The Cowboy and His Baby. Sherryl Woods

we should talk about what happened, Cody. Maybe if we could put it behind us, you’d change your mind about staying. Your decision to stay or go shouldn’t have anything to do with me.”

      Talk about finding her in the arms of his best friend? Analyze it and pick it apart, until his emotions were raw? Cody practically choked on the idea. Once he got started on that subject, he doubted the conversation would remain polite or quiet. Eli would be bolting out from behind the prescription counter and Mabel, whom he’d spotted lurking over toward the cosmetics, would get a blistering earful.

      No, he absolutely did not want to talk about the past. Or the present. And most definitely not about the bleak, lonely future he’d carved out for himself.

      He slid off the stool and backed up a step. “There’s nothing to say,” he said, hoping his tone and his demeanor were forbidding enough to keep Melissa silent. He slapped a five on the counter, then tipped his hat.

      “It’s been a pleasure,” he said in a tone that declared just the opposite.

      He had made it almost to the door when he heard a soft gasp of dismay behind him. He stepped aside just as Velma Horton opened the door and pushed a stroller inside. His gaze went from Velma’s shocked expression to the chubby-cheeked little girl who promptly reached her arms up toward him, a thoroughly engaging smile on her face. He stared at the toddler in stunned silence, then pivoted slowly to stare at Melissa. Her face was ashen, removing any doubt at all that the baby was hers.

      For the second time in a matter of minutes Cody felt as if he’d been hit below the belt. He could count backward as quickly as anyone in Texas. That darling little girl with the big eyes and innocent smile looked to be a year old, which meant she was Brian’s.

      His blood felt like ice water in his veins, but he forced himself to walk back toward the soda fountain. “I see congratulations are in order,” he said so politely it made his teeth ache. “Your daughter is beautiful.”

      “Thank you,” Melissa said so softly that he could barely hear her.

      “I guess you and Brian were meant to be, after all,” he said, then turned on his heel and bolted for the door before he made an absolute idiot of himself.

      He brushed past Velma and the baby without giving them a second glance. Damn, Melissa! She’d turned him inside out again. For a fleeting moment he’d actually wondered if he could put the past behind him and move on, maybe get something going with her again since his body was as hot for her now as it had been eighteen months ago. He’d allowed old feelings to stir to life, indulged in a few quick and steamy fantasies.

      One look at that baby had shattered any possibility of that. He should have known that Melissa and Brian were together. He should have guessed that the betrayal was more serious than the one-night stand he’d tried desperately to convince himself it was. He should have realized that neither of them would have cheated on him for anything less than powerful emotions they couldn’t control. He should have given them credit for that much at least. He couldn’t make up his mind, though, if that should make him feel better or worse.

      It wasn’t until he was back at White Pines, riding hell-bent for leather across the open land trying to work off his anger and his pain that he stopped to wonder why Jordan and Luke would have set him up for such a terrible sucker punch. Couldn’t they just have told him and saved him the anguish of making a fool of himself over Melissa all over again?

      Instead they had taunted him into going into Dolan’s. They had poked and prodded at all of his old feelings for Melissa until he could no longer ignore them. Would they have done that if they’d known about Brian? If they’d known about the baby? Harlan had done his share of nudging, too. He’d been the first to plant the seed about finding Melissa at Dolan’s.

      It didn’t make a lick of sense. How could they not have known? It was a small town. Harlan sure as hell knew everything that went on. And yet they had sent him like a lamb to slaughter, straight back to Melissa.

      He reined in his horse and sat for a long time contemplating the possibilities. For once in his life he was oblivious to the raw beauty of the land surrounding him. Since he knew damned well his brothers weren’t cruel, their actions had to mean something. At the very least, he’d bet that Melissa and Brian weren’t married, after all. At the most…

      He thought of that cute little girl who’d practically begged him to pick her up.

      He didn’t even want to consider the astonishing, incredible idea that had just popped into his head. What if she was his? What if he was actually a father?

      He tried the idea on for size and realized that a silly grin had spread across his face. A father? Yes, indeed, the possibility fit as well as those tight little jeans had caressed Melissa’s fanny.

      Then his grin faded as he considered all the time he’d lost if it were true. If that little girl was his, he resolved there was going to be hell to pay.

       Chapter Four

      Melissa stood over Sharon Lynn’s crib and stared down at her sleeping child. The baby’s cheeks were flushed, her dark blond hair curling damply against her chubby neck. Her blue nightshirt was sprinkled with tiny yellow ducks. A larger, stuffed duck was cuddled next to her. It had been her favorite toy ever since she’d been to a duck pond a few months before. She refused to go to bed without it.

      A smile curved Melissa’s lips as she watched her baby and fought the desperate need to pick her up, to cling to her. She hadn’t been able to let her daughter out of her sight since that terrible moment in the drugstore when Cody had come face-to-face with his child. In that instant her heart had ricocheted wildly and her breath had caught in her throat as she’d waited for him to recognize Sharon Lynn as his, just as Jordan had the very first time he’d spotted her. She’d almost been grateful that the decision to tell Cody or not to tell him had been taken out of her hands.

      But instead of promptly recognizing the baby as his, Cody had clearly leapt to the conclusion that someone else was the father. Given the cold glint in his eyes when he’d stepped back to the counter to congratulate her in a voice devoid of emotion and his comment about her relationship with Brian having been meant to be, he must have assumed the father was Brian Kincaid. It was a further complication in an already complicated situation.

      She sighed as she considered the terrible mess she had made of things. She should have told Cody everything straight off, right then and there, but her mother’s terrified expression and her earlier dire warnings had kept Melissa silent, too fearful of the consequences of blurting out the truth.

      She couldn’t imagine what her life would be like without her baby. As difficult as things had gotten after she’d learned she was pregnant, there had never been a single instant when she’d regretted having Cody’s child. Every time she looked into that precious face, she saw a miracle that she and Cody had created together. Beyond that biological tie, however, Cody had no right at all to claim his child. She was the only parent Sharon Lynn had ever known. If only she could keep it that way.

      Unfortunately, though, there was no way the truth could be kept hidden forever. Cody had already seen his daughter. His brother knew that Sharon Lynn was Cody’s. Sooner or later the pieces of the puzzle would come together, and when they did, she didn’t have a doubt in her mind what Cody’s reaction would be. If he’d been furious when he’d thought she was cheating on him with his best friend, he would destroy her when he found out about the baby she’d kept from him. Maybe he wouldn’t fight her for custody as her mother feared, but he would make her life into the hell she deserved for deceiving him in the first place.

      She rubbed her knuckles against Sharon Lynn’s soft skin and sighed again. There was so much of Cody in her daughter. She had the same stubborn tilt to her chin, the same dark blond hair that streaked with gold in the summer sun. And, for the most part, she had the same sunny disposition and laughing eyes Cody had had before he thought Melissa had