“That isn’t true.”

“Isn’t it? You expect me to believe you don’t find ranch life too hard?”

“The life here is hard, but that isn’t what’s driving me away. It’s you, Sloan. You’re the reason I have to go.”

He stared at her grimly.

“You don’t understand at all, do you?”

“I guess I don’t”

Her mouth trembled. “I love you, Sloan. So much it hurts. I love you … I love your child”—her arms tightened around Janna—“I love this land. We could have had a beautiful life together.”

His jaw clenched in resistance. “So you love us but you’re going to leave us.”

“I can’t stay. Not without your love. I can’t bear to live here any longer.” Her throat constricted, and a tremor shook her voice when she continued. “I can’t bear the bitterness, the pain. I’m a flesh-and-blood woman. You throw barbs and I bleed. I just can’t bleed anymore.”

The muscles in his jaw knotted. “I apologized for the cruel things I said.”

“I know. And you were sincere, I don’t doubt it. But you can’t say the one thing I need to hear.”

“I want you to stay.”

“You want my body, perhaps… but I’m not a whore. I’ve got more to give than that.” She swallowed thickly. “That has always been the trouble, hasn’t it? You don’t want my heart. You were honest about that from the first, at least.”

Her voice was on the edge of breaking. With effort, Heather strove to collect herself. “I think you’ve made your choice, Sloan. You love your dead wife, and you can’t let her go.”

He made no reply. His face was set like flint, yet she saw the dark, anguished look in his eyes.

“I can’t be Doe,” she murmured hoarsely. “I can’t live up to her image. I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“I don’t want you to be Doe.”

“You do. You can’t help it, but you do. You insist on clinging to the past—” Heather dashed the tears from her eyes, but she couldn’t banish the relentless ache. “You won’t let go of your guilt, and until you do…”

There can be no future for us.

She left the words unsaid, but she saw the muscles in Sloan’s throat work convulsively. She had affected him, Heather knew. The truth had cut deeply… But not deeply enough.

“I’ll tell Cat you said good-bye.”

Pain lashed through her at his toneless utterance. She couldn’t reply.

Without getting up from the table, Sloan took Janna from her. His own throat was achingly tight as Heather choked back a sob and fled the kitchen. A moment later he heard the shutting of the front door.