Winter's Proposal

by Sherryl Woods

  “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 terrible about what happened. He doesn’t blame Cody for being furious.”

  “Okay, then, how do I get through to Cody? It’s my fault. I’ve told him that, but he says Jordan should have ignored my wishes.”

  “He probably should have,” Kelly concurred. “I could have told Cody myself and I didn’t. There’s enough blame to go around. The point now is to make things right. I wanted it settled before the baptism tomorrow so that Cody could be J.J.’s godfather. But until this is resolved, Jordan and I have decided to postpone the ceremony. It was only going to be a small family gathering anyway.”

  “Maybe if Jordan made the first move,” Melissa suggested.

  Kelly shook her head. “It wouldn’t work. This is Cody’s call, I’m afraid. The trouble is, we’re dealing with the stubborn Adams men here.”

  “Can you all stick around?” Melissa asked. “I’ll think of something.”

  “Sure,” Kelly agreed. “Our dinner’s just now being served anyway. I can’t imagine what you can do, but let me know if you think I can help.” She paused on her way to the door. “By the way, it’s good to see the two of you together again. How are things going?”

  “Don’t ask,” Melissa said.

  Kelly grinned. “That good, huh? Does that mean you haven’t signed up at the Neiman-Marcus bridal registry yet?”

  “No, and I wouldn’t be holding my breath for that if I were you. I am not inclined to marry a man who is as thoroughly, unrepentantly, exasperating as Cody is.”

  “Interesting,” Kelly murmured, a knowing twinkle in her eyes.

  “Don’t start with me. I’ve just been subjected to Harlan’s knowing looks for the past few hours.”

  “Not another word,” Kelly promised readily. “Nobody understands the perverse streak that runs in this family any better than I do.”

  After Kelly had gone, Melissa slowly put her comb into her purse and headed back to their table. She saw at once that Cody had been joined by Kelly’s precocious six-year-old, Dani.

  “I came to see the baby,” Dani announced when Melissa had joined them. “She’s cuter than my brother. I wanted a sister, but somebody got mixed up and gave me a brother instead.”

  Melissa grinned at her. “I bet you’ll be glad of that whe
n you’re older. I always wished I had a brother who’d look out for me.” She shot a pointed look at Cody when she said it.

  Cody rolled his eyes. Clearly, he didn’t think Jordan had done such a terrific job of looking out for him when it counted.

  Dani stood closer to the table and leaned her elbows on it, propping her chin in her hands as she regarded her uncle. “You know, Uncle Cody, I was thinking.”

  He visibly contained a grin. “What were you thinking, you little con artist?”

  “Maybe Sharon Lynn should have a kitten of her own.”

  “Maybe she should.” He glanced at Melissa. “What do you think?”

  “I think you two were plotting this,” Melissa charged, trying not to chuckle at the guilty expressions. “Sharon Lynn does not need a kitten. More importantly, a kitten does not need Sharon Lynn. She’d probably scare it to death.”

  Dani’s brow knit as she considered the argument. “She’s probably right, Uncle Cody. Babies don’t understand about kittens. Francie thinks that my brother is a pest.”

  “A valid point,” Cody agreed. “Maybe after Sharon Lynn gets to know how to behave around those kittens you talked me into taking, she can have one of her own.”

  “Good idea,” Dani said. “Francie will probably have more by then.”

  “Over my dead body,” Jordan said, arriving to stand behind his stepdaughter. “Hello, Melissa.” He looked straight at Cody, who avoided his gaze. “Cody.”

  After a visible internal struggle, Cody nodded curtly.

  Jordan stood there, looking uncharacteristically indecisive for another minute before sighing and saying, “Come on, Dani. Your dinner’s getting cold.”

  When the pair of them were gone, Melissa said, “You were rude to him, Cody. He made an overture and you didn’t even say hello.”

  Cody closed his eyes. When he opened them, his stubborn resolve seemed to be firmly back in place. “I had nothing to say to him.”

  “Cody, I’m the one who betrayed you, not Jordan. I’m the one you thought had cheated on you. I’m the one who kept it a secret that I’d had your baby. You’re speaking to me. You’ve forgiven me.”

  She studied him intently. “Or have you? Are you taking all the anger you don’t dare express against me because of Sharon Lynn and projecting it on to Jordan?”

  She saw by the way his jaw worked and his gaze evaded hers that she’d hit the nail on the head. She sighed. “Don’t do this, Cody. Don’t let what happened between us come between you and Jordan. Please,” she pleaded.

  When he didn’t respond, she gave up. “Just promise you’ll think about what I said, okay?”

  “Yeah,” he said tersely. “I’ll think about it.”

  With great reluctance, Melissa finally conceded it was the best she could hope for. For now, anyway.

  12

  Sometime well after midnight, Melissa woke to the sound of Sharon Lynn whimpering. She tumbled out of bed, flipped on the hall light and raced into the baby’s room.

  Sharon Lynn was tossing restlessly. Her skin was dry and burning up.

  “Oh, baby,” Melissa soothed as she scooped her up. “Are you feeling bad? Come with Mommy. I’ll get you some water and check your temperature.”

  She had barely made it into the kitchen and flipped that light on when the front door burst open, scaring her half to death. She grabbed the frying pan and peeked through the kitchen doorway, prepared to do battle with a lunatic. Instead it was Cody, his clothes rumpled, his hair tousled, who stood in the foyer.

  “Cody, what on earth?” she demanded, trying to slow the pounding of her heart. She set the frying pan down, though she wasn’t entirely convinced he couldn’t do with a good whop upside the head for scaring her so badly.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, casting worried looks from her to the baby and back. “I saw the lights come on. Are you okay?”

  She ignored the question and tried to figure out what he was doing at her house in the middle of the night. The last time she’d seen him he’d been sitting at the bar in Rosa’s. He’d declared his intention of starting his night on the town right there, clearly implying he intended it to end in someone’s arms. She’d choked back her fury and tried to exit with some dignity, when all she’d really wanted to do was have a knock-down, drag-’em-out brawl with him. She was still itching for a fight, as a matter of fact, but right now Sharon Lynn’s condition took precedence.

  “Where have you been?” she asked, pleased that she was able to sound so cool when she was seething inside.

  “On the porch,” he admitted, taking his feverish daughter from her arms. As soon as he touched her, alarm flared in his eyes. “Good heavens, she’s burning up. Have you taken her temperature?”

  “I was just about to.” She tried to remain calm in the face of his obvious panic and her own. She’d experienced rapidly spiking temperatures before and learned that it was a matter of course for children. Still, she’d never felt Sharon Lynn’s skin quite so hot.

  The thermometer registered one hundred and three degrees. Cody’s face blanched when she told him.

  “We’re going to the hospital,” he said at once, starting out of the kitchen.

  Melissa blocked his way. “Not yet,” she said far more calmly than she was feeling. There was no point in both of them panicking. “Let me give her a Tylenol and try bathing her with cool water to see if we can’t bring that temperature down. If there’s no change, then we’ll call the doctor.”

  Sharon Lynn patted Cody’s stubbled cheek weakly and murmured, “Da.” She sounded pitiful.

  Cody looked thoroughly shaken. “Melissa, I don’t think we should wait. Something’s really wrong with her.”

  “It’s probably nothing more than the start of a cold or a touch of flu,” she said. “Stuff like that reaches epidemic proportions this time of the year.”

  “Her temperature’s over a hundred,” he reminded her. “That can’t be good for her.”

  “Babies get high temperatures. It’s nothing to get crazy about,” she insisted, amending to herself, yet.

  She gave Sharon Lynn Tylenol, then ran cool water into the kitchen sink. “Bring her over here and let’s get her out of that nightgown. It’s soaking wet anyway. Why don’t you go back to her room and bring me a clean one, along with a fresh diaper. We’ll need those after I’ve sponged her off a bit with cool water.”

  Cody looked as if he might refuse to budge, but eventually he did as she’d asked. By the time he’d returned, Sharon Lynn was no longer whimpering. In fact she seemed to be relaxing and enjoying the cool water Melissa was gently splashing over her.

  “Are you sure that’s good for her?” Cody asked, worry etched on his face.

  “It’s exactly what the doctor and all the child-care books recommend. If you don’t believe me, there’s a book in the living room. Go read it.” Anything to get him out of the kitchen again before he wore a hole in the linoleum with his pacing. Worse, she was feeling crowded with all of his hovering.

  “No, no, I’ll take your word for it,” he said, standing over her shoulder and watching every move she made. “Maybe we should take her temperature again.”

  Melissa sighed and stepped aside to allow him to put the fancy new thermometer in Sharon Lynn’s ear for a few seconds.

  “It’s a hundred and two,” he proclaimed. “That’s it. We’re going to the hospital.”

  “It’s down a whole degree,” Melissa observed, blocking him when he would have snatched Sharon Lynn out of the bathwater. “The Tylenol’s working.”

  “Not fast enough.”

  “Let’s give it another half hour,” she compromised.

  Cody hesitated, then finally conceded grudgingly, “A half hour. Not a minute more.”

  He sat down at the kitchen table and fixed his gaze on the clock over the sink. Apparently he intended t
o watch each of those thirty minutes tick by.

  “Da!” Sharon Lynn called out.

  Cody was on his feet in an instant. “What’s up, sweet pea? You feeling better?” he asked, caressing her cheek with fingers that shook visibly.

  A smile spread across his daughter’s face. “Da,” she repeated enthusiastically.

  A little color came back into Cody’s ashen complexion. “She feels a little cooler.”

  Melissa agreed. “I’m betting when we check her temperature again, it’ll be just about back to normal.”

  Twenty minutes later Sharon Lynn was no longer feverish. She was once again tucked into her crib. Cody, still looking shaken, stood over her.

  “How do you stand this?” he murmured to Melissa. “I’ve never been so terrified in my life.”

  Melissa patted his hand. “It gets easier after you’ve been through it once or twice and know what to expect,” she promised him, but he shook his head.

  “I can’t imagine it getting easier,” he said. “What if her temperature hadn’t gone down? What if you’d guessed wrong?”

  “Then we would have called the doctor or gotten her to the hospital.”

  “It might have been too late.”

  “Cody, stop that,” she ordered, not daring to admit that she’d been scared silly, too, that she always was, no matter what the books said. “It’s over. She’s going to be fine. It was just a little fever.”

  He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Okay, you’re right. Just a little fever.” He still sounded unconvinced. He definitely showed no inclination to budge from beside the crib.

  Melissa grinned at him. “Cody, everything really is fine. You don’t have to stand there and watch her all night.”

  “I am not leaving this house,” he said, his jaw jutting out belligerently.

  “Fine. You can sleep on the sofa.” She yawned. “Good night, Cody.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Back to bed.”

  “How can you possibly sleep?”

  “Because I’m exhausted. You must be, too.” In fact, he looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.

  “I won’t sleep a wink,” he swore.