She gathered every last ounce of hurt and resentment she’d ever felt toward him to slowly steady her pulse. With careful deliberation she lifted her glass of tea to her lips and took a long, deep swallow. She kept her gaze riveted to his as she drank, determined to show him that this latest tactic no longer had the power to rattle her. He would not win her over with his easy charm.
Yet even as she did, even as uncertainty and then a flash of irritation darkened Cody’s eyes, she quaked inside and prayed he would back off before she lost the will for the battle. She was weakening already, her palms damp, her blood flowing like warm honey.
Just when she was sure she could no longer maintain the calm, impervious facade, Cody jerked upright, raked a hand through his hair and backed off.
“Score one for Melissa,” Harlan said softly, his voice laced with laughter.
Cody whirled on him. “Daddy, I’m warning you…”
Harlan’s dark brows rose. “Oh?”
Cody frowned. “Dammit, how come you two are in cahoots?”
“Not me,” his father protested, his expression all innocence except for the sparkle in his eyes that was quintessential Harlan. “I’m just a bystander.”
“An unwanted bystander,” Cody reminded him.
“Speak for yourself,” Melissa retorted once again.
Cody scowled down at the two of them for another minute, then muttered a harsh oath under his breath and stalked off. Only when he was out of sight did Melissa finally allow herself to relax.
“Whew! That was a close one,” Harlan said, grinning at her. “Another couple of seconds and the heat out here would have melted steel. Scorched me clear over here. You sure have figured out how to tie that boy in knots.”
To her amazement, he sounded approving. “Shouldn’t you be on his side?” Melissa inquired.
“I suspect Cody can take care of himself,” he observed. “I’m just relieved to see that you can, too.”
Melissa met his amused gaze and finally breathed a sigh of relief. She grinned at him. “It’s about time, don’t you think?”
“Way past time, I’d say,” he said, and reached over to pat her hand. “You want some advice from a man who knows Cody just about as well as anyone on earth?”
“I suspect I could use it,” she agreed, wondering at the turn of events that had truly put her and Harlan Adams in cahoots, just as Cody had accused. Maybe Harlan’s wisdom would be more effective than his wife’s advice had been.
“Despite all these centuries that have passed, the caveman instinct hasn’t entirely been bred out of us men,” Harlan began. “Now I know that’s not so politically correct, but it’s the truth of it. A man needs to struggle to claim what he wants. It builds up his passion for it, makes him stronger. Call it perversity, but things that come too easily don’t mean so much. Don’t ever tell ’em I said so, but I made every one of my sons fight me to earn the right to become his own man. They resented me at the time, but in the end they were better for it.”
Sorrow flitted across his face as he added, “Except maybe for Erik. He wanted to please too badly. I made a serious miscalculation by forcing him to work in ranching, one I’ll regret to my dying day.”
Listening to his philosophy about men, Melissa wondered if Mary Adams had put up much of a struggle. Her adoration of Harlan, her catering to his every whim, had been obvious to anyone who knew the two of them. Given Mary’s advice to her about making Cody jealous, Melissa suspected she had given her husband fits at one time.
“Did Mary make you jump through hoops?” she asked.
“She did, indeed,” Harlan told her, chuckling even as his expression turned nostalgic. “I knew the first minute I laid eyes on her that she was the woman I wanted to marry. She was smart as the dickens, beautiful and willful. She claimed later that she fell in love at first sight, too. She didn’t let me know it for a good six months, though. In fact, for a while there I was convinced she couldn’t stand to be in my presence. It was a hell of a blow to my ego.”
He shook his head. “My goodness, the things I used to do just to earn a smile. That smile of hers was worth it, though. It was like sunshine, radiating warmth on everyone it touched. For thirty-six years, I was blessed with it.”
“You’re missing her terribly, aren’t you?” Melissa said softly.
“It’s as if I lost a part of myself,” Harlan admitted, then seemed taken aback that he’d revealed so much. He drew himself up, clearly uncomfortable with the out-of-character confidences. “Enough of that now. You didn’t come all the way out here to listen to me go on and on.”
“May I ask you a question?” Melissa asked impulsively.
“Of course you can. Ask me anything.”
“Did you know Cody had asked me to marry him?”
“He told me.”
“Did he also tell you I’d turned him down?”
Harlan nodded.
She looked over at this man who had always been so kind to her, who’d treated her as a daughter long before she had any ties to his family beyond her hope of a future with his son. Did she dare ask him what she really wanted to know, whether Cody loved her for herself or only as the mother of the daughter he was so clearly anxious to claim? She hedged her bets and asked a less direct question.
“Was I wrong to say no?”
Harlan regarded her perceptively. “Are you afraid he won’t ask again?”
She drew in a deep breath, then finally nodded, acknowledging a truth that was far from comforting.
“What would you say if he does?”
“Right now?”
“Right now,” he concurred.
She thought it over carefully. Given the unresolved nature of their feelings, she would have to give him
