“And on that cheery note,” Walker muttered as he sat down. “Cade is looking to do some one-on-one therapy.”
Reggie cocked his head. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted to hear that, and I would be fascinated to know what led to this change after so many stays here at Arete. That said…my involvement isn’t necessary. The ability to sign up for counseling is doable through the system.”
Walker glanced at me. “Don’t make me be your mouthpiece here, Cade.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to talk to himnow,” I muttered at him.
“And if we waited for you to start it on your own, we’d be waiting until next year,” Walker said, raising a brow when I glared at him harder. “You don’t scare me.”
“I ain’t tryin’ to scare you,” I grumbled.
“So you were just showing me your best war face?” Walker asked dryly.
“You ain’t cute.”
“A good thing I’ve always relied on being handsome and sexy; sometimes I even throw in witty for good measure just to spice things up.”
“I ain’t said you were those things either.”
“Not at the moment, you haven’t.”
Reggie sighed. “As much as I’m loving this banter between…boyfriends?”
“We’ve yet to settle what we are,” Walker said, his lips twitching when he saw me perk up. “I figured we would get things settled with you first before we deal with our own…discussion.”
“Right, and again, I am a little confused why I am being brought into this, so perhaps someone could elaborate?”
I sighed, poking some green beans around the plate. “Well, as much as I want to…try to work with a shrink, I’m not sure I want the ones here.”
“Is there something wrong with the therapists on staff?” Reggie wondered.
“No, I’m sure they’re great, but I see ’em all the time, and they’re…I don’t know. Kinda like you.”
“Kind of like…me.”
I glanced pleadingly at Walker, who sighed and rolled his eyes. “Familiar. They’re all familiar to him. And before you say it, yes, I know you’d want a level of familiarity between patient and therapist, but that doesn’t always work. I think in his head, they’ve all become like background characters in a sense. Like they’ve lost their luster of professionalism.”
“I see,” Reggie said, frowning. “And that means?—”
“If we can… Could there be someone else?” I wondered, looking down at my plate rather than at either of them. “Maybe someone who might…get me?”
“There are several therapists we have good relationships with who specialize in PTSD, and a few were active in the armed forces,” Reggie said slowly. “Something like that?”
I peeked up at him cautiously. “Can that happen?”
“Normally I would be wary of bringing someone in from the outside, as it runs contrary to how we prefer to handle things, but also the expense can be prohibitive,” he said and then smiled when my shoulders hunched. “But you’ll find that things aren’t as stiff around here about policies and preferences as when you were a soldier. We take private donations and funding. Which means we’re beholden to no one. I will have to speak to Mr. Shepherd, but I can’t see him having an issue with it. Asking would be a formality.”
“I’d hope he wouldn’t mind extending a little help to one of his long-timers,” Walker said dryly.
“There is that,” Reggie said, pointing at him. “But we have seen quite an increase in funding in the past year. That alone can grease some wheels. I’ll talk to Marc about it, and when I’ve got a few options that might work, we can talk. Should I expect you there as well, Walker?”
“That’s not up to me,” Walker said with a shrug.
“Yes,” I said quickly and then flushed. “Sorry, but I ain’t good at talkin’ about this stuff. It gets all…jumbled.”
“That should certainly make your therapy appointments a unique experience,” Reggie chuckled.
“Aw, hell,” I muttered, not having thought about needing to show up to appointments on my own. Not that I would expect Walker to be with me for the therapy, but so far he’d done a superb job at explaining things that I couldn’t.
