”

“Yes, well, he’s been sort of agitated all week. He seems to want to try harder to adjust to his new leg, but then gives up again, and goes back to refusing to work on it. It’s really kind of strange.”

“And he won’t tell you why?”

She shook her head. “I’m hoping that whatever caused him to make more of an effort will win out. He’ll be so much happier if he makes the leap. We’ll see what happens in tomorrow’s session.”

They said goodbye and Julian walked up to the front door and rang the bell. A few moments later Mrs. Butler opened it.

“Oh, Julian,” she said, a worried, almost panicky look on her face.