“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 what you’re talking about,” Mabel snapped. She shot a venomous look at the pharmacist. “Neither does he, for that matter.”
“I know what I know,” Eli countered. “Besides, we’re not talking about you and me now. We’re talking about Melissa and Cody.”
“I’d rather talk about the two of you,” Melissa said hurriedly, dying to know the whole story of two people who’d worked together as far back as she could recall without giving away so much as a hint that there was anything personal between them.
“No,” Mabel and Eli chorused.
Melissa winced. “Okay, okay. We’ll make a pact. You stay out of my personal life and I’ll stay out of yours.”
Mabel gave an obviously reluctant nod. Melissa waited for Eli to concur, but instead he muttered, “Too late. Yours just walked in the door.”
Melissa’s gaze shot to the front of the drugstore. Sure enough, Cody was striding in her direction, a glint of pure determination in his eyes.
“Go away,” she said before he could settle himself on one of the stools.
“Is that any way to greet a paying customer?” he inquired.
He slapped a twenty on the counter. At the rate he was throwing them around, he was going to go broke.
“I’m not leaving until I’ve spent every last dime of that or you and I have talked,” he announced. “You pick.”
Melissa poured him a cup of coffee, snatched the twenty and tucked it in her pocket. “The coffee’s on me. I’ll consider the twenty a tip for services rendered.”
Flags of angry color rose in Cody’s cheeks. His grip on his coffee cup tightened, turning his knuckles white. “There’s a name for taking money for that, darlin’.”
Mabel sputtered and backed off her stool so fast it w
as still spinning a full minute after she’d gone. Melissa had a hunch she wasn’t all that far, though, more than likely not even out of earshot.
“How dare you!” Melissa snapped.
“You started this round, not me,” he said tightly. “Care to back up and start over?”
“We can’t back up that many years,” she retorted.
Cody visibly restrained his temper. Melissa watched as he drew in several calming breaths, even as his heated gaze remained locked on her. Her blood practically sizzled under that look. No matter how furious he made her, she still seemed to want him. It was damned provoking.
“Believe it or not, I came in here to apologize,” he said eventually, his voice low.
“What’s to apologize for? Just because you didn’t mention that you were involved with another woman—a woman who apparently traveled quite some distance to be with you—that doesn’t mean you owe me an apology.”
To her annoyance, amusement sparkled in Cody’s eyes. “I don’t have a thing to hide, sweet pea. Want me to tell you about Janey?”
Melissa did not want to hear about the gorgeous creature with the exotic features, elfin haircut and sad, sad eyes. Cody had probably broken her heart, too.
“I can see that you do,” Cody said, taking the decision out of her hands. “First of all, yes, Janey is from Wyoming. Second, I had no idea she was coming. Third, our relationship—then and now—most definitely is not what you think it was.”
“Yeah, right,” Melissa said sarcastically.
“Fourth,” he went on as if she hadn’t interrupted. “Her father was my boss, Lance Treethorn.”
He leveled his gaze straight at her, until she felt color flooding into her cheeks. “Fifth, and most important, she is a fifteen-year-old kid.”
Melissa stared at him. “Fifteen,” she repeated in a choked voice. “Cody, that’s—”
He cut her off before she could finish the ugly thought. “What that is, is a shy, lonely teenager with a crush on the first guy who didn’t slobber all over her due to adolescent hormones,” he insisted adamantly.
Melissa wanted to believe him. In fact, she did believe him. Cody was far too honorable a man to do anything so despicable. Harlan might have raised stubborn, willful, overly confident sons, but he’d instilled a set of values in them that was beyond reproach. She was the one who ought to be horsewhipped for even allowing such a thought to cross her mind.
She moaned and hid her face in her hands. “God, I’m sorry.”
Cody shrugged. “Well, she does look older than she is. That’s been her problem. The guys ahead of her in school think she’s a lot more mature than she is and try to take advantage of her. She’s coped by hiding out at the ranch.”
“And you were kind to her, so she developed a crush on you,” Melissa concluded, feeling like an idiot. “Why didn’t you do something to put a stop to it?”
“For one thing, I had no idea it would go this far. The most overt thing she ever did before was leave food for me. She bakes a brownie that makes your mouth water.”
Melissa grinned. “You always were a sucker for brownies.”
“It was the first thing you learned to bake, remember? You were twelve, I think.”
She remembered all right. Even back then she’d been trying to woo Cody by catering to his every whim. She wondered if it was ever possible to get beyond past history and truly have a new beginning. She’d been facetious when she’d snapped earlier that they couldn’t go back far enough to start over, but maybe it was true. Maybe there was no way to ever get past all the mistakes and the distrust.
Despondency stole through her as she considered the possibility that they would never be able to move on.
“Melissa?” Cody said softly.
“What?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“I don’t believe that. You looked as if you were about ready to cry.”
She tried to shrug off the observation. “Don’t mind me. It’s probably just Monday blues.”
“I know how to cure that,” he said. “Come out to White Pines tonight. We’ll have a barbecue. It’s warm enough today.”
Melissa didn’t think spending more time with Cody was such a good idea, not when parting suddenly seemed inevitable. Maybe Janey Treethorn’s presence had been innocent enough, but sooner or later some other woman would catch his eye. They always did.
“The temperature’s supposed to drop later,” she said by way of declining his invitation. “It might even snow overnight.”
Cody’s expression remained undaunted. “Then I’ll wear a jacket to tend the grill and we can eat inside.”
“You never give up, do you?”
“Never,” he agreed softly, his gaze locked with hers. “Not when it’s something this important.”
“What is it that’s important, Cody?” she asked, unable to keep a hint of desperation out of her voice. “What?”
“You, me, Sharon Lynn,” he said. “I want us to be a family, Melissa. I won’t settle for anything less this time.”
She heard the determination in his voice. More important, she heard the commitment. He sounded so sincere, so convinced that a family was what he wanted.
“Will you come?” he asked again. “You and Sharon Lynn?”
Melissa sighed. She’d never been able to resist Cody when he got that winsome note in his voice, when that thoroughly engaging smile reached all the way to his dark and dangerous eyes.
“What time?”
“Five-thirty?”
“We’ll be there.”
“My house,” he said. “Not the main house.”
Thoughts of making love in that house flooded through her. Melissa shook her head. “No,” she insisted. “Let’s have dinner with Harlan, too.”
“Scared, Me...liss...a?”
“You bet, cowboy. You should be, too.” She lowered her voice. “The last time we were alone in that house, we made love and we didn’t take precautions. I’m not risking that again.”
Cody grinned. “Hey, darlin’, that’s something I can take care of right here and now,” he offered. “I’m sure Eli can fix me right up.”
Melissa’s cheeks flamed at the prospect of having Eli and Mabel know any more of her business than they already did. “Cody, don’t you dare. Besides, we decided that sleeping together only complicated things.”
“Did we decide that?”
“You know we did. We have dinner at Harlan’s or you can forget it.”
“Okay, darlin’, I’ll let you win this round,” he said, startling her with his lack of fussing. “See you at five-thirty.”
It wasn’t until she arrived at White Pines that she discovered the reason for Cody’s calm acceptance of her edict.
“Where’s Harlan?” she inquired suspiciously the minute she stepped into the too silent foyer of the main house.
Cody’s expression was pure innocence as he gazed back at her. “Oh, didn’t I mention it? Daddy’s gone to spend a few days with Luke and Jessie.”
With Sharon Lynn already happily ensconced in her father’s arms, with a huge stack of ribs just waiting to be barbecued, Melissa bit back the urge to turn right around and flee. This round, it appeared, had gone to Cody.
14
For the next two months, Cody won more rounds than he lost, much to Melissa’s chagrin. Though she’d turned down his proposals every time he made them, he took the rejections in stride. He just redoubled his efforts to change her mind. Her resistance was in tatters. Her senses were spinning just at the sight of him. She was clinging to the last shreds of pride and determination she had left.
There were moments, she was forced to admit, when she couldn’t even remember why she was so staunch in her conviction that marrying Cody was positively the wrong thing to do. He had done absolutely
nothing since his return to indicate that he wasn’t thoroughly absorbed in his relationship with her and their child. He was sweetly attentive to her. He doted on Sharon Lynn.
And still, for reasons she was finding harder and harder to fathom, she kept waiting for some other woman to come between them, for some blowup that would send Cody racing away from Texas, away from them. It didn’t seem to matter that his roots at White Pines ran deeper than ever. He’d left his home and her once before. She never forgot that, wouldn’t let herself forget it.
She put more obstacles in their path to happiness than championship hurdlers had ever had to jump. Cody, just as determinedly, overcame each and every one, without criticism, without comment. He just did whatever was asked of him.
The truth of it was that his thoughtfulness and consideration were beginning to wear on her. She figured it was an indication of the depths of her perversity that she longed for a good, old, rip-roaring fight.
She was already working herself into a confrontational state when she reached her mother’s after a particularly exhausting day at work, only to find that Sharon Lynn wasn’t there.
“What do you mean, she’s not here?” she demanded, staring at her father. Her mother was nowhere in sight, which should have been her first clue that her life was about to turn topsy-turvy.
“Cody came by,” her father admitted. “I let him take her.”
“You what?” Her voice climbed several octaves. Was everyone in town on Cody’s side these days? She’d thought for sure at least her parents would stick up for her. Instead her father had joined the enemy camp.
“Why would you do that?” she asked plaintively.
Her father regarded her with amusement. “He’s the child’s father, for starters. He wanted to spend some time with her. He said he’d drop her off at your house and save you the trip. I guess he didn’t tell you that, though.”
“No, he did not,” she snapped. “Which is a pretty good indication of why Cody Adams is not to be trusted.”
“If you ask me, he’s been jumping through hoops to prove he can be trusted. Why don’t you give the guy a break?” He patted her cheek. “Come on, ladybug. You know you want to.”
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