“And aren’t you the one who made things worse by refusing to tell him about the baby?”
She scowled at her father, the man who had stood by her even though he disagreed with her decision to keep Cody in the dark. “What’s your point?”
“He forgave you, didn’t he? Isn’t it about time you did the same for him?”
Melissa was startled by the depth of her father’s support for Cody. “How come you’ve never said any of this before?” she asked.
Her father’s expression turned rueful. “Because your mother seemed to be saying more than enough without me jumping in and confusing you even more. Watching you getting more miserable day by day, I finally decided when Cody showed up today that enough was enough. I told her to butt out.”
Melissa couldn’t help grinning. “So there’d be room for you to butt in?”
“Something like that. Go on, cupcake. Meet Cody halfway, at least. For whatever it’s worth, I think he’s a fine man.”
Melissa sighed. “So do I.”
She made up her mind on the walk to her own house that she would try to overcome the last of her doubts and take the kind of risk her father was urging. There was a time when she would have risked anything at all to be with Cody. The pain of losing him once had made her far too cautious. It was probably long past time to rediscover the old Melissa and take the dare he’d been issuing for months now.
She found him in a rocker on her front porch, a tuckered out Sharon Lynn asleep in his lap.
“Rough afternoon?” she queried, keeping her tone light and displaying none of the annoyance she’d felt when she’d discovered he’d absconded with her daughter. She sank into the rocker next to him and put it into a slow, soothing motion. She allowed her eyes to drift closed, then snapped them open before she fell completely, embarrassingly, asleep.
“Playing in the park is tough work,” he said, grinning at her. “There are swings and seesaws to ride, to say nothing of squirrels to be chased.” His gaze intensified. “You look frazzled. Bad day?”
“Bad day, bad week, bad everything,” she admitted, giving in to the exhaustion and turmoil she’d been fighting.
“I know just how to fix that,” Cody said, standing. He shifted Sharon Lynn into one arm and held out a hand. “Give me the key.”
Melissa plucked it from her purse and handed it over without argument. As soon as he’d gone, she closed her eyes again. The soothing motion of the rocker lulled her so that she was only vaguely aware of the screen door squeaking open and the sound of Cody’s boots as he crossed the porch.
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” he urged. “Here, take this.”
She forced her eyes open and saw the tall glass he was holding out. “Lemonade?” she asked with amazement. “Where’d you get it?”
“I made it.”
Her eyes blinked wider. “From scratch?”
He grinned. “I didn’t bake a chocolate soufflé, sweet pea. It’s just lemonade.”
They sat side by side, silently rocking, for what seemed an eternity after that. The spring breeze brought the fragrance of flowers wafting by. Hummingbirds hovered around the feeder at the end of the porch.
“This is nice, isn’t it?” Cody said eventually.
“Not too tame for you?” Melissa asked.
“Don’t start with me,” he chided, but without much ferocity behind the words.
She thought of what her father had said and of her own resolution to start taking risks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. I guess it’s become automatic.”
“Think you can break the cycle?” he inquired lightly.
Melissa met his gaze. “I’m going to try,” she promised. “I do want what you want, Cody.”
“But you’re scared,” he guessed. At her nod he added, “Can’t say that I blame you. I spent a lot of years hiding from the responsibilities of a relationship. Once you make a commitment, there’s a lot riding on getting it right. I never did much like the idea of failing.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything, you know that.”
“What makes you so certain we can get it right now?”
He grinned at the question. “You know any two more stubborn people on the face of the earth?”
Her lips twitched at that. “No, can’t say that I do.”
“I pretty much figure if we finally make that commitment, neither one of us will bail out without giving it everything we’ve got.” He slanted a look over at her that sent heat curling through her body. “Nobody can do more than that, sweet pea. Nobody.”
He stood, then bent down to kiss her gently. “Think about it, darlin’.”
“You’re leaving?” she asked, unable to stop the disappointment that flooded through her.
“If I stay here another minute with you looking at me like that, I’m going to resort to seducing you into giving me the answer I want. I think it’ll be better if I take my chances on letting you work this one out in your head.”
He was striding off to his pickup before she could mount an argument. She actually stood to go after him, but a wave of dizziness washed over her that had her clutching at a post to keep from falling.
What on earth? she wondered as she steadied herself. Suddenly she recalled the occasional bouts of nausea she’d been feeling that she’d chalked off to waiting too long to grab breakfast in the mornings. She thought about the bone-deep weariness that had had her half-asleep in that rocker only a short time before. And now, dizziness.
Oh, dear heaven, she thought, sinking back into the rocker before she fainted. Unless she was very much mistaken, every one of those signs added up to being pregnant—again.
* * *
How could this have happened to them a second time? Melissa wondered as she left the doctor’s office in a daze the following morning. How could she be pregnant from that one time they’d made love at Cody’s? They’d been so darned careful not to repeat the same mistake. She’d
