“Slow?” he huffs out. “You’ve been there several days now, Summer. Are you telling me you still haven’t convinced him to do counseling?”

“No. No.” Frowning, I backtrack. “He’s agreed to counseling. But the counseling itself is slow moving. I’ve definitely seen some of where his anger issues come from, but I don’t think we’ve gotten to the heart of the—”

“Summer.” Les interrupts, his voice stern. “I appreciate your dedication to your work, but if you’ve helped him at all, just sign off on the papers. It’ll be okay. I know you did the best you could.”

“W-what?” I stop dead in my tracks, surprised at what I’m hearing. “But we haven’t worked through all his anger issues yet.”

“You’re not going to. That’s the thing about Logan Tate. His issues go deeper than anything you’re going to solve over his suspension. But if you’ve managed to get him on board with counseling, you’ve done more than any of our other counselors have done.”

I can’t help but feel a little proud of that. “Really?”

“Yes, really. And that was why you flew out, right? To get him to agree to counseling? You’ve done that, so just sign the papers and you can head on back.”

“I’m going to. I’m just working through some details first.”

“What kind of details?”

I pause, then decide to play the patient confidentiality card. “We’ve encountered some bumps along the way,” I say, which isn’t entirely a lie.

I would say developing feelings for my client definitely counts as a bump. A large hill. Small mountain, maybe.

“Understood,” Les says. “I’m glad to hear you’re working so closely with the client.”

A lump builds in my throat. If only he knew that closely is an understatement.

17

LOGAN

Our musty old barn isn’t so musty and old anymore.

Sure, there’s still that same draft leaking through the crack between the oversized sliding doors, and yes, the air still smells like fermenting beer mixed with stale chicken feed. But Graham’s hours of work on this place have done a serious one-eighty on the smelly old barn where we used to play hide-and-seek. With a smattering of freshly painted picnic tables and those trendy twinkle lights hanging from the rafters, this could easily be rural Colorado’s trendiest brewery, right in our backyard.

“Graham, you’re an absolute genius.” Summer gapes as he explains the details of the renovations as we follow him on his mini tour.