“You can stay here for as long as you need. Maybe if we brainstormed, we could come up with a new business to start together. We still have a year left on our agreement; we could use the time to settle into another life.” The words tumbled from her lips. She tried to halt them, but they insisted on being said. “I have a little money saved, enough to get us by for a while.”

Suddenly, she felt like she was begging for his attention, pleading for his love. Clamping her mouth closed, she stuffed all the garbage into the pizza box and jammed it closed.

Cole reached for her hand, but when she pulled away, he dropped his arm on the table. “I have nothing to offer you, nothing but a truckload of problems that aren’t yours. Mandy’s medical bills will take me years to pay off. And I won’t live off your money. I need to find a way to support myself.”

“But what if-”

He cut off her words with a sharp motion of his hand. “It wouldn’t work, Darci. We both need to start over, but in different places. I’ve got Mandy to worry about first, then I’ve got to think about a new career.”

“I could help you with Mandy.”

Cole shook his head, and Darci felt her heart twist painfully. “I can’t let you give everything up for me.”

“I don’t have anything left to give up.” She regretted the words as soon as she said them, seeing the pain she’d inflicted on Cole.

He glanced up, the past haunting his eyes. “I tried to love my first wife, but I never felt anything more for her than affection.”

She winced, then sagged into a chair, not certain she wanted to hear what he had to say.

“Sharon and I made a mistake, and we had to get married because she was pregnant. I tried to be a good husband, but I was too busy, too set on making it to the top to see how lonely she was. Being the wife of a rodeo bum is hard enough, but she wanted me to spend time with her. And time was something I couldn’t spare without losing the momentum in my career.” He gulped. “She also wanted me to love her.”

He picked up a clean napkin and slowly tore it into small pieces. “When she couldn’t take the loneliness anymore, she left and took Mandy with her.” Cole’s hands stopped their relentless destruction, and he swallowed hard. “She hadn’t gone two miles when she wandered across the yellow line into the path of a semi. She was blinded by tears, tears that she was crying because of me.”