She rubbed her knuckles against Sharon Lynn’s soft skin and sighed again. There was so much of Cody in her daughter. She had the same stubborn tilt to her chin, the same dark blond hair that streaked with gold in the summer sun. And, for the most part, she had the same sunny disposition and laughing eyes Cody had had before he thought Melissa had betrayed him.
It had hurt today to glimpse the old teasing Cody, only to see him vanish in the space of a heartbeat at the first mention of the past. When he’d walked out of Dolan’s, her heart had been heavy with the burden of guilt and fear.
“I have to be the one to tell him,” she whispered finally, her fingers caressing that precious cheek. “I have to tell your daddy all about you.”
Maybe by revealing the truth herself, before he learned it from someone else, she would have some small chance of earning his forgiveness. They could work out a solution together.
Tomorrow, she vowed. First thing tomorrow afternoon when she got off work, she would drive out to White Pines and tell Cody everything. And then she would pray that it didn’t cost her the only person on earth she held dear.
* * *
Too restless to stay in one place for long as he contemplated how to go about discovering whether Melissa’s baby was his, Cody drove over to visit Jordan and Kelly. Six-year-old Dani was always a distraction and he just might get a chance to hold that nephew of his. He had a hunch it would be a bittersweet sensation given what he suspected about Melissa’s child being his own.
“Uncle Cody!” Dani screamed when she caught sight of him. She ran and leapt into his arms, planting kisses all over his face. “I really, really missed you.”
The weight of her in his arms, the peppermint-sticky kisses, filled him with nostalgia and accomplished exactly what he’d hoped for. “I really missed you, too, pumpkin. I’m sorry I didn’t get to take those kittens you had for me awhile back.”
She patted his cheek consolingly. “That’s okay. Francie had more. Want to see? One is all black with a white nose. I think you’ll really, really like him.”
He grinned. “I bet I will,” he agreed. “We’ll go see him later.”
“We’d better go now,” Dani protested. “Later it will be my bedtime.”
“Give me a few minutes inside to say hello to your mom,” he negotiated. “I’m sure it won’t be your bedtime then.”
Dani braced her hands against his chest, leaned back in his arms and studied him intently. “You promise you won’t leave without going to see the kittens?”
“I promise,” he said, solemnly crossing his heart as he put her down.
“Okay,” she said cheerfully, and ran toward the house screaming, “Mommy, Uncle Cody’s here and he says he’s going to take one of Francie’s kittens.”
“Thank goodness,” Kelly called back as she emerged from the house, a grin on her face. “Conned you again, huh?”
He chuckled. “If you’re not careful, that child of yours is going to be the biggest scam artist in the entire United States.”
“I prefer to think she’ll have a career in diplomacy or maybe negotiating strike settlements,” Kelly said. “Come on in. Jordan’s still at the office, but he should be home soon.”
His sister-in-law surveyed him closely. “How are you? You look lousy.”
“Obviously Dani isn’t the only one in the family with a silver tongue.”
Kelly didn’t bat an eye. “Did you see Melissa today?”
“I’m sure you know perfectly well that your husband and Luke badgered me into it.”
“They said they were going to try. I wasn’t sure if it had worked.”
“I saw her,” he admitted. “And her baby.” He watched closely for Kelly’s reaction. She remained expressionless.
“I see,” she said blandly, keeping her attention focused on the vegetables she was chopping. “How did it go?”
Cody thought she was working awfully darned hard to feign disinterest. “Fine for the first few minutes, ugly after that.”
“Oh, Cody,” she protested softly. “Isn’t it time you settled things with her and came home for good?”
Suddenly he didn’t want to pursue the topic. He needed a break from it. They could get into it again when Jordan got home. Hopefully his brother would have answers that Kelly couldn’t or wouldn’t give him.
“I don’t want to talk about Melissa right now. First I want to catch a glimpse of that brand new baby boy of yours,” he declared just as Jordan came in and dropped a kiss on his wife’s cheek.
“Hey, little brother, what brings you by?” Jordan asked, sneaking a carrot from the pile Kelly had just cut up.
“He’s going to take a kitten,” Dani chimed in. “Can we go see them now, Cody? It’s later.”
Since going to see the kittens would keep him from having to deal with the subject of Melissa and her baby a little longer, Cody stood and headed for the kitchen door. Dani tucked her hand in his.
“You should probably take two kittens,” she said on the way out. “One might get lonely.”
“Listen, young lady, I said one kitten,” he protested over the sound of Kelly and Jordan’s laughter.
“But you were going to take two last time.” Apparently she caught his stern expression because she gave a little shrug of resignation. “I bet you’ll change your mind when you see them.”
A half hour later he was back in the kitchen with two kittens in a box. Dani had
