“Kelly mentioned that you saw Melissa and her little girl today, after you left Luke and me,” Jordan said, his gaze fixed on Cody’s face.
The comment gave him the perfect opening. “Why didn’t you warn me?” Cody asked, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. “You knew about the baby, didn’t you?”
Jordan sighed, then nodded. “I saw her once, about eight months ago. She was just a baby.” He scanned Cody’s face as if looking for answers. “What did you think when you saw her?”
“I figured Melissa and Brian had more going for them than I’d realized. I figured they were a happy little family now.” Cody threw out the possibility to gauge his brother’s reaction. If Jordan knew anything different, he’d find it out now.
The color washed out of Jordan’s face. “Did you say that to Melissa?”
“More or less,” he admitted. “Along with offering her my congratulations.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing.”
“I see.”
Cody lost patience for the game. He knew darned well that Jordan knew more than he was saying. He could see it in his eyes. His brother was looking everywhere in the kitchen except directly at him.
“You might as well spit it out,” he told him finally.
“What?”
“Whatever has you looking like you’d rather be in Kansas.”
A faint grin tugged at Jordan’s mouth. “Maybe Houston, not Kansas,” he said. He sighed. “How good a look did you get at the child?”
“Good enough,” Cody said. He sensed that Jordan wanted him to reach a different conclusion than he’d just offered all on his own. He sucked in a deep breath. “She’s mine, isn’t she?”
Once Cody had actually spoken the words out loud, Jordan nodded, confirming everything.
Cody’s heart pounded. An uncommon mix of hope and dismay swirled through him. “You know that for sure?”
“I saw it right off,” Jordan admitted. “She was the spitting image of your baby pictures. I confronted Melissa about it straight out.”
Cody felt an icy chill settle over him as Jordan’s earlier comment came back to him. He stood and leaned down to look his brother in the eye. “And that was when? About eight months ago, you said?”
“Yes,” Jordan replied softly.
“And Melissa confirmed your suspicions right then and there?” he demanded, the hurt and anger of yet another betrayal slamming through him.
“Yes.”
“Damn you, Jordan,” he snapped, backing up to prevent slamming a fist in his brother’s face. “How could you do that to me? How could you keep a secret like that? Didn’t you think I had a right to know? Or was this another one of those big-brother-knows-best decisions?”
“She pleaded with me not to tell you,” Jordan said simply.
Cody stared at him incredulously. “And your loyalty was with her and not me?”
“Why the hell do you think I’ve done everything in my power to get you back here? I didn’t want to lay this on you when you were in Wyoming. I wanted you here, so you could see for yourself. I didn’t want you to accuse me or her of making it up just to get you back here.”
Cody wasn’t buying it. “No, you were more concerned with keeping your promise to a woman who betrayed me than you were with doing what was right—giving me a chance to know my own child.” He turned on his heel and headed for the door, the box of kittens in tow. “I can’t believe you would do something like this. Maybe family loyalty doesn’t mean anything once you’re a big corporate executive. Is that it, big brother?”
“Cody, you have it all wrong,” Kelly protested when she came back into the kitchen. Obviously she had overheard the tail end of the argument.
“I don’t think so,” he snapped, shooting her a look of regret. “Don’t expect me at the baptism, after all. In fact, forget you even know me.”
Kelly called out after him. He heard the screen door slam behind her, then Jordan murmuring something he couldn’t quite make out. Whatever it was, though, it silenced her. When he looked back as he drove away, he saw them standing on the porch staring after him. He was sure it was only his imagination, but he thought he saw his brother wiping something that might have been tears from his cheeks.
He slowed the car momentarily and closed his eyes against the tide of anguish washing through him. Melissa had done it again. She had come between him and his family. He vowed then and there it would be the last time. This time he wouldn’t run. He wouldn’t let her control his destiny as he had before.
Forgetting all about his resolve to let his temper cool, an hour later he was in town, pounding on the Hortons’ front door. Ken Horton, wearing a robe and slippers, opened it a crack. At the sight of Cody, he swung it wider, a welcoming smile spreading across his weathered face. Cody could see Velma’s panicky expression as she stared over her husband’s shoulder.
“Cody, what on earth?” Horton grumbled. “You trying to wake the whole neighborhood?”
“Where’s Melissa?”
“She’s not here,” he said as his wife tugged frantically on his arm. When he leaned down, she whispered something in his ear, something that wiped any lingering expression of welcome from his face. “Go on home, Cody.”
“Not until you tell me where she is.”
“Don’t make me call the sheriff.”
“Don’t make me pound the information out of you,” Cody shot back belligerently.
Ken Horton regarded him sympathetically. “Boy, go on home and get some sleep. If you’ve got things to talk over with Melissa, do it in the morning, when you’re calmer.”
Despite his earlier promise to himself to think things through clearly, Cody realized he didn’t want to be calm when he talked to Melissa. He wanted this rage to keep him focused, to keep him immune to the sight of her. He wanted to have this out
