He’d learned early on with Kennedy to be his brother first and his foreman second, but it was different with Erin, and he was so conflicted about his attraction to her that it was difficult to keep his head on straight. He wished she wouldn’t leave. One part of her yearned to be seen as feminine, pretty, and desirable. But the other part of her detested everything she secretly wished for. Her yearning to be something she wasn’t troubled him.

Wyatt felt that he understood her in a way others didn’t—because he was deaf. He’d been born that way, just as Erin had been born a girl. As far back as Wyatt could remember, the world beyond his grandfather’s ranch hadn’t seemed to accept him as he was. The way he had perceived it, rightly or wrongly, there was pressure on him at every turn to be as much like a hearing person as he could be. As an adult, Wyatt understood that all those individuals had good intentions. They’d only wanted him to have the tools he would need to thrive in a world that would challenge him at every turn. Only as a little boy and later as a teen, Wyatt had felt like a lesser person. He had been everybody’s special project. He’d had to learn his letters. He’d had to learn sign language. He’d had to learn to speak. The demands placed upon him were huge and the pressure relentless.

He told himself he’d put all that behind him, but in a lot of ways, he was just like Erin, still driven and trying to be someone he wasn’t. He spent at least a half hour each night at his computer, striving to speak as perfectly as he could. When he’d gotten into trouble with that woman, it hadn’t been because he’d intended to do her any harm. It had happened because he went into that bar pretending to be something he wasn’t. Erin was so much like him in that way, trying with everything she had to be as strong as a man.

Wyatt didn’t want her to quit the ranch. He knew firsthand that working with animals was a great way for most people to heal. Erin was seeing a therapist, and Wyatt was glad about that. But she was overlooking the best psychologists in the world: all the critters on this land. If she stayed, she’d eventually learn to deal with those animals on their terms, not hers. She would also learn they would accept her without condition.

It was with animals that Wyatt had first started to appreciate himself for who he was. It was with animals that he’d stopped feeling like a lesser being. It was with animals that he had discovered his own special talents that set him apart from others. And it was with animals that he’d finally found peace.

He struck off toward her across the common. He had no idea what he might say to change her mind about leaving, but he at least had to try. As he drew to a stop near her, he saw that she was stuffing folded clothing into a duffel bag.