“If I have to knock on every door in town, I’m going to talk to her tonight,” he swore.
“There’s nothing you have to say, nothing you need to know, that won’t be settled just as readily in the morning,” Horton repeated, still calm, still intractable.
Cody considered it as much as an admission that he and Melissa had serious issues to resolve, such as his relationship to that baby. He gathered from the warning look Horton shot at his now tearful wife that they didn’t entirely agree on whether Cody had the right to know the truth.
“Where can I find her in the morning?” he asked finally, resigned to the delay. They all knew he wouldn’t tear through town, creating yet another ruckus he’d never live down.
“She gets to work about nine,” her father told him.
“I’m not talking to her at Dolan’s,” he said. “I don’t want the whole town knowing our business.”
Horton seemed about to offer an alternative when Velma piped up. “That’ll just have to do,” she said. “We’re not telling you where she lives.”
He couldn’t decide if Velma was worried about him throttling Melissa or if she was simply being protective of her daughter’s secret. Because he wasn’t sure, he backed down.
“If you talk to her, let her know I’ll be by the minute the doors open. Tell her to arrange with Eli for someone to cover for her unless she wants her personal life broadcast to everyone in town.”
To his surprise, Ken Horton held out his hand. When Cody shook it, Melissa’s father said, “For whatever it’s worth, Cody, I think it’s about time you two got everything out in the open. The two of you had something special once. Melissa’s been punished enough for making one foolish mistake.”
He gave his wife a defiant look. “And a man has a right to claim his child.”
Velma Horton groaned and covered her face with her hands. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Cody wondered at the fear he’d seen in her eyes right before she placed her hands over them. She’d had the same terrified expression earlier in the day. He’d always thought Velma Horton liked him. Now she seemed to think he was some sort of a monster.
Was she blaming him for running out on her pregnant daughter? Or was it something more? He wondered what could possibly be behind the expression he’d read in her eyes.
Eventually, as he slowly walked back to his pickup, it came to him. She was actually afraid that he’d come home to take his baby away from Melissa.
Was that what he intended? He sat in his truck on the dark street in front of the Hortons’ house, his head resting on the steering wheel. He honestly hadn’t thought beyond discovering the truth and confronting Melissa with it.
Obviously, it was a good thing Ken Horton had prevented him from seeing Melissa tonight. He needed to get his thoughts in order. He needed to have a plan. For once in his life he couldn’t act on impulse. Too many lives were at stake, his own, Melissa’s, and that darling little girl’s.
His heart ached every time he thought about his daughter. His arms felt empty, just as they did when Dani climbed out of them or he had to turn Angela back over to Jessie or Luke. He wondered about that vacant place he’d thought would always be inside him and realized that there was someone who could fill it, a child of his own.
Tomorrow he would claim her. He realized he didn’t even know her name or how old she was or whether she could walk or talk. So many precious details. He sighed. Tomorrow he would fill in the gaps.
Tomorrow he would finally experience what it was like to feel like a father. Right now it was all too abstract, but in the morning he would hold his child in his arms. Whatever else happened between him and Melissa, he vowed that nothing would ever rip his baby away from him again.
5
Her mother had warned her. In fact, the first thing out of Velma’s mouth when Melissa had dropped off her daughter for the day had been a detailed description of Cody’s late-night visit. Based on Velma’s panicked reaction, Melissa had been tempted to take Sharon Lynn and flee. She knew, though, that in his present mood Cody would only track her down.
Besides, hadn’t she resolved just last night to tell him herself about Sharon Lynn? The decision on the timing had just been taken out of her hands. Of course, that also meant that his anger had had all night to simmer. She walked to work, dreading the confrontation that was clearly only minutes away.
She meant to ask Eli for an hour or so off to deal with a personal matter. She meant to be outside, on the sidewalk, when Cody arrived. She meant to do everything possible to ensure their conversation took place in private, away from prying eyes and potential gossip. She meant to be calm, reasonable, even conciliatory.
Cody took any chance of that out of her hands.
Before the door to the drugstore fully closed behind her, Melissa heard the bell ring loudly as the door slammed open again. Without even turning around, she sensed it was Cody. The air practically crackled with tension. She pivoted reluctantly and found him so close she could almost feel his breath on her face. She surveyed him slowly from head to toe, trying to gauge exactly how furious he was.
He looked exhausted. His mouth was set in a grim line. His shoulders were stiff. His hands were balled into fists. He also looked as if he’d slept in his clothes, perhaps in his truck, right in front of the drugstore. That would explain why he’d appeared right on her heels.
Despite all that, her heart flipped over. Her pulse scrambled. She had the most absurd desire to fling herself straight into his arms.
But she couldn’t. More precisely, she didn’t dare. It would only complicate an already impossible situation. She sucked in a deep breath and waited. The first move was going to have to be his.
As she waited, she was suddenly aware of every sound, every movement. She could hear the hum of the electric clock, the rattle of plastic bottles and ping, ping, ping of pills being counted out as Eli filled a prescription in the back, the swish of a mop as Mabel dusted the floor. Mabel rounded the aisle of shelves, caught sight of the silent tableau at the front of the store and stopped and stared.
Melissa felt like screaming. Mabel’s presence was anticipated, but unfortunate. Of all the people in town, she was the most likely to spread word of every last detail of any encounter between Melissa and Cody. Her pale eyes sparkled as she watched the two of them.
Cody tipped his hat to Mabel, but didn’t extend even that much courtesy to Melissa before latching on to her arm and practically hauling her into the storage room, past the startled gaze of Eli Dolan. Cody kicked the door shut behind them, plunging them into darkness.
“Dammit, Cody, what do you think you’re doing?” Melissa demanded, trying to wrench herself free and reach the light switch at the same time. She couldn’t succeed at doing either one.
“We need to talk,” he declared, seemingly oblivious to the lack of light.
“Fine. Then let’s do it like two civilized adults. There’s no need for your caveman routine.”
He was close enough that she could see that his eyes sparked fire, but he released his grip on her. Melissa felt along the wall until she found the switch. She flipped it on, illuminating the room that was small under the best of conditions, but claustrophobic with Cody pacing in the cramped space.
Somehow he managed to neatly avoid the stacks of just-delivered boxes, metal shelves of inventory and a disorderly array of cleaning supplies. Melissa had the feeling that he was practically daring the inanimate objects to give him an excuse to knock them all to the floor. She couldn’t recall ever seeing him quite so angry or quite so speechless. Cody’s glib tongue was known far and wide, especially among women.
She kept silent and waited. Finally he stopped in front of her, his hands shoved in his pockets, legs spread, a belligerent expression on his handsome face.
“Whose baby is it?” he demanded in a tone that made her hackles rise.
Meliss
a made up her mind then and there that she wasn’t giving in to his bullying or to any coaxing he might decide to try when that failed. Maybe that had been the problem in the past. She’d been too darned easy on him, too much in love to ever say no. She hoisted her chin a challenging notch.They were going to have a conversation on her terms for a change.
“Good morning to you, too, Cody.”
Cody’s gaze narrowed at the sarcasm. “Dammit, I asked you a straight question. The least you could do is give me a straight answer.”
She wasn’t sure where she found the courage to face him down, but she did. “Why should I, when you’re acting like a bully?”
“I think I have a right to act any damn way I please.”
“No,” she said softly. “You don’t. I told you before that we can discuss this like two civilized adults or I can go into the other room and go to work.”
He raked his hand through his hair in a gesture that was vintage Cody. She’d always been able to tell exactly how frustrated or annoyed he was by the disheveled state of his hair.
“If that baby’s mine, I have a right to know,” he retorted, his voice starting to climb.
“I was under the impression that you already know the answer to that. You certainly carried on as if you did when you dropped in on my parents last night.”
He didn’t look even vaguely chagrined by the reminder of his outrageous behavior on her parents’ doorstep. “I want to hear it from you,” he snapped. “I want to hear why you kept it from me. If I am that child’s father, I should have been told about her way back when you first discovered you were pregnant. I had a right to know. We should have been making decisions together.”
Melissa met his gaze unflinchingly. “You gave up any rights the day you left town without so much as a goodbye. You never got in touch. I didn’t know where you were. How was I supposed to let you know?”
“Jordan knew where I was, but you made damned sure he wouldn’t tell me, didn’t you?”
“Because your leaving town the way you did told me everything I needed to know about how you felt about me. What was the point of dragging you back so you could tell me to kiss off?”
She could almost see his patience visibly snap.
“Dammit, Melissa, you know that I had more than enough cause to go,” he practically shouted, slamming his fist into a box and sending it crashing to the floor. Judging from the shattering noise it made, it was the glasses Eli had bought to replace the supply she’d broken only the day before.
Eli opened the door a crack and peered inside, his expression anxious. “Everything okay back here?”
“Fine,” Cody and Melissa said in unison. The response wasn’t very heartfelt from either of them.
Eli glanced at the box on the floor and shook his head wearily. He backed away without comment and shut the door.
Throughout the interruption, Cody had kept his gaze fastened on her face, sending color flooding into her cheeks. “You know I’m right,” he said more quietly the instant they were alone again. “You cheated on me.”
She had known from the beginning that that was what he believed. She had even wanted him to believe it...up to a point. Even so, it hurt to hear him say it. “Still jumping to conclusions, I see. That was always one of your worst habits, Cody.”
He shoved his fingers through his thick hair again. “Jumping to conclusions,” he repeated incredulously. “Did you or did you not sleep with my best friend?”
She was amazed at the speed with which the conversation had veered from the subject of their daughter to the real source of Cody’s fury. He’d had well over a year to work up a good head of steam on the subject and clearly he intended to vent it now, unless she put a quick stop to it.
“I did not,” she told him quietly.
“See—” he began triumphantly. His expression suddenly faltered as her reply finally penetrated his thick skull. “You didn’t?”
“Never,” she said emphatically, her gaze unflinching.
“But I saw...”
“You saw exactly what I wanted you to see.” She shrugged. “Unfortunately, you leapt to the wrong conclusion.”
He stared at her blankly. “I don’t get it.”
It was time—way past time—to spell it out for him. “Brian and I had one date. It wasn’t even a date, really. It was a setup. Brian only went along with it because he knew I was crazy about you. You were supposed to get wildly jealous, realize you were madly in love with me, and propose. You were supposed to fight for me. You weren’t supposed to haul your butt out of town without looking back.”
“Jealous?” He stared at her in bemusement. “How the hell was I supposed to know that? You were in his arms. What was I supposed to think, that you were discussing the weather?” he asked in a tone loud enough to wake the dead.
“You’re shouting again,” she observed.
He scowled. “Well, so what if I am?”
Melissa chuckled despite herself. He was too darned stubborn to recognize even what was staring him straight in the face, much less the subtleties of the trap she had tried to spring on him. No wonder it had failed so miserably. She should have issued an ultimatum in plain English if she’d wanted him to marry her, not tried to trick him into recognizing his own feelings. As for right now, he obviously needed his present circumstances clarified for him.
“Mabel’s probably taking notes,” she stated patiently. “Eli may be calling the sheriff. Other than that, there’s no reason to quiet down that I can think of.”
Cody groaned and sank onto a stack of boxes. When he finally looked at her again, she thought she detected a hint of wonder in his eyes.
“Then the baby really is mine?” he asked quietly. “Jordan was right?”
“No doubt about it, at least in anyone’s mind except yours.”
His gaze honed in on hers and an expression of complete awe spread over his face. “I have a baby.”
“Actually, you have a toddler,” she corrected. “She’s thirteen months old.”
“Whatever,” he said, clearly unconcerned with the distinction. “Tell me everything. I want to know her name. How long you were in labor. What time she was born. I want to know what she likes to eat, whether she can talk, how many steps she’s taken, if she has allergies, what her favorite toy is. I want to know every last detail.”
The yearning behind his words struck her. He almost sounded as if he regretted missing out on so much. His eagerness was impossible to resist. Suddenly she couldn’t wait to see him with his daughter. It was something she’d dreamed about since the first moment the doctor had confirmed her pregnancy.
“Wouldn’t you rather just go and meet her?” Melissa inquired softly.
He nodded, apparently speechless again.
“I’ll speak to Eli and be right with you,” she promised.
“Don’t try ducking out the back,” he warned, but he was grinning when he said it.
“I’m not the one who runs,” she reminded him.
His comment might have been half-teasing, but hers was not. She wanted him to know that she was stronger now than she had been when he’d abandoned her. She wanted him to know that she was tough enough and secure enough to fight him for her daughter, if she had to.
But she also wanted him to see that she was brave enough to allow him into his child’s life, if he wanted a place there. This wasn’t about her any longer. It wasn’t about her feelings for Cody, though those clearly hadn’t died. This was about her daughter and what was best for her. It was about giving her child a chance to know her father.
Even so, as they walked down Main Street toward the tree-lined street where her family had lived her whole life, Melissa couldn’t help the vague stirring of hope deep inside her. The past year and a half of loneliness and regret had been wiped out of her heart in the blink of an eye. Left in its wake was an
ticipation, the eager-to-start-the-day anticipation of a woman in love. As dangerous an emotion as that was, she could no more have prevented it than she could have held back the wildness of a tornado’s winds.
Cody was back and she might as well admit to herself one more truth. Time and distance hadn’t dulled her feelings for him a bit. She wanted him every bit as fiercely as she ever had.
* * *
Cody was in a daze. He was only marginally aware of the woman walking beside him. Instead he kept seeing images of the child that he now knew without any doubt whatsoever was his. Melissa’s confirmation kept echoing over and over in his head. He was a father.
The realization was both incredible and scary. What if he blew it? What if his daughter took one look at him and rejected him? Okay, the latter was unlikely. Just the day before she had reached for him as if she already knew who he was. He recalled the eager stretch of her arms in the air and the sensation of tenderness that had welled up inside him at her innocent smile.
On the walkway at the Hortons’ he paused, his hand on Melissa’s arm. “Wait.”
She turned a quizzical look on him. “Second thoughts?”
“No.” He swallowed hard. “What’s her name?”
“Sharon Lynn.”
He repeated it softly, just to hear how it sounded on his tongue. “I like it.”
“I’m not sure she’ll tolerate being called by both when she gets a little older, but for now that’s what we call her. My father tends to call her Pookie. I’m trying to break him of the habit. I will not have my child go through life being nicknamed Pookie. Missy is bad enough.”
He smiled at her and barely resisted the urge to reach over and brush a strand of auburn hair from her cheek. “I never called you Missy.”
“For which I was exceedingly grateful. That’s probably why I let you get away with so much.”
“You never let me get away with a thing,” he protested.
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