“Has something happened to Cody?”
Apparently he heard the alarm in her voice, because he reached out and touched her hand.
“Nothing like that,” he reassured her hurriedly. He went on to tell her about Cody’s abrupt departure the night before. “Daddy’s fit to be tied, not just at Cody, but at me for not stopping him.”
Kelly could just imagine the guilt trip Harlan was capable of laying on Jordan. “Cody’s a grown man. He has to handle his problems whatever way works for him. I could shake Melissa, though, for doing something like that. It doesn’t make any sense. She’s adored Cody forever.”
“That’s what I thought, but Cody swears he saw what he saw. He couldn’t wait to take off. Now Daddy’s threatening to cut him out of the will. Whatever he feels right now, it would kill Cody to lose White Pines.”
“Would Harlan really disinherit him?”
“I suppose that depends on how long Cody stays away. You know how stubborn Daddy is.”
Kelly surveyed him pointedly. “I certainly do. It’s a trait he passed along to all of you.”
“I’m not stubborn,” Jordan denied.
“Oh, please.”
“Determined, maybe. Dedicated.”
“Bullheaded,” she corrected.
He grinned, that lopsided, boyish grin that was so at odds with the sophisticated image he’d projected in recent years. “If you know that, then you should know you haven’t got a chance in fighting me on this proposal.”
“You’re forgetting one thing.”
“Which is?”
“I am every bit as bullheaded as you are, Jordan Adams.”
“Admittedly a frightening thought,” he teased. “But you don’t scare me, Kelly Flint. You’re weakening already. I can tell.”
Kelly swallowed hard against the tide of pure panic that his observation sent through her. “How can you tell a thing like that?”
“Oh, no, you don’t. I’m not telling you my secret way of figuring out what’s really going on in that head of yours. It’s the only advantage I’ve got.”
It wasn’t, Kelly thought with a sigh. The real advantage he had was that she was still head over heels in love with him.
Chapter Seven
Kelly spent the rest of the day watching as the bond between her daughter and Jordan miraculously strengthened. It was as if some barrier inside Jordan had fallen and allowed him to open his heart to the child. Always stiff, formal and a little aloof in the past, today he had finally relaxed, reminding her why she had wanted him as Dani’s godfather in the first place. Well, one of the reasons, anyway.
To her initial surprise Paul had been delighted with the choice. An ambitious man, she finally realized that he relished the tie to the powerful Jordan Adams. Kelly could hardly criticize his motives, when her own were less than pure. She had asked Jordan to be Dani’s godfather, not only because he was the sort of stable, bright, fun-loving influence she wanted for her child, but because it would forever link them all together.
Jordan had balked at first, swearing that what he knew about children would fit on the head of a pin. Kelly had had to use every persuasive skill at her command to talk him into it.
Now, observing the two of them, she was glad she had. Just seeing their heads close together as Jordan tried to teach Dani how to make homemade peach ice cream after they’d worked on the fence for awhile made Kelly’s resolve slip another notch. Soon she wouldn’t have any reserves of willpower left for resisting him. Dani wanted a father desperately and Jordan was slowly but surely slipping into that role. It was far more natural to him than he had once insisted or she had once imagined.
She closed her eyes against the sight of man and child, but she couldn’t stop her thoughts from dashing headlong back to a time when she’d dreamed of seeing Jordan with their child in just such a scene. She’d envisioned a pint-size boy, his thick, sun-streaked hair falling in his face, wearing tiny cowboy boots and trailing after his daddy with the same rolling cowboy gait. She’d imagined a little girl with dark brown curls and big brown eyes cuddled in her father’s arms as he rocked her to sleep, crooning a lullaby in his deep, soothing voice.
Dani’s excited shouts cut into her reverie.
“Mommy, I did it!” Dani hollered, thundering onto the porch, a bowl in her hand. “Look! I made ice cream!”
It looked more like soup to Kelly, but she didn’t complain as she took the offered bowl and tried a taste. “Wonderful,” she declared. “The best peach ice cream I’ve ever had. Maybe you two will turn out to be the next ice cream magnates.”
“Peach is good, but chocolate is better. Jordan says next time we’ll make that. It’s his favorite, too.”
“Oh, really? You and Jordan seem to be making a lot of plans today.”
Jordan strolled up to the porch and leaned back against the railing right smack in front of her, a position that put his incredible thighs and other interesting parts of his anatomy practically at eye level. Kelly jerked her gaze up to rest more safely on his face. He shot her a knowing little grin that set her teeth on edge.
“Any objections to our plans?” he inquired, clearly daring her to challenge his determination to weave himself into the fabric of their lives.
Kelly waited until Dani had scampered off to check the ice-cream maker before responding. “Only if you intend to disappoint her,” she warned in a low voice. “Paul has done enough of that to last her a lifetime.”
“I will never disappoint her or you,” he vowed, regarding her solemnly. “You can take that promise to the bank.”
As
