I've never doubted that Ennis loves his daughters. I'm certain that he does. "Life's continuance" is important to Ennis, as AP points out. He cares about them deeply. In the "moving to Texas" quarrel he is genuinely worried about losing contact with his girls - he can't imagine doing that, so in the fantasy world they have to come along. But, still - in his dealings with Jack, several times Ennis uses his daughters / the child support as an objection, an impediment to Jack's wishes for a sweet life that he (Ennis) is able to verbalize, when the *real* or rather the *major* impediment(s) and emotions remain unvoiced.
In the post-divorce scene, I think the girls are a legitimate reason to turn Jack away. Still, he could have found some other way to reassure Jack, and didn't.
This is a case in point. Word for word, Ennis is talking as if Jack has come up to spend the weekend with him, which can't be because of the girls. He doesn't address the real reason Jack is there, doesn't tell him to come back in two days' time so they can deal with it and try to sort themselves and their future out..... Of course he should prioritize his girls when he has the care of them that one weekend. But that's not the point in that scene IMO. The inability to acknowledge openly what's really at stake, and to arrange some way to deal with it, is.
From Diane
I think the post-divorce scene was a turning point for Jack. [ snip] At that moment, Jack’s hopes and dreams died. IMO, neither one ever brought it up again …. none of it (the divorce fiasco, the hope for a life together, etc.)
I think you must be right in this. Nevertheless I feel nearly stunned by the thought that they did not at all address the post-divorce fiasco the next time they met. That was only one month later.
All the hopes and fears went unspoken but were out in the open, unprotected and vulnerable, those few minutes Jack was at Ennis's place - so overwhelming for both of them, neither had any hope of being calm, reasonable, rational about it then. But one month later? They'd had time to think it through. To form thoughts that might be spoken. And the emotions were still raw, the wounds open. It's sad beyond belief that they didn't acknowledge this, didn't talk about it, couldn't find a way to get to the
things unsaid that were becoming unsayable. 
This is evidenced by the conversation at the lake scene. Jack asks Ennis, “after all this time, you ain’t find nobody else to marry?” Jack has resigned the fact that Ennis is too paranoid and homophobic to ever publicly acknowledge their relationship.
Oh, yes. I know I posted previously somewhere that Jack's question about Ennis re-marrying is among the saddest lines in the movie to me - because I think it confirms that Jack has given up hoping, even. Saying that, he acknowledges that he realizes Ennis is going to go through life pretending to not be queer with all his might; - and so to that purpose Jack is genuinely surprised that Ennis hasn't done the obvious thing, then, and found a new wife to complete the "charade".
