They made it through their pizza without calamity striking. Sharon Lynn yawned a few times, grabbed a handful of the mushrooms Melissa had removed from her slice and squished them. When Cody tried to wipe her hands, she began sobbing as if she were being tortured.
Cody stared at Melissa helplessly as Sharon Lynn batted his hands away. “What did I do?”
“You didn’t do anything. She’s tired.”
“Are you sure? Maybe she’s hurt. Maybe there was a piece of glass and she cut herself.” He unfolded her tightly clenched fingers and examined each one.
“Any sign of blood?” Melissa inquired, barely hiding her amusement.
He scowled at her. “How can you be so calm?”
“Because this is a nightly ritual.”
He blanched. “Nightly?”
She nodded. “Just about. She gets so tired she can hardly keep her eyes open, but she doesn’t want to miss anything, so she fights going to sleep.”
Cody was regarding the sobbing child as if she were an alien creature. “Want me to take her?” she offered.
“No,” he said insistently. “I have to learn how to deal with this.”
He lifted Sharon Lynn up and sat her on the edge of the table facing him. Huge tears rolled down her blotchy cheeks. “Okay, kiddo, let’s try to figure out a solution for this little problem you have with bedtime.”
“Cody?”
He glanced up at her. “Hmm?”
“I don’t think reason and logic are going to work.”
“Sure they will,” he argued. “Just watch.”
He began talking in a low, soothing tone, explaining very patiently that sleep was very important. He added a lot of nonsense about fairy princesses and treasures that didn’t come from any storybook Melissa had ever read.
Whether it was his tone or the actual words, Sharon Lynn’s eyelids began to droop. The next thing Melissa knew, she was cradled in Cody’s arms, sound asleep.
“Amazing,” she admitted. “I should hire you to do that.”
“No need to hire me,” he said, his gaze suddenly fixed on her in a way that had her pulse scrambling. “I intend to be available for bedtime duty every night from now on.”
Melissa swallowed hard against the tide of panic that swept through her. Surely she hadn’t heard him right. “Excuse me?” she whispered.
“Once we’re married, I’ll get her to bed,” he said, making his intentions perfectly clear.
“Married?” she repeated as if it were an unfamiliar concept.
“Well, of course,” he said. “What did you think was going to happen?” He reached into his pocket, scooped something out and set it on the table between them.
Melissa stared at the small velvet box incredulously. She looked from it to Cody’s face and back again.
“Go ahead,” he encouraged. “Open it. If you’d rather have something else, we can go together tomorrow.”
She shook her head, fighting the urge to grab that tempting little box and claim not only the ring inside, but the future Cody had obviously mapped out for them. This reaction of his to discovering he was a father wasn’t even remotely what she had expected. Obviously he wasn’t thinking clearly. He hadn’t wanted to marry her two years ago. She was faintly insulted that it had taken a baby to drag a proposal out of him.
Actually, it wasn’t even a proposal. It was another of those orders she hated so much. Issuing edicts was something he had learned at Harlan Adams’s knee. Considering how he’d rebelled against his father, she would have thought he’d be more sensitive to the crummy habit.
“No,” she said flatly, meeting his gaze evenly. She was very proud of herself for getting the word out, for keeping her voice and her resolve steady.
He blinked and stared. “No what?”
She drew in a deep breath and, before she could change her mind, blurted, “I will not touch that box and I will not marry you.”
A red flush climbed up his neck. “Of course you will,” he said just as emphatically. “Don’t be stubborn, Melissa. It’s the sensible thing to do.”
“Sensible,” she repeated in a low, lethal tone. “I do not intend to get married because it is sensible!”
She stood and jerked on her coat, then moved to pick up Sharon Lynn. Cody held his daughter out of her reach.
“Sit back down and let’s talk about this,” he ordered. “You’re causing a scene.”
“I don’t care,” she said emphatically, though she didn’t dare look around to see just how many people were fascinated by their argument. “There is absolutely nothing to discuss.”
“Please,” he said, sounding slightly more meek.
Since when had Cody cared about scenes? Melissa regarded him suspiciously, but she did sit on the edge of the seat. She did not remove her coat.
“How about another soft drink?” he coaxed.
“Cody!”
“Okay, okay.” He leaned toward her intently. “Maybe I didn’t go about this quite right.”
“I’ll say.”
He reached awkwardly around his sleeping daughter and picked up the velvet box. He flipped it open to display an impressive emerald surrounded by diamonds. Melissa fought to pretend that the ring didn’t just about take her breath away. The size of the ring and the sparkle of those stones were not important. A marriage based on obligation was the real point here. She wouldn’t have it.
“It reminded me of your eyes,” Cody said. He grinned. “The way they are right now, when they’re shooting off sparks.”
Melissa’s resolve wavered. A little voice in her head gathered steam, repeating no, no, no so loudly she couldn’t ignore it. Hadn’t she told herself just a few hours earlier that she’d always been too easy on Cody? Hadn’t she made a fool of herself over and over again by giving in if he so much as smiled at her?
And hadn’t she learned that she could take care of herself? She no longer liked the idea of relying on anyone, either financially or, even more importantly, for her happiness.
“You’re wasting your time,” she told him emphatically before her resolve could falter. “The ring is beautiful. You’re a fine man. I’m
