Just then she stumbled and fell. Her eyes promptly filled with tears. Certain that she must have broken something to be sobbing so pathetically, Cody knelt beside her and gently examined ankles, arms, knees and elbows. He even checked for a bump under her hair or on her forehead, though he knew perfectly well she hadn’t hit her head. She’d landed squarely on her well-padded button.
Finally satisfied that she was more scared than hurt, he scooped her up, only to find Melissa grinning at him.
“And you thought I was overreacting. At this rate, you’re going to be a wreck in a month,” she chided, sounding smug. “Either that or you’ll drive the emergency room staff at the hospital completely wild. They’ll flee when they spot you coming.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “Is this another chunk of that learning curve you’re trying to help me skip?” he taunted.
To his amusement, she blushed furiously. “Stop teasing. I only took her in twice,” she admitted defensively.
“Oh? When?”
“The first time I thought she’d swallowed the toy from a box of cereal.”
Cody shuddered. He would have had her in for X rays himself. “Had she?”
“No, I found it later in the crack between the refrigerator and the sink. I suppose she threw it across the room.”
“And the other time?”
“She fell and bumped her head,” Melissa said, shivering visibly at the recollection. “It terrified me. I’d never seen so much blood in my entire life. I was sure she was going to bleed to death before I got her to the hospital.”
Cody’s heart skidded to a halt. He anxiously studied Sharon Lynn’s face for some sign of such a traumatic injury. He smoothed back her hair to get a better look at her forehead.
“No stitches?” he asked when he could find no evidence of them.
Melissa shrugged. “Not a one,” she confessed. “They put a butterfly bandage on it and sent us home. Apparently head injuries just bleed profusely. There was no permanent damage done.”
Cody met her gaze and caught the faint signs of chagrin and laughter in her eyes. He also thought he detected something else, perhaps a hint of resentment that she’d been left to cope with such things on her own. Guilt sliced through him, even though part of the blame for his absence could be laid squarely at Melissa’s feet.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you,” he said, and meant it. He regretted every lost opportunity to share in the experiences—good or bad—of his daughter’s first year.
The laughter in Melissa’s eyes died at once. That hint of resentment burned brighter. “I handled it,” she said abruptly, and turned away.
He watched as she walked over and knelt down by their daughter, listening intently to Sharon Lynn’s nonsensical jabbering. The hard expression on her face when she’d turned away from him softened perceptibly. A smile tugged at her lips as she cupped her hand possessively behind her daughter’s head, caressing the soft curls. Sharon Lynn looked up at her, an expression of adoration on her face.
In that instant Cody saw what it meant to be a family…and he wasn’t a part of it. Melissa couldn’t have shut him out any more effectively, any more deliberately, if she’d tried.
He stood there, so close and yet very much apart from them. Longing welled up inside him, longing to know all of these little details of Sharon Lynn’s first months that Melissa shared so grudgingly.
There was so much more he yearned for, as well. He yearned to share their closeness, to have Melissa look into his eyes with something more than distrust.
He sighed then, because it all seemed so unlikely, so impossible, thanks to his own foolish decision to accept what he’d seen that fateful night at face value. If only he’d stayed. If only…
Wasted regrets, he chided himself. This was his reality—a child who barely knew him, a woman who wanted no part of him, who was willing to allow him glimpses of his child out of a sense of obligation, not love.
He thought then of the flicker of passion he’d caught once or twice in Melissa’s sea green eyes, of the heat that had flared when he’d touched her, and wondered whether her disdain ran as deep as she wanted him to believe.
Reality and circumstances could change, he reassured himself. Sometimes for the worse, of course. Harlan knew all about the dramatic, unexpected, tragic turns life could take. He’d lost a son and his beloved wife when he’d least expected it. Those losses had taught a lesson to all of them.
Harlan had also taught his sons that they could control most aspects of their lives if they set their minds to it and fought for what they wanted. In fact, he’d turned out a dynasty of control freaks, it seemed. Luke had built his own ranch from the ground up, rather than take the share in White Pines that Harlan had wanted him to have. Jordan had fought his father bitterly for a career in the oil industry. Cody had battled for a share of White Pines, and now, it seemed, he had an even more difficult war to wage.
Cody’s gaze settled on Melissa and his daughter once again. They were worth fighting for. Harlan had given him years of practice at battling for everything from permission to go to a dance to the right to build his own house on White Pines’ land. Apparently it had all been preparation for a moment like this.
His mouth curved into a slow smile. He’d just have to think of Melissa’s rejection not as a setback but as a challenge. It was an opportunity to utilize all those lessons Harlan had not-so-subtly instilled in them. He would have to seize the initiative and keep Melissa thoroughly off kilter until she finally woke up and realized that this time he wasn’t running.
This time he intended to be the steadying influence in her life and he meant
