He looked absolutely dumbfounded. If the conversation hadn’t been quite so difficult for her, too, she might have smiled at his flabbergasted reaction.
“Why?” he demanded, staring at her, indignation radiating from every pore.
“Because I will not get married for all the wrong reasons.”
“What wrong reasons? We have a child. I intend to be a father to her.”
“That’s fine. It doesn’t mean you have to be a husband to me. I’m doing just fine on my own. You were apparently doing so fine on your own that you saw no need to come back for almost two years.”
“That’s it, isn’t it?” His gaze narrowed. “You’re just doing this to get even because I left town and you had to face being pregnant all alone.”
Melissa regarded him sadly. “No, Cody, I am not trying to get even. I’m just trying not to compound one mistake by making another.”
He seemed thoroughly taken aback by the realization that anyone—and most especially the woman who’d always adored him—would consider marrying him to be a mistake. Obviously his ego hadn’t suffered any during their separation. It was as solid as ever.
She reached across the table and patted his hand. “It’s nothing personal.”
He stared at her. “How can you say that? I think it’s pretty damned personal.”
“Once you’ve had time to think it over, you’ll see that I’m right,” she assured him. “Obligation is a terrible basis for a marriage.”
This time when she stood and reached for Sharon Lynn, he didn’t resist. He pocketed the ring and stepped out of the booth. “I’ll take you home,” he said, his voice flat.
Melissa directed him to the small house she’d been renting for the past year, since about a month after Sharon Lynn’s birth. Cody showed no inclination to get out of the pickup, so she let herself out. She hesitated for a moment with the door still open.
“I’m sorry, Cody. I really am.”
He didn’t look at her. “I’ll call tomorrow and we’ll work out a schedule for me to spend time with my daughter.”
The chill in his voice cut straight through her. For the first time she wondered if she had made a terrible mistake in alienating him. Even though she knew in her heart that her decision was the right one, the only one to be made under the circumstances, perhaps she should have found a way to be more diplomatic about rejecting him.
“Fine,” she said. “Whatever works for you will be okay.”
She closed the door and started up the walk. An instant later she heard the engine shut off, then the slam of the driver’s door behind Cody. He caught up with her before she could even make it to the front stoop.
Before she realized what he intended, he hauled her into his arms and kissed her so hard and so thoroughly that her head spun. Then, as if he suddenly became aware of the child she was holding or possibly because he figured he’d made his point, he released her.
“Give her to me,” he said. “I’ll carry her inside.”
“Cody, she’s fine,” Melissa protested. She didn’t want him inside, not when her knees were shaking and her pulse was racing.
“I said I’d carry her,” he repeated, plucking her neatly out of Melissa’s arms. “Open the door.”
Following her directions, he made his way to the baby’s small room. Angrily shrugging aside Melissa’s offer of assistance, he fumbled with his daughter’s clothes. He scanned the room, picked out a nightshirt from a small dresser, changed her, then laid her down gently.
Only then did a sigh shudder through him. His hand rested for a moment on the baby’s backside.
“Good night, sweet pea,” he murmured, his gaze riveted to his sleeping daughter as he backed toward the door.
The sight of Cody with their child, feeling his pain and his longing as he’d tucked her in for the night, had shaken Melissa. She was leaning against the wall outside the room, trying to gather her composure, when he finally emerged.
His gaze caught hers, burning into her. “It’s not over,” he said quietly. “Not by a long shot.”
Trembling, Melissa stood rooted to the spot, staring after him long after she’d heard the truck’s engine start, long after Cody had driven away.
Cody was right. It wasn’t over. More than anything, she feared the struggle between them for their daughter was just beginning.
Chapter Seven
Cody didn’t get a wink of sleep the entire night. When he wasn’t overwhelmed by the amazing experience of holding his daughter, he was thinking about Melissa’s astonishing transformation.
He had never noticed before how stubborn she was, nor how self-confident and independent. In fact, as he recalled, there had hardly ever been an occasion when she hadn’t been thoroughly accommodating to his every whim. She’d picked a hell of a time to change, he thought, thoroughly disgruntled over having been shot down.
Sometime shortly after dawn, he finally forced himself to admit that he actually found the new Melissa ever so slightly more intriguing than he had the compliant woman he’d left behind.
Kelly, Jessie and the others had always warned him about taking Melissa for granted. It appeared he should have paid more attention to their advice. Melissa had used his time away to develop a very strong sense of who she was and what her priorities were. He was beginning to wonder if there really wasn’t room for him in her life anymore.
Tired of his own company, he walked into the dining room at White Pines the minute he heard the rattle of breakfast dishes. Unfortunately, the housekeeper was very efficient. Maritza had already retreated to the kitchen, but she had left an array of cereals, a large pot of fresh coffee, a basket of warm rolls, and a bowl of berries, banana slices and melon. He noticed there were no eggs or bacon, no hash browns or grits. Obviously Harlan hadn’t won his war to get what he considered to be
