The Cowboy and His Baby Read Online Free PDF Page A

be reassured. “Just watch your step. I’m warning you, Melissa, keep that baby as far away from Cody Adams as you can.”
    Though she didn’t think the warning was necessary, Melissa nodded dutifully. “I don’t think we have to worry about that. Cody will probably be gone before we know it.”
    Just then the sounds of her daughter’s cheerful, nonsensical babbling echoed down the narrowhallway. Melissa smiled. Her heart suddenly felt lighter than it had all day. The baby had had that effect on her from the moment she’d been born.
    â€œDid she just wake up?” she asked as she started toward her old bedroom.
    â€œI doubt she’s even been asleep. She didn’t want to go down for her nap. I think she sensed the tension in both of us. You go on in. I’m going to fix your daddy’s dinner.”
    Melissa went to pick up her daughter from the crib her mother had put up next to the twin bed Melissa had slept in for most of her life. Sharon Lynn was standing on shaky, pudgy little legs, hanging on to the crib rail. Her eyes lit up when she spotted her mother.
    â€œMa…ma…ma.”
    â€œThat’s right, darling girl,” Melissa crooned, gathering her into her arms. “I’m your mama.”
    She inhaled the sweet talcum-powder scent of her baby and sighed as tiny little hands grabbed her hair and held on tight. “You’ve got quite a grip, little one. You must have gotten that from your daddy. I’m the original hundred-pound weakling.”
    â€œDa?” Sharon Lynn repeated, echoing a sound Melissa had taught her while showing her a snapshot of Cody. Her mother would have pitched a royal fit if she’d known.
    â€œOh, baby,” she murmured, tightening her embrace. “Your daddy’s right here in town. He has no idea what he’s been missing all these months. He has no idea that he has a precious little girl.”
    Cody would have made a wonderful father, she thought with a sigh. He would have been too indulgent by far, too readily conned by sweet talk and a winning smile, but, oh, how he would havecherished and protected a child of his. Her foolish actions had cost him the chance to prove that. Worse, they had cost her daughter a chance to be loved by an incredible man. There were days when she almost made herself sick with regrets.
    â€œWe do okay by ourselves, though, don’t we?” she asked, gazing into round, dark eyes that reminded her too much of Cody. The baby returned her gaze with the kind of serious, thoughtful look the question deserved. Melissa wondered how many years it would be before that innocent contemplation turned to something far more accusatory because her mother had robbed her of any contact with her father.
    â€œDon’t,” her mother pleaded, coming up behind her.
    â€œDon’t what?”
    â€œDon’t tell him.”
    â€œWho said I was going to?” Melissa asked.
    â€œI know that look. You’re making up pipe dreams about what it will be like when Cody finds out he has a baby girl. You’re expecting him to declare he’s never stopped loving you and sweep you off to get married.”
    Her expression turned dire. “It won’t be that way, I’m telling you. If he cares about the baby at all, he’ll take her from you. That’s how much he hates you for what you did to him. You made a fool of him in front of the whole town by going out with his best friend. A man never forgets a betrayal like that. I don’t care if it was just a bunch of foolishness on your part. The results were the same as if you and Brian had had something going.”
    â€œYou don’t know anything about Cody’s feelings,” Melissa argued, even though she had just seen withher own eyes that Cody did despise her. She didn’t want to believe he could be cruel enough to try to take their daughter away from her.
    â€œAre you willing to take that