The Cowboy and His Baby (8 page)

“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 anticipation, 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.

“That baby inside says otherwise.”

“I'll have to remember that,” he said, grinning. “If I just whisper your name in your ear, you'll do anything I ask, is that right?”

She frowned, probably at the sudden provocative note in his voice. He knew she didn't want him to guess how easily he got to her. She was going to fight him tooth and nail.

“That was then,” she said staunchly, confirming his guess. “This is now and the tide has turned, cowboy.”

He readily accepted the challenge in her tone. “Is that so, Me…liss…a?” He deliberately drew her name out. Before she could react to the teasing, he lowered his head and dropped a quick kiss on her parted lips. “See, it still works.”

The startled, slightly dazed expression on her face almost tempted him to try again. That brief brush of his mouth over hers had been just enough to tantalize
him. Memories of warm, moist kisses and stolen caresses slammed through him, turning teasing into something very, very serious.

How had he ever walked away from her? Why hadn't he stayed and fought, just as she'd demanded earlier? Had it been the gut-deep sense of betrayal that had driven him all the way to Wyoming? Or had it simply been the even more powerful fear of the commitment to which fighting for her would have led? He'd never thought of himself as a coward, but suddenly he was taking a long, hard look at his actions in a whole new light.

“Cody?”

He blinked and gazed down into her upturned face. Before he could question himself, he scooped his hand through her silky hair to circle the back of her neck. With his gaze fixed on her turbulent sea green eyes, he reclaimed her mouth, lingering this time, savoring, remembering.

He felt her hands on his chest, tentative at first, then more certain as she slid them up to his shoulders and clung. Her body fit itself neatly, automatically, into his, the movement as natural as breathing and far, far more exciting.

Cody couldn't believe he had ever walked away from this. He couldn't imagine how he had lived without the sweetness of her kisses or the heat of her body pressed against his. The swirl of sensations was overpowering, demanding…and totally inappropriate for a sidewalk in plain view, he realized as a passing car honked and the teenage driver shouted out encouragement.

Melissa backed away as if she'd been burned. Her face was flaming with embarrassment. A warning
flashed in her eyes, turning them the shade of soft jade in sunlight.

“That can't happen again,” she stated emphatically.

“It can and it will,” Cody said with just as much certainty. “Count on it.”

Alarm flared in her expression. “No, Cody, this isn't about you and me anymore.”

“Sure it is, darlin'. It always was.”

“No!” She practically shouted it, as if volume might make her edict clearer. “You and I are over. You saw to that.”

Cody dropped his own voice to a seductive growl. “We'll see,” he taunted.

“Dammit, Cody, do you or do you not want to see your daughter?”

“Of course I do,” he said, amused that she seemed to think the two concepts were diametrically opposed. “Meeting Sharon Lynn has absolutely nothing to do with my intentions toward you.”

“Yes, it does,” she said stubbornly.

“You're not keeping me from my daughter,” he responded emphatically. “And you're not going to put up much resistance, once I set my mind to winning you back.”

A scowl darkened her face. “You are the most arrogant, most infuriating man on the face of the earth. It's too late, Cody. You couldn't win me back if you courted me from now till we're both tottering around in orthopedic shoes.”

A grin tugged at his lips. “Is that a challenge?”

“That's a guarantee.”

Chuckling at her sincere conviction that she could win a test of wills with him, he took her hand and headed for the house.

“You don't have a chance, sweet pea,” he told her solemnly as he ushered her inside, where Velma was waiting, her gaze wary. He lowered his voice to taunt one last time, “You don't have a snowball's chance in hell.”

Melissa never responded because her mother spoke up just then.

“You brought him,” Velma said, her tone accusing.

“You knew I would,” Melissa told her mother. “Where's Sharon Lynn?”

“Down for her nap,” she said, a note of triumph in her voice. “There's no need to wake her.”

Cody was aware of the undercurrents between mother and daughter. Clearly, Velma was angry about his presence. Once again he had the sense that she feared him having any contact at all with his child.

Melissa shot him a vaguely apologetic look. “I'll get her,” she said.

He fell into step beside her. “Don't wake her. I'll come with you. Let me just look at her for now. Your mother's right. There's no need to wake her yet.”

If he had expected the suggestion to gain Velma's approval, he failed. He should have saved his breath. An expression of doom on her face, she trailed along behind them. He had the feeling she would have thrown herself across the threshold to the bedroom if she'd thought it would keep him away from her granddaughter.

He couldn't waste time worrying about Velma, though. From the instant he stepped into the room his gaze was riveted to the child asleep in the crib. She was sleeping on her stomach, her legs drawn up under her, her butt sticking up in the air. He couldn't
imagine the position being comfortable, but she was sleeping soundly.

Awestruck, he moved closer to the crib. Melissa stayed a few steps behind him. Her mother never budged from the doorway. He studied the tiny, balled-up fists. Her skin looked soft as down and her light curls feathered around her face like wispy strands of silk. Her mouth curved like a miniature bow of pink. She was perfect. Adorable.

An overwhelming surge of protectiveness spread through him. This was his daughter.
His!
He'd seen Luke with the newborn Angela. He had watched Jordan hold J.J., but he had never guessed the depth of emotions that his brothers must have been feeling. He'd never experienced anything like it before in his life.