Free Worth The Effort (The Worth Series Book 4: A Copper Country Romance) by Mara Jacobs

kind.
    “My brothers were doing God knows what on the other side. Although my dad probably was checking up on them while I was looking through the telescope thingy. And my mother probably had an eye on them the whole time she waited in the car.”
    “And yet, your father waited with you while you tried to find the hut.”
    “Yes.”
    “And that made you feel treasured?”
    “Yes. But you know what? I felt that way all the time then. I couldn’t have put a name to it, of course, but I knew my world was safe. I knew that I was loved, and that if I desperately wanted or needed something, my father would be there for me.”
    Alison waited patiently, but Deni just sat on the comfortable couch, willing whatever heat was left from the mug of tea to seep into her hand, her arms, her entire body.
    After a moment, Alison said, “And when was it that your father died?”
    “Six months later,” Deni said without hesitation. She took a gulp of the lukewarm tea and looked at her watch. “I guess it’s time to go.”
    Alison didn’t look at the clock that sat on the table and faced away from the patient’s couch.
    “We have a little bit of time if you’d like to—”
    “I really need to get back to work. I do this on my lunchtime so I don’t like to take advantage.”
    Alison nodded and started to ask her the wrap-up assessment questions she asked her most sessions. Sometimes they varied but were basically the same. When they got to the one where she asked about the small thing Deni was going to work on for the following week, Alison said, “I noticed the pink nail polish the other night at dinner. It’s really striking. Did you enjoy that? Shopping for something different? Doing or wearing something different than you normally would?”
    That had been her “assignment” from last week. To spend time shopping for something—and it could be small—that was not something she would typically buy and then to incorporate it into her life.
    She’d thought about sexy lingerie or something like that, but she’d walked out of ShopKo with a bottle of hot pink nail polish instead.
    “It was interesting,” she now said to Alison. “It wasn’t what I thought I’d buy.”
    “I find it interesting that you chose something that you would see as much as somebody else would see.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, you see your hands all the time—eating, getting ready, working, especially if you work with computers as much as I’m guessing you do.”
    “Yes?”
    “You could have chosen something that you wear outwardly that other people see more than you do, like a necklace or something. Or, you could have chosen something that only you see, but not very often, like different undergarments.”
    Deni should have been embarrassed, but she’d passed that line with Alison a long time ago.
    “But you chose something that you would see as much—or even more—than others would.”
    “What does that mean?” Deni asked. Surely they were over her session time by now, but Deni didn’t dare look at her watch again. She didn’t want to stop Alison’s train of thought.
    “I’m not sure it means anything. I just find it interesting. And”—she started to rise from her chair, causing Deni to do the same—“it’s a very bold choice. I like it.”
    “Sawyer Beck said the reason he kissed me was because of my nail polish.”
    Alison sat back in her chair, a look of shock on her usually composed face. “Sawyer Beck kissed you?”
    “Yes. That night we met you and Petey.”
    Alison waved Deni to sit back down, which she did. “Do you want to talk about that?”
    “Aren’t we out of time?”
    “I don’t have another appointment for an hour.”
    “Oh, okay. Um…what should we talk about? I mean about him kissing me?”
    A devilish smile crossed Alison’s face. One Deni had never seen during therapy but which seemed to go with the woman who’d been Petey Ryan’s date the other night. “Well, what I’d really like