The Cowboy and His Baby

by Sherryl Woods

  Melissa’s resolve wavered. A little voice in her head gathered steam, repeating no, no, no so loudly she couldn’t ignore it. Hadn’t she told herself just a few hours earlier that she’d always been too easy on Cody? Hadn’t she made a fool of herself over and over again by giving in if he so much as smiled at her?

  And hadn’t she learned that she could take care of herself? She no longer liked the idea of relying on anyone, either financially or, even more importantly, for her happiness.

  “You’re wasting your time,” she told him emphatically before her resolve could falter. “The ring is beautiful. You’re a fine man. I’m thrilled that you want to be a part of Sharon Lynn’s life. But I will not marry you.”

  He looked absolutely dumbfounded. If the conversation hadn’t been quite so difficult for her, too, she might have smiled at his flabbergasted reaction.

  “Why?” he demanded, staring at her, indignation radiating from every pore.

  “Because I will not get married for all the wrong reasons.”

  “What wrong reasons? We have a child. I intend to be a father to her.”

  “That’s fine. It doesn’t mean you have to be a husband to me. I’m doing just fine on my own. You were apparently doing so fine on your own that you saw no need to come back for almost two years.”

  “That’s it, isn’t it?” His gaze narrowed. “You’re just doing this to get even because I left town and you had to face being pregnant all alone.”

  Melissa regarded him sadly. “No, Cody, I am not trying to get even. I’m just trying not to compound one mistake by making another.”

  He seemed thoroughly taken aback by the realization that anyone—and most especially the woman who’d always adored him—would consider marrying him to be a mistake. Obviously his ego hadn’t suffered any during their separation. It was as solid as ever.

  She reached across the table and patted his hand. “It’s nothing personal.”

  He stared at her. “How can you say that? I think it’s pretty damned personal.”

  “Once you’ve had time to think it over, you’ll see that I’m right,” she assured him. “Obligation is a terrible basis for a marriage.”

  This time when she stood and reached for Sharon Lynn, he didn’t resist. He pocketed the ring and stepped out of the booth. “I’ll take you home,” he said, his voice flat.

  Melissa directed him to the small house she’d been renting for the past year, since about a month after Sharon Lynn’s birth. Cody showed no inclination to get out of the pickup, so she let herself out. She hesitated for a moment with the door still open.

  “I’m sorry, Cody. I really am.”

  He didn’t look at her. “I’ll call tomorrow and we’ll work out a schedule for me to spend time with my daughter.”

  The chill in his voice cut straight through her. For the first time she wondered if she had made a terrible mistake in alienating him. Even though she knew in her heart that her decision was the right one, the only one to be made under the circumstances, perhaps she should have found a way to be more diplomatic about rejecting him.

  “Fine,” she said. “Whatever works for you will be okay.”

  She closed the door and started up the walk. An instant later she heard the engine shut off, then the slam of the driver’s door behind Cody. He caught up with her before she could even make it to the front stoop.

  Before she realized what he intended, he hauled her into his arms and kissed her so hard and so thoroughly that her head spun. Then, as if he suddenly became aware of the child she was holding or possibly because he figured he’d made his point, he released her.

  “Give her to me,” he said. “I’ll carry her inside.”

  “Cody, she’s fine,” Melissa protested. She didn’t want him inside, not when her knees were shaking and her pulse was racing.

  “I said I’d carry her,” he repeated, plucking her neatly out of Melissa’s arms. “Open the door.”

  Following her directions, he made his way to the baby’s small room. Angrily shrugging aside Melissa’s offer of assistance, he fumbled with his daughter’s clothes. He scanned the room, picked out a nightshirt from a small dresser, changed her, then laid her down gently.

  Only then did a sigh shudder through him. His hand rested for a moment on the baby’s backside.

  “Good night, sweet pea,” he murmured, his gaze riveted to his sleeping daughter as he backed toward the door.

  The sight of Cody with their child, feeling his pain and his longing as he’d tucked her in for the night, had shaken Melissa. She was leaning against the wall outside the room, trying to gather her composure, when he finally emerged.

  His gaze caught hers, burning into her. “It’s not over,” he said quietly. “Not by a long shot.”

  Trembling, Melissa stood rooted to the spot, staring after him long after she’d heard the truck’s engine start, long after Cody had driven away.

  Cody was right. It wasn’t over. More than anything, she feared the struggle between them for their daughter was just beginning.

  Chapter Seven

  Cody didn’t get a wink of sleep the entire night. When he wasn’t overwhelmed by the amazing experience of holding his daughter, he was thinking about Melissa’s astonishing transformation.

  He had never noticed before how stubborn she was, nor how self-confident and independent. In fact, as he recalled, there had hardly ever been an occasion when she hadn’t been thoroughly accommodating to his every whim. She’d picked a hell of a time to change, he thought, thoroughly disgruntled over having been shot down.

  Sometime shortly after dawn, he finally forced himself to admit that he actually found the new Melissa ever so slightly more intriguing than he had the compliant woman he’d left behind.

  Kelly, Jessie and the others had always warned him about taking Melissa for granted. It appeared he should have paid more attention to their advice. Melissa had used his time away to develop a very strong sense of who she was and what her priorities were. He was beginning to wonder if there really wasn’t room for him in her life anymore.

  Tired of his own company, he walked into the dining room at White Pines the minute he heard the rattle of breakfast dishes. Unfortunately, the housekeeper was very efficient. Maritza had already retreated to the kitchen, but she had left an array of cereals, a large pot of fresh coffee, a basket of warm rolls, and a bowl of berries, banana slices and melon. He noticed there were no eggs or bacon, no hash browns or grits. Obviously Harlan hadn’t won his war to get what he considered to be a decent breakfast served during the week.

  Cody was just pouring himself a cup of coffee when his father came in. He surreptitiously studied his father’s face. Harlan looked tired and sad, but his complexion no longer had that unhealthy-looking pallor it had had when Cody had first arrived.

  “You’re up mighty early,” Harlan observed, his expression sour as he surveyed the food the housekeeper had set out. “Dammit, I can’t seem to get a decent piece of meat in the morning anymore.” He shot a hopeful look at Cody. “Want to drive into town and get a real breakfast? Maybe a steak and some eggs?”

  “And bring the wrath of Maritza down on my head? I don’t think so. The fruit looks good.”

  “I don’t see you eating any of it.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Late night?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I thought you were past carousing.”

  “Who was carousing? I had dinner with Melissa.” He paused and drew in a deep breath. It was time to test the words on his lips, time to test his father’s reaction. It would be a good barometer of what others would have to say.

  “And my daughter,” he added.

  Harlan merely nodded, clearly not startled by the profound announcement.

  “About time,” he said succinctly.

  Cody stared at him, his blood suddenly pumping furiously. “You knew, too? Dammit, Daddy, you’re every bit as bad as Jordan,” he accused. “You kept
it from me, just like he did. What is wrong with everyone in this family? I thought we were supposed to stick together.” He was just warming up to a really good tirade when his father cut in.

  “Settle down, son. Nobody told me, if that’s what you’re thinking. Didn’t take much to add up two and two, once I’d seen that child. She’s the spitting image of you at that age. I’ve got a picture of you boys on my desk that would have reminded me, if I hadn’t seen it for myself.” He shrugged. “Besides, Melissa never had eyes for anyone but you.”

  Cody couldn’t think of a thing to say. Apparently his father had been willing to stand on the sidelines and wait for Cody to show up and discover he had a daughter. It didn’t fit with his usual manipulative style. Either his father was mellowing or he had some other kind of devious scheme up his sleeve.

  Harlan speared a chunk of cantaloupe, eyed it disparagingly, then ate it. “So,” he began, his tone one of such studied indifference that Cody immediately went on alert. “Is that why you took off? Did Melissa tell you she was pregnant?”

  Cody was horrified his father could think so little of him. Was that it? Had Harlan thought he’d already made his decision about marrying Melissa and being a father to his child?

  “No, absolutely not,” he declared indignantly. “Do you honestly think I have so little backbone that I’d run from a responsibility like that?”

  His father shot a bland look in his direction. “I wouldn’t like to think it, but the evidence was staring me in the face.”

  “What evidence?”

  “You were gone. Your girl was pregnant. She quit college. She had to take that piddly job at Dolan’s to make ends meet, which suggested that no one was paying a dime to support her or the baby. Didn’t take a genius to add it all together and figure out that one.”

  “Well, your calculator malfunctioned this time,” Cody snapped. “She never said a word, never even tried to track me down. The first I knew about that baby was when Velma Horton brought her into Dolan’s when I was there the other day. Even then, I thought someone else had to be the father. It never crossed my mind that Melissa would hide something that important from me.”

  “I see.” Harlan scooped up a strawberry, eyed it with disgust, then put it back. “Now that you know, what do you intend to do about it?”

  “I proposed to her last night.”

  Harlan’s eyes lit up. His expression was suddenly more animated than it had been in days. “Well, hell, son, why didn’t you say so? Congratulations! When’s the wedding?”

  “No wedding,” Cody admitted dully. “She said no.”

  Harlan’s openmouthed expression of astonishment reflected Cody’s feelings precisely.

  “She flat-out turned you down?” his father said incredulously.

  “Without so much as a hesitation,” he said. “It was downright insulting.”

  Harlan chuckled. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

  “You don’t have to sound so amused,” Cody grumbled.

  “Sure, I do, boy. Seems tame little Melissa has grown up into a spirited young woman. The next few months or so ought to be downright interesting.”

  Cody glared at him. “Months? Forget it. I’m giving her a day, maybe two, to get over this contrariness. Then I’m hauling her to a justice of the peace.”

  His father started to laugh, then smothered the sound with a napkin. “Sorry,” he mumbled, then gave up the fight and chuckled. “Son, you’re going to be able to sell tickets to that one.”

  Cody’s frayed temper snapped. He stood and tossed his own napkin back on the table. “Well, get out your checkbook, Daddy. The best seats in the house are going to cost you. Melissa and I might as well start off our married life with a nice little nest egg.”

  * * *

  Melissa wiped down the counter at Dolan’s after the last of the lunch crowd had left and eyed Cody warily. He’d been skulking up and down the aisles of the drugstore since noon, but he hadn’t come near the soda fountain. He seemed unaware that Eli and Mabel were watching him with overt fascination. Thankfully, he was also unaware of what his presence was doing to her pulse rate. Who knew what he would do to capitalize on that little hint of a fissure in her resolve.

  “Mabel, why don’t you take the rest of the afternoon off,” Eli suggested, playing straight into Cody’s hands.

  “What’s wrong with you, old man?” Mabel grumbled. “You planning on shutting down business?”

  Eli gave her a pointed nod in Melissa’s direction. “Go on, Mabel. You’ve been wanting to check out the new seeds over at the hardware store so you can get your garden in at the first sign of spring. Go do it.”

  Melissa almost chuckled as she watched Mabel struggle with herself. She’d been talking about those seeds for a week, ever since the hardware store owner had told her they’d arrived. She also hated to miss out on something with the kind of gossip potential that Melissa’s next confrontation with Cody was likely to have.

  “Go,” Eli repeated, shooing her toward the door and taking the choice out of her hands. “I might not feel so generous again anytime soon.”

  “Don’t doubt that,” Mabel retorted sourly.

  Mabel got her coat and left, reluctance written all over her narrow, tight-lipped face. Cody inched a little closer to the soda fountain, as if an invisible barrier had been removed from his path.

  “Melissa,” Eli called. “I’ll be in the storeroom, checking this morning’s delivery. Call me if you need me.”

  “Traitor,” Melissa mumbled under her breath.

  Cody had moved close enough by now to overhear. “Nice talk,” he commented. “He’s just doing you a favor.”

  “Me?” She stared at him incredulously. “Oh, no. You probably paid him to get rid of Mabel and to disappear himself. I noticed the other night that you’d inherited Harlan’s knack for manipulation.”

  Cody clearly wasn’t crazy about the comparison, but he let the charge roll off his back. “I’m not desperate enough to be paying anyone to give me time alone with you,” Cody said, his grin widening. “I’m still relying on my charm.”

  “Take it somewhere else,” she muttered.

  “Tsk-tsk, Me…liss…a,” he drawled, tipping his hat back on his head as he settled on a stool at the counter. “What does it take to get a little service around here?”

  “More charm than you’ve got,” she retorted. “Or cold, hard cash.”

  He plucked a twenty out of his wallet and set it on the counter. Then he winked. It appeared he was giving her a choice about which currency she wanted to accept. Melissa would have gladly taken the wink, if it meant she could shove that bill straight down his throat.

  Since she couldn’t, she snatched the twenty, tucked it into her pocket and withdrew her order pad and pen. “What’ll it be?” she inquired in the same impersonal tone she used with other impossible customers.

  Cody propped his elbows on the counter and leaned forward. “A kiss for starters.”

  “You wish.” Her knees trembled despite the defiant retort. Why was it that temptation always entered a room right at Cody’s side? Shouldn’t she have been totally immune by now? Lord knows, she’d been lecturing herself on getting over him from the day he’d left town. Some of that advice should have taken by now. Apparently, though, it hadn’t.

  “Then I’ll have a hamburger, fries and a shake,” he said.

  The mundane order was a disappointment. Melissa cursed her wayward hormones as she slapped the burger on the grill and lowered the fries into the hot grease. She sloshed milk into a metal container and out of habit added two scoops of chocolate ice cream, even though Cody hadn’t specified the kind he wanted. Half of the mixture splashed out when she jammed the container into place on the automatic shaker.

  “Nervous?” Cody inquired.

  He spoke in a smug, lazy drawl that sent heat scampering down her spine. She scowled at him. “What on earth do I have to be nervous about? You’re the one who doesn’t belong here. You’re the one ma
king a pest of himself.”

  Sparks flared in his dark eyes. “Want me to ask Eli how he feels about you making a paying customer feel unwelcome?”

  He didn’t have to. She already knew that Eli would have heart failure if he heard her trying to run Cody off with her rudeness. He’d already taken Cody’s side once today by slinking off to hide out in the storeroom to give them time alone. She’d never before noticed that Eli held Cody in particularly high esteem. His behavior must be part of some instinctive male support system that kicked in whenever one of them sensed that a woman might be getting the upper hand.

  She turned her back on Cody, finished fixing his food, then set it down on the counter with a jarring thud.

  He grinned at her. “Service with a smile,” he commented. “I love it. You earn a lot of tips this way?”

  Melissa closed her eyes and prayed for patience. When she opened them again, Cody hadn’t vanished as she’d hoped. “Why are you in here?” she inquired testily. “Shouldn’t you be out roping cattle or something?”

  “We have plans to make, remember?”

  “I told you just to tell me when you wanted to see Sharon Lynn. I’ll make the arrangements so you can pick her up at my parents’ anytime.”

  “Not those plans,” he said complacently, picking a pickle off of his hamburger and tsk-tsking her, apparently for not remembering that he hated pickles.

  “Sorry,” she said without much sincerity. She should have dumped in the whole damned jar. “You could have eaten at Rosa’s.”

  “I prefer the spice here,” he retorted. “Now let’s get back to those plans. I was thinking that a week from Saturday would be good.”

  Melissa was surprised he wanted to wait that long before seeing his daughter again. Maybe his fascination was already waning. At this rate he’d be moving back to Wyoming in a month. Surely she could wait him out that long. She’d probably be a tangled heap of frustrated hormones, but presumably her sanity would still be intact.

  “Sure, if that’s what you want,” she said more agreeably now that she knew he was likely to be out of her hair in no time. “I’m off on Saturday, so you can pick Sharon Lynn up at my place.”