“Thank you,” Melissa said so softly that he could barely hear her.
“I guess you and Brian were meant to be, after all,” he said, then turned on his heel and bolted for the door before he made an absolute idiot of himself.
He brushed past Velma and the baby without giving them a second glance. Damn, Melissa! She’d turned him inside out again. For a fleeting moment he’d actually wondered if he could put the past behind him and move on, maybe get something going with her again since his body was as hot for her now as it had been eighteen months ago. He’d allowed old feelings to stir to life, indulged in a few quick and steamy fantasies.
One look at that baby had shattered any possibility of that. He should have known that Melissa and Brian were together. He should have guessed that the betrayal was more serious than the one-night stand he’d tried desperately to convince himself it was. He should have realized that neither of them would have cheated on him for anything less than powerful emotions they couldn’t control. He should have given them credit for that much at least. He couldn’t make up his mind, though, if that should make him feel better or worse.
It wasn’t until he was back at White Pines, riding hell-bent for leather across the open land trying to work off his anger and his pain that he stopped to wonder why Jordan and Luke would have set him up for such a terrible sucker punch. Couldn’t they just have told him and saved him the anguish of making a fool of himself over Melissa all over again?
Instead they had taunted him into going into Dolan’s. They had poked and prodded at all of his old feelings for Melissa until he could no longer ignore them. Would they have done that if they’d known about Brian? If they’d known about the baby? Harlan had done his share of nudging, too. He’d been the first to plant the seed about finding Melissa at Dolan’s.
It didn’t make a lick of sense. How could they not have known? It was a small town. Harlan sure as hell knew everything that went on. And yet they had sent him like a lamb to slaughter, straight back to Melissa.
He reined in his horse and sat for a long time contemplating the possibilities. For once in his life he was oblivious to the raw beauty of the land surrounding him. Since he knew damned well his brothers weren’t cruel, their actions had to mean something. At the very least, he’d bet that Melissa and Brian weren’t married, after all. At the most…
He thought of that cute little girl who’d practically begged him to pick her up.
He didn’t even want to consider the astonishing, incredible idea that had just popped into his head. What if she was his? What if he was actually a father?
He tried the idea on for size and realized that a silly grin had spread across his face. A father? Yes, indeed, the possibility fit as well as those tight little jeans had caressed Melissa’s fanny.
Then his grin faded as he considered all the time he’d lost if it were true. If that little girl was his, he resolved there was going to be hell to pay.
Chapter Four
Melissa stood over Sharon Lynn’s crib and stared down at her sleeping child. The baby’s cheeks were flushed, her dark blond hair curling damply against her chubby neck. Her blue nightshirt was sprinkled with tiny yellow ducks. A larger, stuffed duck was cuddled next to her. It had been her favorite toy ever since she’d been to a duck pond a few months before. She refused to go to bed without it.
A smile curved Melissa’s lips as she watched her baby and fought the desperate need to pick her up, to cling to her. She hadn’t been able to let her daughter out of her sight since that terrible moment in the drugstore when Cody had come face-to-face with his child. In that instant her heart had ricocheted wildly and her breath had caught in her throat as she’d waited for him to recognize Sharon Lynn as his, just as Jordan had the very first time he’d spotted her. She’d almost been grateful that the decision to tell Cody or not to tell him had been taken out of her hands.
But instead of promptly recognizing the baby as his, Cody had clearly leapt to the conclusion that someone else was the father. Given the cold glint in his eyes when he’d stepped back to the counter to congratulate her in a voice devoid of emotion and his comment about her relationship with Brian having been meant to be, he must have assumed the father was Brian Kincaid. It was a further complication in an already complicated situation.
She sighed as she considered the terrible mess she had made of things. She should have told Cody everything straight off, right then and there, but her mother’s terrified expression and her earlier dire warnings had kept Melissa silent, too fearful of the consequences of blurting out the truth.
She couldn’t imagine what her life would be like without her baby. As difficult as things had gotten after she’d learned she was pregnant, there had never been a single instant when she’d regretted having Cody’s child. Every time she looked into that precious face, she saw a miracle that she and Cody had created together. Beyond that biological tie, however, Cody had no right at all to claim his child. She was the only parent Sharon Lynn had ever known. If only she could keep it that way.
Unfortunately, though, there was no way the truth could be kept hidden forever. Cody had already seen his daughter. His
