“Don’t use guilt on me, Cole. I don’t appreciate it. I’ll spend as much spare time as I can with Madeline, but you have to find someone who can care for the children full-time. Okay?”

Cole nodded, but she wasn’t at all certain she’d gotten through to him.

“I mean it, Cole. I expect you to put in your best effort to find someone else.”

“I will,” he promised, and she believed him.

A tiny head peered around Cole’s legs: Madeline, her blue eyes a miniature version of her uncle’s, but large in her tiny face. Every bit as haunted as his, they softened Honey’s defenses, and that would not do.

She couldn’t offer everything Cole needed, but she would give as much as she could.