He held up a staying hand so she wouldn’t interrupt. “That doesn’t mean the broken little boy no longer exists inside of me. I still work my ass off to maintain my speaking abilities. The day I met you, I tried to pass as a hearing person. It’s a reflex reaction, so I understand when I see you just reacting. I spent all my youth trying to be like hearing individuals. You spent all of yours trying to be the son your father wanted. Old habits are hard to break. I get that. But I also know that you’ll never overcome your automatic responses to pressure by quitting and running.”

He swung an arm at their surroundings. “There’s no better place for you to be right now. If you stay, this ranch will challenge you at every turn, and eventually it’ll teach that little, broken girl inside of you that you aren’t really broken at all. That it was the people around you that had it all wrong.”

* * *

All Erin could do was gape at him. She’d never heard Wyatt Fitzgerald talk for so long. Nor had she ever seen him look quite so passionate about what he was saying. But even more mind-blowing was that what he’d just told her made more sense than anything Jonas had ever said to her in countless counseling sessions. She had heard of deaf communities. She’d also read that the people who lived in them claimed to be happy that they were deaf. She’d never really bought into that, because, in her mind, she hadn’t been able to fathom how anyone could embrace a disability and be glad they had it. Only Wyatt was right. Were disabled people supposed to rail against fate all their lives and feel that nature or God had played a dirty trick on them? Why not embrace the difference and celebrate it? What was wrong with a person feeling happy about having a disability and looking at all the positive things that came of it? And even more important to her in that moment was another question: Why should anyone have to live her life feeling miserable because she was trying to fix something about herself that could never be changed?

Erin felt frozen in place. Now she wasn’t sure what she should do.

Wyatt held her gaze. “It all boils down to one question. Are you going to let your father win?”

After saying that, he walked away.

* * *

Wyatt was shaking after he spoke with Erin. Not a single word he’d said had come easily for him. He had bared his soul to her and told her things he’d never shared with anyone, not even members of his family. He went to the paddocks on the east side of the horse barn. Just before exiting the stable area, he’d haltered a mare and tied her to the fence. She shrieked and danced sideways when he stepped in close and put his hand on the rope that held her fast. Slade had only recently purchased her and suspected she might have been sedated when he examined her before making an offer. She was anything but calm now. People terrified her.