Cody finished the beer after they’d gone. He thought about ordering another one, but decided against it. It would only be delaying the inevitable. Some sick, perverse part of him wanted to see Melissa, just as Luke had guessed. He needed to know if that reaction he’d felt at the church had been a fluke or the undeniable response of a man for the woman he’d belatedly realized that he’d always loved.
He paid the check—his damned brothers had stiffed him on the bill, on top of everything else—and then headed down Main Street. In the middle of the block he hesitated, staring across at the front of the drugstore that had been his favorite hangout as a teenager. His and Melissa’s.
Little had changed. Dolan’s Drugstore was still printed in neat black, gold-edged letters on the door. A display of toys sat on the shelf beneath the big plate-glass window, visible to any child passing by. A rack of comic books stood off to the side. Cody suspected they were the same faded editions that had been there a decade before. The toys looked suspiciously familiar, too. In fact, when he’d crossed the street for a closer look, he was almost certain that there was a ten-year layer of dust on the red, toy fire truck.
Telling himself he was fifty kinds of crazy for going inside, he found himself turning the knob on the door anyway. A bell tinkled overhead, alerting anyone working that a customer had entered.
The soda fountain was on his left, partially blocked by a section of shelves with first-aid supplies and a new display of condoms. Talk about times changing. He couldn’t think of a better example. He recalled the first time he’d ever come into the store to buy condoms. They’d been behind the pharmacy counter then. He’d blushed brick red when he’d had to ask Mabel Hastings to give them to him. It was a wonder he’d ever gone back. His only consolation had been that she’d seemed even more embarrassed. After that he’d always made sure Eli was on duty when he’d returned for a new supply.
A half-dozen teenage girls were sitting on one side of the U-shaped soda fountain, probably discussing schoolwork, or, more likely, boys. An equal number of boys was on the opposite side, tongue-tied and uncertain. The sight of them brought back a slew of memories best forgotten.
There was no sign of Melissa, though clearly someone had served the kids their shakes and hamburgers. Cody fought a bitter feeling of disappointment. He hadn’t wanted to come here, but now that he had gathered the courage, he wanted to get this encounter out of the way. He wanted to shove the past behind him once and for all. He doubted a meeting would be enough to keep him in Texas, but maybe it would buy him some peace of mind.
“Hey, Missy, customer!” one of the boys shouted as Cody slid onto a stool close to the cash register.
“I’ll be right there,” a voice capable of raising goose bumps on any man past puberty sang out from the back.
The door to the storeroom swung open. Melissa emerged, her arms loaded with two trays of glasses piled atop each other. Her gaze zeroed in on Cody with impeccable precision. Every bit of color washed from her face. The trays wobbled, then tilted. Glasses crashed to the floor. Her gaze never wavered from his, despite the sound of breaking glass.
Several of the teenagers sprang to their feet and rushed to clean up the mess. Cody couldn’t have moved if his life had depended on it. Apparently Melissa couldn’t, either. Not even the swirl of activity at her feet caught her attention. He felt as if he’d been punched in the gut.
This definitely wasn’t the reaction he’d been praying for. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. He’d wanted to look into those soft, sea green eyes of hers and feel eighteen months of hurt and anger boiling into a fine rage. Or, better yet, he’d wanted to feel nothing at all.
Instead it appeared his hormones were very glad to see her. Obviously they had a different sort of memory pattern than his brain.
“Missy, are you okay?” one of the boys asked worriedly. He scowled in Cody’s direction.
“Fine,” she murmured.
The youngster, who looked all of fourteen, clearly wasn’t convinced. Just as clearly, he had a big-time crush on Melissa. “Is he a problem?” he inquired, nodding toward Cody.
Apparently the boy’s itch to slay dragons for her got her attention as nothing else had. She jerked her gaze away from Cody and smiled at the teenager.
“It’s okay, David. Cody and I have known each other a long time.” She patted his shoulder. “Thanks for cleaning up the glass, you guys. Your sodas are on me.”
“Nah, you don’t have to do that,” David said, pulling money out of his pocket and leaving it on the counter. “Right, guys?”
The other boys dutifully nodded and pulled out their own cash. Unless costs at Dolan’s had risen dramatically, they were very generous tippers, Cody noted as all of the teens departed.
“See you tomorrow,” David called back from the doorway. He lingered uncertainly for another minute, as if he couldn’t make up his mind whether Cody was to be trusted. When Melissa shot him another reassuring smile, he finally took off to catch up with his friends.
“Quite an admirer,” Cody said. “I think he was ready to mop up the floor with me.”
“David is just testing his flirting skills. I’m safer than those girls in his own class. He knows I won’t laugh at him.”
“Maybe you should. Better to hurt him now than later,” he said with unmistakable bitterness.
Melissa looked as if he’d struck her. “I’m not going to hurt him at all. He’s just a boy, Cody.” She straightened her spine and glowered at him. “Look, if you came in here just to hassle me, you can turn right around and go back wherever you came from. I don’t need the aggravation.”
Cody grinned at the bright patches of color in her cheeks. Melissa had always had a quick temper. He suddenly realized he’d missed sparring with her almost as much as he’d missing making love with her.
“Actually, I came in for a milk shake,” he said, coming to a sudden decision to play this scene all the way through. He propped his elbows on the counter. He waited until he’d caught her gaze, then lowered his voice to a seductive whisper. “A chocolate shake so thick, I’ll barely be able to suck it very, very slowly through the straw.”
The patches of color in Melissa’s cheeks deepened. She twirled around so fast it was a wonder she didn’t knock a few more pieces of glassware onto the floor with the breeze she stirred.
With her rigid back to him, Cody was able to observe her at his leisure. Her snug, faded jeans fit her cute little butt like a glove. That much hadn’t changed, he noted with satisfaction. With every stretch, the cropped T-shirt she wore kept riding up to bare an intriguing inch or so of a midriff so perfect that it could make a man weep. Her long dark hair with its shimmering red highlights had been scooped up in a saucy ponytail that made her look a dozen years younger than the twenty-seven he knew she was.
And, to his very sincere regret, she made him every bit as hard now as she had as a teenager. He squirmed in a wasted effort to get more comfortable on the vinyl-covered stool.
When she finally turned back, she plunked his milk shake onto the counter with such force half of it sloshed out of the tall glass. Apparently she wasn’t entirely immune to him, either, and she wasn’t one bit happier about the discovery.
She grabbed up a dishrag and began scrubbing the opposite side of the counter, her back to him. Given the energy she devoted to the task, the surface was either very dirty or she was avoiding him.
“So, how’ve you been?” Cody inquired, managing the nonchalant tone with supreme effort.
“Fine,” she said tersely, not even glancing around.
He frowned. Why the hell was she acting like the injured party here? She was the one who’d cheated on him. Getting her to meet him halfway became an irresistible challenge.
“How are you, Cody? It’s been a long time,” he coached.
She turned and glared. “Why are you here?” she demanded inst
ead.
He could have shot back a glib retort, but he didn’t. He actually gave the question some thought. He considered the teasing he’d gotten from Jordan and Luke. He considered his own undeniable curiosity. He even considered the size of his ego, which had found being cheated on damned hard to take. The bottom line was, he had no idea what had drawn him across the street and into the drugstore.
“I don’t know,” he finally admitted.
Apparently it was the right answer because her lush, kissable mouth curved into a smile for the first time since she’d spotted him at the counter.
“You mean to tell me that there’s something that actually stymies the brilliant, confident Cody Adams?”
He nodded slowly. “It surprises the dickens out of me, too.”
She leaned back against the counter, her elbows propped behind her. It was a stance that drew attention to her figure, though Cody doubted she was aware of it.
“You planning on sticking around?” she asked.
“A few more days, just till Daddy’s got his feet back under him again.” It was the same response he’d given everyone who’d asked. Now that he was right here with Melissa in front of him, though, he wondered if she might not be the one person who could change his mind.
At the mention of his father, her expression immediately filled with concern. “It must be horrible for him.”
“It is.”
“And the rest of you?”
“We’re doing okay. Mostly we’re worried about Daddy. He adored Mother. It’s going to be lonely as hell for him with her gone.”
“I’m surprised you’re not staying, then.”
He shook his head. “There’s nothing for me here anymore,” he said automatically, refusing to concede that he had evidence to the contrary in the tightening of his groin at the first sight of her.
She actually blanched at his harsh words. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, looking shaken. “What about White Pines? You always loved it. You were building your whole future around running that ranch.”
She was right about that. He’d fought tooth and nail to get Harlan to trust him with the running of the ranch. He’d spent his spare time building his own house on the property just to make the point that, unlike Luke or Jordan, he never intended to leave. Then in a matter of seconds after catching Melissa with Brian, he’d thrown it all away.
Now, rather than addressing his longing to be working that land again, he shoved those feelings aside and clung instead to the bitterness that had sent him away.
“There’s no way I can stay here now,” he said, unable to prevent the accusing note that had crept into his voice. “You ruined it for me.”
Melissa swallowed hard, but she kept her gaze on him steady. Some part of him admired her for not backing down.
“Maybe we should talk about what happened, Cody. Maybe if we could put it behind us, you’d change your mind about staying. Your decision to stay or go shouldn’t have anything to do with me.”
Talk about finding her in the arms of his best friend? Analyze it and pick it apart, until his emotions were raw? Cody practically choked on the idea. Once he got started on that subject, he doubted the conversation would remain polite or quiet. Eli would be bolting out from behind the prescription counter and Mabel, whom he’d spotted lurking over toward the cosmetics, would get a blistering earful.
No, he absolutely did not want to talk about the past. Or the present. And most definitely not about the bleak, lonely future he’d carved out for himself.
He slid off the stool and backed up a step. “There’s nothing to say,” he said, hoping his tone and his demeanor were forbidding enough to keep Melissa silent. He slapped a five on the counter, then tipped his hat.
“It’s been a pleasure,” he said in a tone that declared just the opposite.
He had made it almost to the door when he heard a soft gasp of dismay behind him. He stepped aside just as Velma Horton opened the door and pushed a stroller inside. His gaze went from Velma’s shocked expression to the chubby-cheeked little girl who promptly reached her arms up toward him, a thoroughly engaging smile on her face. He stared at the toddler in stunned silence, then pivoted slowly to stare at Melissa. Her face was ashen, removing any doubt at all that the baby was hers.
For the second time in a matter of minutes Cody felt as if he’d been hit below the belt. He could count backward as quickly as anyone in Texas. That darling little girl with the big eyes and innocent smile looked to be a year old, which meant she was Brian’s.
His blood felt like ice water in his veins, but he forced himself to walk back toward the soda fountain. “I see congratulations are in order,” he said so politely it made his teeth ache. “Your daughter is beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Melissa said so softly that he could barely hear her.
“I guess you and Brian were meant to be, after all,” he said, then turned on his heel and bolted for the door before he made an absolute idiot of himself.
He brushed past Velma and the baby without giving them a second glance. Damn, Melissa! She’d turned him inside out again. For a fleeting moment he’d actually wondered if he could put the past behind him and move on, maybe get something going with her again since his body was as hot for her now as it had been eighteen months ago. He’d allowed old feelings to stir to life, indulged in a few quick and steamy fantasies.
One look at that baby had shattered any possibility of that. He should have known that Melissa and Brian were together. He should have guessed that the betrayal was more serious than the one-night stand he’d tried desperately to convince himself it was. He should have realized that neither of them would have cheated on him for anything less than powerful emotions they couldn’t control. He should have given them credit for that much at least. He couldn’t make up his mind, though, if that should make him feel better or worse.
It wasn’t until he was back at White Pines, riding hell-bent for leather across the open land trying to work off his anger and his pain that he stopped to wonder why Jordan and Luke would have set him up for such a terrible sucker punch. Couldn’t they just have told him and saved him the anguish of making a fool of himself over Melissa all over again?
Instead they had taunted him into going into Dolan’s. They had poked and prodded at all of his old feelings for Melissa until he could no longer ignore them. Would they have done that if they’d known about Brian? If they’d known about the baby? Harlan had done his share of nudging, too. He’d been the first to plant the seed about finding Melissa at Dolan’s.
It didn’t make a lick of sense. How could they not have known? It was a small town. Harlan sure as hell knew everything that went on. And yet they had sent him like a lamb to slaughter, straight back to Melissa.
He reined in his horse and sat for a long time contemplating the possibilities. For once in his life he was oblivious to the raw beauty of the land surrounding him. Since he knew damned well his brothers weren’t cruel, their actions had to mean something. At the very least, he’d bet that Melissa and Brian weren’t married, after all. At the most...
He thought of that cute little girl who’d practically begged him to pick her up.
He didn’t even want to consider the astonishing, incredible idea that had just popped into his head. What if she was his? What if he was actually a father?
He tried the idea on for size and realized that a silly grin had spread across his face. A father? Yes, indeed, the possibility fit as well as those tight little jeans had caressed Melissa’s fanny.
Then his grin faded as he considered all the time he’d lost if it were true. If that little girl was his, he resolved there was going to be hell to pay.
4
Melissa stood over Sharon Lynn’s crib and stared down at her sleeping child. The baby’s cheeks were flushed, her dark blond hair curling damply against her chubby neck. Her blue nightshirt w
as sprinkled with tiny yellow ducks. A larger, stuffed duck was cuddled next to her. It had been her favorite toy ever since she’d been to a duck pond a few months before. She refused to go to bed without it.
A smile curved Melissa’s lips as she watched her baby and fought the desperate need to pick her up, to cling to her. She hadn’t been able to let her daughter out of her sight since that terrible moment in the drugstore when Cody had come face-to-face with his child. In that instant her heart had ricocheted wildly and her breath had caught in her throat as she’d waited for him to recognize Sharon Lynn as his, just as Jordan had the very first time he’d spotted her. She’d almost been grateful that the decision to tell Cody or not to tell him had been taken out of her hands.
But instead of promptly recognizing the baby as his, Cody had clearly leapt to the conclusion that someone else was the father. Given the cold glint in his eyes when he’d stepped back to the counter to congratulate her in a voice devoid of emotion and his comment about her relationship with Brian having been meant to be, he must have assumed the father was Brian Kincaid. It was a further complication in an already complicated situation.
She sighed as she considered the terrible mess she had made of things. She should have told Cody everything straight off, right then and there, but her mother’s terrified expression and her earlier dire warnings had kept Melissa silent, too fearful of the consequences of blurting out the truth.
She couldn’t imagine what her life would be like without her baby. As difficult as things had gotten after she’d learned she was pregnant, there had never been a single instant when she’d regretted having Cody’s child. Every time she looked into that precious face, she saw a miracle that she and Cody had created together. Beyond that biological tie, however, Cody had no right at all to claim his child. She was the only parent Sharon Lynn had ever known. If only she could keep it that way.
Winter's Proposal Page 4
