“Why aren’t you taking any notes?” I asked.
She smiled. “I like to focus on the patient during the session. I’ll make notes afterward.”
“What if you forget something?”
She laughed. “I’ve been using this system for the ten years I’ve been in practice. Trust me, it works for me and for my patients.”
I nodded.
“So how are you and Jade now?”
“She’s pretty pissed.” Pissed enough to leave the ranch. A dagger jabbed me in the stomach.
“I can understand that.”
“After what he did to her, I don’t know why she didn’t want me to beat him to a pulp.”
“Part of her probably did. But she was being rational, Talon.”
Rational. The word hung in the air, ridiculing me. In other words, I had not been rational. Couldn’t really argue there.
“So how did you leave things with Jade?”
And again, the dagger. “She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. She says she’s moving out of the ranch house.”
“And how does that make you feel?”
How could answer that? I hardly knew Jade Roberts, but I had been more intimate with her in these last weeks that I had ever been with anyone in my life. I had a constant need for her, a constant ache…
A craving.
“Talon”—she leaned forward, her eyes serious—“this is only going to work if you open up and are honest with me.”
I nodded. She was right. Rationally, I knew she spoke the truth. I cleared my throat and looked down at my lap.
“Do you think you might be more comfortable with a male therapist? I have several colleagues who are excellent.”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with any therapist. But my brother Jonah says you come highly recommended.”
“That’s kind of him.”
I nodded. I was nodding a lot.
Her gaze turned serious again. “Talon, I know you didn’t drive all the way here into Grand Junction on a Saturday to not talk to me. Obviously, Jade and your feelings for her are what caused the issue this morning. Are you in love with her?”
My whole body tensed, and I stood and walked over to the desk and back. “How could I be in love with her? I’ve only known her a couple of weeks.”
“Then how do you feel about her leaving? Will you miss her?”
Miss her? Those words didn’t even begin to encompass how I would feel if she left. Not having Jade around would be like a Colorado summer without the sun, a meadow without columbine, the Rocky Mountains without Ponderosa Pines and Aspens.
“I will miss her.”
Dr. Carmichael nodded. “Why do you think it was so hard for you to voice that?”
“I don’t know. Isn’t that your job? To figure me out?”
“Talon, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think things inside you run a heck of a lot deeper than you’re letting on. These feelings for Jade that are troubling you—there’s a reason why you can’t admit them. Tell me, were you close to your mother?”