“Why did you say that?” she demanded of Cody the instant they were out of earshot of the house.
He regarded her with his most innocent look, the one only a fool would trust. “Say what?”
“That you’d be staying in town for a while?”
“Because it’s true.”
“No, it’s not,” she said firmly. “We did not discuss anything about you coming into town.”
“Who said I’d be with you?” he inquired, leveling a gaze straight into her eyes.
“But you said…W-who?” Melissa sputtered. “Dammit, Cody, you did that deliberately.”
“Did what?”
“Let your father assume that you intended to spend the evening, maybe the whole night, with me.”
“Is that what I said?”
“It’s what you implied.”
“You sure you’re not projecting your own desires onto me?”
“No, I am not,” she practically shouted, causing Sharon Lynn to begin to whimper. Melissa kissed her cheek. “Shh, baby. It’s okay. Your daddy and I are just having a discussion.”
Cody chuckled. “Is that what it is? You sure do get riled up over a little discussion.”
“I am not riled up,” she insisted, keeping a tight rein on her frayed temper.
“Could have fooled me.”
“Oh, forget it,” she snapped as she put Melissa into her car seat and buckled her in. As she walked around the car, she heard the driver’s door open and assumed Cody was simply being polite. Instead she found that he’d climbed in behind the wheel.
“Now what?” she asked, regarding him suspiciously.
“I thought I’d hitch a ride.”
“Why would you want to do that? It’ll leave you stranded in town.”
“Oh, I’m sure I can find someone willing to bring me home,” he said, then winked. “Eventually.”
He said it in a smug way that had her grinding her teeth. “Is that a new technique you’ve learned for luring ladies out to your place?” she inquired testily. “You claim to need a ride home?”
“Let’s just say I’m trying it out tonight.”
“And what if no one responds to your plight?”
“Oh, I don’t think there’s much chance of that,” he said confidently. He shrugged. “If it does, I’m sure you’d be willing to take me in for the night.”
“When pigs learn to fly,” she retorted, irritated beyond belief that mere hours after they’d made love he was going on the prowl again. “Get out, Cody.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Cody Adams, do not make me march back into that house so I can borrow a shotgun from Harlan.”
He chuckled. “I’m not real worried about that, darlin’. You’d never shoot a man in plain view of his daughter.”
He was right, of course. But, lordy, how she was tempted. “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she muttered, flinging open the back door. “If you want to behave like a horse’s behind, go right ahead.”
“Thank you,” he said, and turned the key in the ignition.
Cody was the kind of driver who liked to tempt fate. Melissa clung to the door handle, while Sharon Lynn squealed with excitement as they sped around curves. She knew they were perfectly safe. Cody never tried anything unless he was confident of his control of the road, the car, or the situation. In fact, she suspected that was exactly the point he was trying to make.
Even so, she was pale by the time he finally pulled to a stop in front of Rosa’s Mexican Café. She was faintly puzzled by his choice. It was hardly a singles hangout.
“This is where you intend to spend your night on the town?”
He shrugged. “I thought we could grab a bite to eat first.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, regarding him skeptically.
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“Not really, I suppose, but you could have asked.”
“I just did.”
“Funny, it didn’t sound much like a question to me. Maybe I already have plans for the night.”
His expression turned dark. “Do you?” he demanded, his voice tight.
She let him wonder for the space of a heartbeat, then shrugged. “No, but I could have.”
“Melissa, I swear…”
“Tsk-tsk,” she warned, enjoying turning the tables on him, albeit briefly. “Not in front of the baby.”
He scowled at her, scooped Sharon Lynn out of her car seat and headed inside, leaving Melissa to make up her own mind about whether to join them or remain in the car and quibble over semantics. Sighing over this latest test of her patience, she reluctantly followed him inside.
On a Saturday night, Rosa’s was crowded with families. Melissa spotted Jordan and Kelly with their kids right off. Cody apparently did not, because he was making a beeline for an empty table on the opposite side of the restaurant. He picked up a booster seat en route and was already putting Sharon Lynn into it by the time Melissa joined him.
“Didn’t you see Jordan and Kelly?” she asked. “They were trying to wave us over. There’s room at their table.”
“I saw them,” Cody said tersely.
Melissa studied the set of his jaw. “Okay, what’s wrong?”
“I do not intend to spend the evening with my brother,” he said. “If you can call him that.”
“Cody,” she protested. “Why would you even say something like that?”
He frowned at her. “Because he knew about Sharon Lynn and he didn’t tell me.”
Melissa flinched as if he’d struck her. “Because I swore him to secrecy,” she reminded him. She didn’t want this family split on her conscience.
“He should have told me,” Cody repeated, his stubbornness kicking in with a vengeance.
Melissa regarded him with a mix of frustration and dismay. The last thing she had ever wanted was to cause a rift between the two brothers. Uncertain what she could do to mend it, she turned and walked away. Cody was on her heels in a flash.
“Where are you going?” he asked suspiciously, latching onto her elbow.
“To the ladies’ room,” she said.
“Oh.” He released her at once. “Sorry.”
Melissa rolled her eyes and continued on to the back, praying that Kelly would spot her and join her.
She was combing her hair when Jordan’s wife came into the rest room. “What are we going to do about them?” Melissa asked at once.
“It’s not Jordan,” Kelly said. “He feels
