The Cowboy and His Baby by Sherryl Woods

Author:Sherryl Woods
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2015-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The morning had been far too intense, Melissa thought as she finally escaped the house and settled gratefully into a chair on the patio with a tall glass of iced tea. The day had turned unseasonably warm and though she still needed her jacket, it was pleasant to sit outside in the fresh, clean air with the sun on her face while Sharon Lynn napped.

Her emotions were raw. Coming back to White Pines had been far more difficult than she’d anticipated. Part of that was because she felt Mary Adams’s death here in a way it hadn’t struck her even at the funeral. Some of it had to do with Harlan’s warmhearted welcome and the obvious delight he was taking in getting to know his new granddaughter. Most of it, though, undeniably had to do with Cody.

At White Pines she was on his turf. Like Harlan, he reigned over the operation of this ranch as comfortably as she served burgers at Dolan’s. His self-confidence radiated from him in this environment. It always had.

Cody might have been wickedly flirtatious and carefree in his social life, but when it had come to work he’d been mature and driven to prove himself to his father. His early success as a ranch manager had smoothed away any insecurities he might have had living in Harlan Adams’s shadow.

Cody’s command of this privileged world, combined with seeing how easily Sharon Lynn had been accepted into it as Cody’s child, had caused her to rebel. Earlier, as Sharon Lynn had taken a few faltering steps with Cody’s help, Melissa had had this awful, selfish feeling that Cody was benefiting from having a daughter without having done anything to deserve it beyond making her pregnant in the first place.

He hadn’t coached her through labor. He hadn’t walked the floor with Sharon Lynn in the middle of the night. He hadn’t fretted and cried trying to figure out a way to calm her, all the while convinced he was a failure at parenting. He hadn’t been there to panic over the sight of the blood from that cut she had described to him earlier.

No, he had simply waltzed back into their lives and expected to claim his parental rights by flashing his charming grin and dispensing toys like some cowboy Santa. Well, she wouldn’t have it. She wouldn’t let it be that easy. He was going to have to earn a right to be a part of his daughter’s life…and of hers.

That decided, she was troubled only by the realization that her demands were vague, that even she might not recognize when Cody had paid the dues she expected. Should she have a checklist? A timetable? Or would she finally know somewhere deep inside when she was through punishing him for being absent when she’d needed him the most?

“You okay?” Harlan asked, coming out of the house and studying her worriedly.

“Fine,” she said, fighting not to take her annoyance at Cody out on his father.

Harlan was innocent in all of this.

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