“It must be true. My mother died while I was young, my father had more important things to do than to love me, my wife was killed and my daughter crippled. Even you haven’t escaped unscathed. I’ve cost you your career, your legacy.”

“It would have happened, anyway. Your showing up just hurried along the inevitable. What happened to me wasn’t your fault, Cole.”

He desperately wanted to believe her, but the evidence proved her wrong. One last time, he allowed himself to touch her, to savor her soft skin. “Didn’t your mama ever tell you cowboys will break your heart?” He settled his hand on her shoulder, sadness reflected in his eyes. “Marry a doctor or a lawyer, someone who will take care of you. Not a man like me who’ll just walk away when the going gets rough.”

She started to protest, but he laid his finger across her lips. He couldn’t argue with her anymore or he’d give in to the needs carving up his insides. Because he wanted to stay, to surrender to the temptation to try once more. He just didn’t dare.

“Cole, at least spend tonight. You can still leave in the morning.”

He was tempted, so tempted he ached with longing. “I can’t.” His voice broke over the words, and he resisted the urge to call them back. He tried not to see the hurt in her eyes, the yearning.

Turning away from Darci to scoop Mandy into his arms seemed like the hardest thing he’d ever done.

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

The first emotion to really sink through the fog surrounding her was fear. A mind-numbing fear that she’d live the remainder of her life alone, pining for a man who didn’t want her. With no chance of love and no chance of the family she’d always dreamed of, the next fifty years or so seemed pretty bleak.

Close on the heels of the fear was anger—a blazing emotion that cost her two broken glasses and a pillow that she beat the stuffing out of. When her energy was exhausted, she sat down among the settling feathers and forced herself to think.

It was quite an endeavor after a week of mindless nothingness.

She had honestly thought losing the presidency of Blackmore’s would be the end of her world. She’d been very, very wrong. Cole was her world, the only person who really mattered anymore. Cole and his delightful daughter, a little girl desperately looking for the love that Darci knew she could provide.