Page 98 of Steadfast
Sitting therein the booth with Jude, I felt happier than I’d felt in a long time. He watched me with big silver eyes and listened to baby Samantha’s story.
“Every month that went by without her hearing could have produced up to a three-month language lag,” I told him. “No moment of my work life has ever been as rewarding as watching her hear for the first time.”
Jude smiled at me over his coffee cup. “It was so freaking cool, Soph. I can’t believe a machine can make a deaf child hear.”
“It depends on the cause of deafness. But it works for Samantha. After she gets used to the implant, hopefully she can get another one in the other ear. But insurance doesn’t always pay for two. It barely paid for this one. That’s why I kicked in that money…”
He put his ridiculously attractive face in one hand and smiled at me again. “Good use for it.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
The waitress brought us our food—BLTs with extra-crispy bacon. As he took his first bite, Jude’s feet captured mine under the table. He and I were due for some peaceful, sunlit moments together. I watched the man I loved eat his sandwich, and my heart swelled a little more.
“What?” he asked, wiping his mouth. “Did I get mayo somewhere mayo shouldn’t be?”
“No,” I whispered. “You’re just beautiful, that’s all.”
He rolled his eyes a little, because men don’t like to be called “beautiful,” even when it’s true. “Back atcha, babe.”
“I have some things I need to ask you about,” I admitted. “But I think I know a way that we can stop rehashing the past. If you’ll hear me out.”
Jude tucked his napkin into his lap and studied me. “I’ll always hear you out. But I do worry about you.”
“I know. And it’s possible that I’ve been a tiny little bit obsessive with my curiosity.”
“A tiny bit, huh?” He hid his smile behind his coffee mug.
“Okay, a lot obsessive. But I have a plan to settle things once and for all.”
“Let’s hear it.”
I cleared my throat. “You know May is in her second year at the Vermont Law School.”
“Right.”
“She has a lawyer friend there who looks at criminal appeals on a pro-bono basis. What if we shared with him all the things that I think are strange about the way your case was handled? If he thinks there’s something there, you would ask him to pursue it. But if he doesn’t think it looks fishy, I’ll just drop it. I’ll stop asking questions.”
Jude set down the mug and looked out the window at the foot traffic on Main Street. Montpelier was a fun little town, with its tiny legislature and ragtag college students. I wondered what he saw when he studied them. “Okay,” he said, still gazing out the window.
“Really? You’ll do it?”
He turned toward me now. “Sure, Sophie. I’ll go to the lawyer with you. If that’s what you want to do.”
“I do. I just need someone to look at all the things I found and tell me whether I’m crazy.”
“You’re not crazy, baby,” he insisted. “You’re the smartest girl I know. But sometimes that’s not enough.”
True. “I got very mad at you last week.”
“I know.” He picked up the second half of his sandwich.
“No, I mean I got very mad after I dug through the hospital database and found my brother’s blood work from the night he died. Why didn’t you tell me that he was high, too?”
Jude’s eyes widened. “He…what?”
I groaned. “Don’t even tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. I pulled up tox screen results for both of you from the hospital’s database. They’re almost identical. Oxycodone and another drug.”
“Jesus.” He put down his sandwich. “Gavin was high? That doesn’t sound like him.”
