“He said your mother died.”
“That’s right.”
“But I thought you’d be coming back,” she whispered. “But then you never did. And then Dad said you’d called and that y-you’d q-quit.”
Her tears started all over again. Cody went for more tissues and brought back the whole box to buy himself the time he needed to figure out how to explain things to this shy, young girl who’d so badly needed someone that she’d chosen a miserable, cynical cowboy from Texas who already had a lousy track record for reliability.
“Janey, when I got here there were things that I realized I had to do. I couldn’t come back. I explained all of that to your father.”
“But…not…to me,” she choked between sobs. “I thought you were my friend.”
Cody sighed. “I am. I always want to be your friend.”
“Then you’ll come back as soon as things are settled here?” she inquired, hope written all over her tear-streaked face.
“No, sweetie, I can’t come back.”
“Why not?” she asked.
Not sure how she was likely to react, he drew in a deep breath before admitting, “Because I found out that I have a little girl and I have to be here for her.”
Dismay darkened her eyes. “A baby?”
“Not so much a baby anymore,” he confided. “She’s over a year old.”
“And you didn’t know about her?”
“No.”
Despite herself, she was apparently fascinated. For the first time since he’d arrived home, there was a sparkle in her dark eyes.
“How come?” she asked, her expression alive with curiosity.
“It’s a long story.”
“Was that her mom in the car just now?”
Cody nodded.
“Uh-oh,” she murmured. Guilt and misery replaced the sparkle in her eyes. “I’m sorry if I messed things up for you, Cody. I really am.”
He grinned ruefully. “Oh, the list of my sins is pretty long as it is. One more thing won’t matter all that much.”
“Want me to tell her you didn’t know I was coming here?”
He had a feeling that the less Melissa saw of Janey, the better for all of them. Janey might be only fifteen, but she was a beautiful young girl who looked older than her years. It was the very fact that her body had blossomed so prematurely that had contributed to her shyness.
Ironically, he suspected she had been drawn to him for the very reason that he hadn’t acted like the oversexed teens who attended school with her. She’d felt safe with him, free to talk about her dreams, and she had magnified that feeling into a giant-size crush.
“No, sweetie, I’ll take care of Melissa. Now, let’s think about getting you back home again. How’d you get here?”
“I used my savings for a bus ticket. Then when I got to town, I called the ranch. Your dad came and got me.”
Cody shuddered when he thought of her traveling that distance alone by bus. He also suspected that Harlan had deliberately not tried to track him down when Janey turned up to give him more time with Melissa before throwing a monkey wrench into things.
“I’ll talk to Daddy about having his pilot fly you back to Wyoming,” he told her.
Her eyes lit up. “Really?”
Her instantaneous excitement told him that her heart was already well on its way to healing. Maybe all she’d really needed was closure, a chance to say goodbye and make sure that she hadn’t lost a friend. If he’d been half so insistent on closure before he’d taken off from Texas, maybe he and Melissa would have been married by now, instead of trying to rebuild their shattered trust.
Janey would be okay. He was sure of it. In the meantime, though, he had another heart to worry about. He had a feeling patching up the holes in Melissa’s trust wasn’t going to be nearly so easy to accomplish.
* * *
Melissa broke three glasses during the breakfast rush at Dolan’s on Monday. As each one shattered, she heard a heavy sigh of resignation from Eli. She knew exactly how he felt. She’d had her fragile hopes shattered—again—the day before when she’d arrived at White Pines to find an adorable, sexy woman waiting on the doorstep for Cody.
As she swept up the debris from her latest round of clumsiness, she wished it were even half as easy to tidy up the aftermath of a broken heart.
When she finished sweeping, she glanced up and discovered Mabel sitting at the counter, curiosity written all over her face. To try to forestall the questions that were clearly on the older woman’s mind, Melissa grabbed the coffeepot and poured her a cup.
“How about a Danish, Mabel?” she asked. “We have cheese and cherry left.”
“No, thanks. So, did you and Cody have another fight?” Mabel inquired point-blank.
“No,” Melissa replied honestly. They hadn’t fought. She had taken off before her disillusionment could come pouring out in a wave of accusations.
“Now, why is it I don’t believe that?” Mabel murmured. “You never broke a glass until that boy came back into town. Since then, you’ve been smashing them up so fast poor Eli’s liable to go bankrupt.”
“I’m going to reimburse Eli for the glasses,” Melissa told her stiffly.
“No need for that,” Eli called, proving that he’d heard every word of the discussion of her love life. “Maybe Mabel and I ought to sit that boy down and give him a stern talking to, though.”
Mabel shot their boss a sour look. “What would you know about straightening out a lovers’ tiff, old man?”
“As much as you do about starting one,” Eli shot back.
Melissa stared at them. For the first time she noticed that their bickering carried the unmistakable sting of two former lovers. Eli and Mabel, she thought incredulously. Surely not. Then again, why not? She knew of no one else in either of their lives. Maybe that was so because they’d spent years carrying the torch for each other, unable to heal some foolish rift.
“Maybe I’m not the one who needs an intermediary,” Melissa suggested, observing their reactions intently.
“You don’t know
