Joe couldn’t resist any longer. He brought her into his arms and ran a hand over her silky hair. “You don’t have to do anything until you’re ready.” Swallowing hard, he pushed the doubts and worries and despair from his mind. “You can stay with me for as long as you need to.” The words were out before he could stop them. His mouth, it seemed, was operating on autopilot.

“I can’t do that. It’s too much of an imposition.”

God, if only she knew. . . “Would you do it for me? If I needed a place to hide out for a while, would you let me stay with you?”

“Of course I would. You know that.”

“Then why can’t I do the same for you?” Even as he said the words, Joe questioned the wisdom of opening his home to her. She’d stay a few days and recover enough to go on with her life, but her essence would linger in his home and heart forever. Well, he could always move, if it came to that.

A deep rattling sigh, the kind that followed a serious cry, echoed through her. “You really don’t mind?”

“No, Janey,” he said with a deep sigh of his own. “I really don’t mind.”

Janey focused on getting through each minute. Breathe in. Breathe out. Don’t think. Don’t remember. Don’t go there. But despite her best efforts, the sight of her fiancé writhing in ecstasy beneath the enthusiastic hips of another woman was burned indelibly into her memory. He’d had his hands full of breasts that were much larger than hers. Had they been the draw? Or was it simple availability? Was it the first and only time? Or had there been others? Oh, God, she’d been such a fool!

She’d never suspected for one second that he’d cheat on her. He was always so busy with his internship and his life as a doctor. And she’d just accepted his many excuses because she wanted to be supportive and not add to his stress by nagging him for more of his time and attention.

All the lingering doubts from the last thirteen years came roaring back to remind her that there had been plenty of warning signs, and she’d chosen to ignore every one of them.

Like when he’d discouraged her from going to vet school. The loans will kill us, he’d said. Only one of them should go to medical school, he’d argued, because island practices won’t generate enough income to pay off all those loans with enough left over to support them and the four kids they’d planned to have.